Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Lyndoch Living will this year change how it selects its board, but there is still no sign – yet – of allowing “ordinary” members anywhere near the action.

In fact, my sense is that Lyndoch is driving methodically toward becoming a fully corporatised, tightly controlled company and ditching any real input or scrutiny from the wider community about its operations.

I say this because while Lyndoch is changing how it chooses its board members – more about that in a second – it’s in absolutely no rush to let every day people become “ordinary” members.

These pesky “ordinary” members are the ones who can keep an eye on the direction, priorities and performance of Lyndoch, ask questions and, if enough members agree, call meetings and vote on action.

They can be a powerful local voice.

They also reflect the people, or their offspring, who supported Lyndoch for decades – we must never forget that harnessing “people power” is how Lyndoch started and how it has survived for more than 60 years.

Right now, however, Lyndoch has no “ordinary” members. Zilch.

As we know, more than 115 people applied to the board last year to become “ordinary” members and nobody made it through.

It turns out, however, the Lyndoch board has been looking at itself and, a year ago, hired a local consultant – Robert Lane from SED Consulting – to suggest ways it could do things differently.

Mr Lane popped up as a surprise guest at the Lyndoch Living AGM last month, and I felt a surge of hope that maybe the breakthrough we have been waiting for, where membership would become open and accessible, had finally come.

But after meeting with Mr Lane last week to learn more, that hope is on hold because encouraging “ordinary” members was not a part of his brief.

Mr Lane was tasked with other priorities, including setting up a new board selection process that will work something like this:

– All board vacancies will be advertised;

– Nominees will go to a new committee, chaired by Mr Lane and including two board members Kane Grant and Lorraine Mielnik;

– The committee will assess these people against a range of criteria and settle on those it thinks would be best;

– The committee’s decision is then assessed by another, as-yet-unnamed, independent person.

– The final, preferred nominees will then go to a vote at the AGM.

On paper, this looks better than the closed shop of recent years, but is it? I see a gaping hole – who gets to vote for board members at the AGM?

There ARE NO general members of Lyndoch so, once again, the board votes for itself.

Around we go.

I asked Mr Lane: aren’t we right back to square one, with only seven people – the seven board members – having full control and being answerable only to themselves?

We were.

This is not Mr Lane’s fault or responsibility, as he is only tackling what he has been hired to do.

“I am trying to manage an interim process,” Mr Lane said, “(and) in the absence of members outside of the board, this is the process that will take place.”

Mr Lane agreed the situation was “not ideal”,  but stressed that he hadn’t “accepted this role to not have a positive influence”.

Well I really hope that Mr Lane’s influence can extend a lot further, because the biggest issue with the board right now is not who sits on it, but its refusal to talk to the people.

It has failed – repeatedly – to tell the community what is going on, or to answer questions.

This is why most people have no clue about the scope of the $100m masterplan, or why Lyndoch became a “Company Limited by Guarantee”, or how it will pay for its $22m medical complex, or why so many staff have left, or why it’s failing aged care standards, or why it even wants to run a medical clinic…because the board has explained none of it.

The board can change this, but does it want to?

In fact I wonder if the next step is for Lyndoch board memberships to no longer be voluntary, but paid positions to progress Lyndoch Living Ltd, rather than – in theory at least – to represent the community?

These next 12 months are critical: they will determine whether Lyndoch is fully answerable to the community, or whether – having become a Company Limited by Guarantee – that side of Lyndoch is now pure nostalgia.

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Carol Altmann – The Terrier

A couple of weeks ago, Lyndoch Living hired a Melbourne consultant to survey staff and unearth whether, essentially, any of the issues raised here these past six weeks are true.

The online survey, which closed at 5.30pm today, is at least an acknowledgement by Lyndoch that it can’t ignore the stream of allegations around its workplace culture, but I have little confidence that it will reveal very much at all.

Why? Because I doubt many staff will be brave enough to respond, or to answer openly.

First, the Survey Monkey survey is intended to be confidential, yet so many people within Lyndoch that I have spoken to are nervous that as it was sent to their Lyndoch email address, it could be traceable.

Second, the “confidential” survey asks what area of Lyndoch the staff member works in.

Thirdly, the “confidential” survey asks if anyone has an “extensive issue” that they would like “someone” (who??) to call them about, or to see them about, to please provide their contact details.

 

Finally, just days after this survey was sent out, Lyndoch board chair Kerry Nelson issued a statement to all staff which emphasised the board’s full support for Lyndoch CEO Doreen Power.

Ms Power, at the end of the day, is responsible for any workplace issues which could be flushed out by the survey.

In other words, before nervous staff have even spoken up via the survey, the person who is ultimately in charge has been absolved by the board of any responsibility.

Given all of the above, would you fill out this survey without fear or favour?

What Lyndoch still struggles to grasp is that the allegations around Lyndoch are not from one or two disgruntled staff who have turned to a journalist, but a stream of people who have come to me as their last resort.

I didn’t approach these people – they approached me and they continue to approach me, because they no longer trust the internal workings of Lyndoch to listen, to protect, to nurture and to restore their faith in their workplace.

It’s exactly what happened around the misuse and abuse of credit cards within the Warrnambool City Council, when whistleblowers pushed information to me because they no longer trusted the internal systems, and no bloody wonder.

 

The council, in its newfound transparent culture, has hounded those who it believes “leaked” information, rather than ask why information was passed on in the first place, or be grateful to those who had the courage to do so.

It’s the same attitude behind Lyndoch threatening dismissal of staff members who express an opinion on The Terrier Facebook page or, heaven help them, clicks “like”.

I can only say to the Lyndoch board and executive: wake up and smell the coffee.

Instead of spending time and money on Survey Monkey, public relations spin, and hunting down staff who click on The Terrier, the board and executive should be diving deep to build respect, empathy and trust.

The first step should be the appointment of an experienced, independent reviewer who can take the time to conduct private, in-depth, face-to-face interviews, off site from Lyndoch.

The second should be the board insisting on summaries of staff exit interviews, which I can only assume doesn’t happen already.

And the third is creating a culture not of  “yes, sir, no, sir, three-bags-full-sir” but which encourages the question of “why?”

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, the Honourable Anne Ferguson, recently spoke about the need for a “questioning” workplace culture as an essential part of a healthy and safe work environment.

And as Lyndoch is community owned, it is not just the staff who should be encouraged to ask questions, but all of us, with an expectation of answers.

Yet, after six weeks of my hammering on the door of Lyndoch, there are still so many questions:

about staff turnover, horse race sponsorship, the racing corporate marquee, the $100 million masterplan, the “state of the art” medical clinic, staff shortages, why there is still only one Registered Nurse on night duty for 200 residents, board selection, the new constitution, core values, contracts, equipment, and corporate cars (which I haven’t even got to yet)….

 

We still don’t even know whether Lyndoch made a surplus or deficit last financial year.

So while Nero tunes up his fiddle on Hopkins Rd, we will rest, regroup and we will keep pressing on, after Christmas and New Year, until we have the answers.

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