Strategic thinking
She came, she saw ... a need for more strategic thinking.
Dame Gillian Morgan, the Permanent Secretary, took up the job some months ago, has done the talking and the listening and seems now to have sized up the task ahead of her.
If the jobs advertised in a small corner of yesterday's Western Mail are anything to go by, then she's decided at least two things: firstly that the new-look civil service will need to work more strategically, look out of the silos of old and work together to help deliver good government.
She's also making it clear she's aiming for the best - her mantra when she took up the job - hence the adverts in the paper. She's opened the top jobs for external competition. Four jobs are up for grabs: four Director General posts in 'Public services and local government delivery', 'Sustainable future', 'People, places and corporate services' and 'Finance'.
The salary for each job is £130,000 and all will be based in Cardiff. We're told the reorganisation will be 'cost neutral' which must mean a smaller top team than before. There will be some Directors General already in post - covering areas like education and the economy from the looks of the list above - but that still looks like a top tier of top honchos considerably smaller than in the past.
Small, the Permanent Secretary persumably hopes, will mean more nimble and more able to work in tandem with each other.
A step in the right direction is the general consensus and broad support for the decision to advertise externally. But as one AM keen to see a gear change in the quality of the service put it: changing the top dogs is one thing. What really matters is changes to the divisions they lead.
I'm Betsan Powys, Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on .
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