Making worried civil servants proud and efficient

In 2008, the former ‘Corps des instruments de mesure’ (a sector of the French administration specialising in verifying instruments of measurement for subsequent use in various occupations), or what remained of it, was in a sorry state. Having once been a profession which was valued, it lost recognition, went almost unnoticed by its users, and by 2008 had fragmented. It was hardly surprising that the newly appointed person in charge of metrology had a major challenge ahead of him. He needed to reassure civil servants caught up in the maelstrom of administrative reforms who were concerned about their fate and the disappearance of their profession. Establishing conditions in which an organisation will gradually emerge and establish its own identity, will produce a situation which no-one believed could be possible, namely an efficient administrative service for employees who are proud of their work, and who receive the recognition they deserve, and who are happy to embody public service.