About Council Scorer

Why this site exists

I'm Mark Winter. I've spent more than twenty years leading complex change inside large organisations — financial services, higher education, utilities and government. Organisations are complex, and councils are among the most complex of the lot: 100+ services, elected members, state government, and a ratepayer base that all have views on how it should run. I find that complexity genuinely interesting, and Council Scorer is where I dig into it.

My first ever clients: councils

I've spent a meaningful part of my career working with and around local councils. In my first year of learning the craft of facilitation, I worked extensively with the City of Charles Sturt and the City of Adelaide. Councils were where I learned that a room full of competing interests can still land on a decision, provided somebody structures the conversation properly. That lesson has paid my bills ever since.

Seven years in Bondi, and a lot of miles in between

I've lived in Bondi for seven years, but most of what I know about Australia I learned outside the postcode. Work has taken me all over the country — from Warwick to Moe, Caboolture to Hobart. I've worked in the Tanami Desert and in the boardrooms of Sydney and Melbourne, got one of my first big breaks in Perth, and these days I work remotely for an institution in Rockhampton. Along the way I've spent time in dozens of local communities most people only fly over, and I've seen up close what it looks like when they're thriving — and when they're not.

That perspective is a big part of why this site exists. The gap between a well-served community and a struggling one rarely makes the news, but it shows up in the data councils are required to publish every year. Council Scorer is my attempt to make that visible.

Why you can't design 100+ services from the top

Here's the thing about councils: they are structurally, legally and culturally designed to resist top-down change. They deliver well over 100 services. They answer to elected members, ratepayers, community groups, state government and history — often simultaneously. You cannot run a change program in a council the way you'd run one in a corporate. The stakeholder map alone would break your Gantt chart.

I've written about where that distributed model came from in The 2005 Playbook. Council Scorer is the measurement half of the same conviction: if performance is visible, locally owned change has something honest to aim at.

The Victor Harbor disclosure

I live in Victor Harbor on South Australia's coast, which the sharp-eyed will notice is not in any of the three states I score. Consider that proof of independence... no rates bill of mine rides on these rankings. It does make me 'peak invested' in council fulfilling its role as a resident, though. I live in the City of Victor Harbor, where I've watched our Mayor, Dr Moira Jenkins, lead with a kind of humble yet high resolve and consultative inclusiveness that you don't often see in formal leadership roles. A reminder that the machine runs on people, not just process.

It also makes me an unapologetic advocate of coastal living. One day the data will let me score that too.

If you want to know more about me or my work, visit markwinter.com.au or pragmaticchange.com.au.