By Sarah McDonnell, OPM senior researcher, with an introduction from Phil Copestake, OPM principal.

At OPM we know that whatever councillors and officers in local government feel about ‘open public services’ and ‘the big society’, few disagree that with much less money available, local authorities must find a way of unlocking the energy and capacity of local people. Each council is tackling this in a different way.

On Tuesday 21st February we’ll be launching a report based on brand new research with councils across England. The report will give an in-depth, wide-ranging picture of the practical ways in which local authorities are going about the difficult but vital task of unlocking local capacity.

We’ve got a fantastic panel of speakers at the launch event, including the Mayor of Newham Robin Wales, Stuart Etherington from NCVO, the leader of Oxfordshire County Council Keith Mitchell, and Matthew Gott, a senior director from complex families pioneers Swindon. The seminar will be in the early evening, in Central London, and is free, but places are strictly limited. If you’re interested in coming then please email seminars@opm.co.uk.

In the run-up to the 21st February there will be lots of posts on this blog offering different perspectives on how best to unlock local capacity, from the point of view of councils, residents and communities themselves, and local voluntary groups. To kick things off (the first of many puns: you have been warned) we have OPM’s Sarah McDonnell asking: what can local councillors and officers learn from the leadership strategies of managers from the world of… Premier League football!  

Many examples of community action develop organically and thrive naturally, their only requirement being that local authorities remove obstacles from their path. But in other cases the ‘unlocking’ aspect is much more ‘hands on’ and communities want, or indeed need, a degree of help and support to succeed. So in these situations, what is the nature of the relationship; how can local authorities and communities make the best of each other’s talents and ensure an enjoyable and successful partnership?

It cannot be coincidence that more than once during conversations about ‘unlocking local capacity’ people have employed the metaphor of football manager or coach, to describe the role and approach that local government (both members and officers) could usefully embody in working alongside communities.

If this is the case then maybe the answers to some of the organisational and human challenges of localism will not be answered by poring over policy, guidance, rigorous research or good practice case studies. Maybe instead we should switch on Match of the Day and get Harry Redknapp in for a pep talk. I’m serious. (I’m a Manchester United fan myself but even I think that communities and local authorities offering up their time, energy and skills – without the £250,000 per week pay cheque – might not take too kindly to the intensely disciplinarian approach of the great Sir Alex Ferguson.)

So what makes a good football manager? The Guardian’s secret footballer gave us an insider view in an article last year. Reading this affirmed my belief that this rather simple football manager metaphor has some real legs (if you’ll pardon the pun). The more I digested the secret footballer’s reflections, the more I found parallels with our recent conversations about unlocking community capacity. Three things stood out in particular:

1. Clearly state your goals, but allow room for local leaders

The best football managers have a consistent playing philosophy that clearly underpins all of their biggest decisions, but still leave plenty of room for leaders throughout the squad – on the pitch and off – to decide how to interpret this guiding principle in specific circumstances.

So must local authority leaders give a strong sense of the top priorities for a place (they have the democratic mandate, after all), but recognise that local people and professionals almost always know what’s best to meet specific local needs.  

2. Don’t shy away from difficult decisions, but explain how you got there

The secret footballer teaches us that a manager must have the respect of everybody at the football club, and achieves this in large part by being consistent and honest in how he communicates, even when the going gets tough.

Just as the best managers do not shy away from the most difficult and controversial decisions, so the best local leaders trust in the capacity of local stakeholders to accept that not everyone can get his or her way all the time.

A simple explanation of a difficult decision can go a long way to quelling discontent, even if it doesn’t mean that everyone suddenly agrees.

3. Engage, consult, involve… but don’t be afraid to lead

Perhaps most difficult for any leader is the following dictum from the secret footballer: ‘managers don’t have to be loved… it’s about mutual respect rather than mutual affection’.

We learn that the best managers often take soundings from their players, but never pretend that the process of final decision making is simply one of aggregation of the constituent voices in the interests of pleasing as many people as possible.

This absolutely holds in the world of local government too. Ours is a representative democracy after all, and whilst no local leader worth his or her salt would fail to put the views of local people at the very heart of their decision making process, the final decision – for which they will be held to account (with the voters as the proverbial chairman in this over-extended metaphor) – is theirs and theirs alone.

So: should we be asking Ferguson, Redknapp, Dalglish, Mancini, Wenger and Villas-Boas to hop on a tour bus and invade our town halls and communities to show us all how its done? Is there more to learn from the beautiful game about ‘unlocking local capacity’?