Anna Blackman, Chief Operating Officer at CIPFA: How to Earn The Power of Speaking Up
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 5 Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest:
Anna Blackman is the Chief Operating Officer at CIPFA, with over two decades of experience leading transformation and championing people-centric leadership. She is known for her sharp insight, warmth, and unwavering commitment to making workplaces better for everyone.
Episode Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:44 Meet Anna Blackman: COO of CIPFA
1:21 The Mr Potato Head Theory: Finding Common Ground
2:15 First Job at McDonald's: Lessons in Teamwork
3:17 Surviving Dysfunctional Teams
5:01 Trust, Fun, and Team Dynamics
6:40 Bored or Unhappy at Work? Here's How to Tell
8:02 Running a Hotel at Uni: Thrown in the Deep End
9:49 Worst Job Ever: Data Entry & Sticking It Out
11:31 Building Resilience Through Boring Work
13:14 Emotional Emails & Learning to Pause
14:50 Be Yourself in Email (and Life)
16:17 Launching 'Kind Human': Leadership with Kindness
17:48 Money Regrets & Learning to Save
19:10 Top Money Tip: Always Renegotiate
20:40 How Anna Became COO at CIPFA
22:24 Mental Health in the Workplace: Speak Up
25:26 Reaching Out: The Power of Asking “Are You Okay?”
27:37 What CIPFA Actually Does
31:11 Anna’s Global Work: From Rwanda to the World Bank
32:51 Finding Fulfilment in Work-Life Integration
34:17 Advice to Young People: Say Yes to Everything
35:36 Anna’s Duvet Flip: Helping People, Big and Small
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, my name's Anna Blackman. I'm the Chief Operating Officer of Sitfer, which is the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. |
| 0:08.0 | We have 14,000 members and 6,000 students worldwide and this is my dupe lip. |
| 0:14.0 | You can look different, but ultimately we're all Mr Potato heads. |
| 0:18.0 | We're all just big potatoes, aren't we? |
| 0:19.0 | All big potatoes. We all have more in common than we don't have in common. |
| 0:21.6 | You're on a mission to transform, educate, support and industry, right? |
| 0:26.6 | I'm all about the people. |
| 0:27.6 | We need more leaders like you in the country, don't we really. |
| 0:30.6 | If you say it out loud, William, the problem shrinks. |
| 0:33.6 | You learn something from sticking at something even though it's really dull. What's your duvet clip? What gets you out of bed in the morning to flip the duvet? |
| 0:40.3 | Hi, my name's Anna Blackman. I'm the chief operating officer of Sitva, which is the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. |
| 0:51.3 | It's a really nice opportunity to sort of reflect back on the |
| 0:55.6 | journey I've been on over the past. I'm going to say 20 plus years. I've never met Jack, |
| 1:00.6 | but sometimes you feel like you know a person, right, if you watch them enough on social media. |
| 1:04.3 | I've seen what Jack does on LinkedIn and I was really impressed and I think it's really |
| 1:10.2 | important that we help young people |
| 1:12.3 | think about their careers and what it's like to be in the workplace and how to make the most of it. |
| 1:17.8 | Hi, Chad. Lovely to see you. Are we going to do this or what? |
| 1:22.1 | Welcome to my dovee, Flip. How are we? I'm good. Thank you. I've been so excited about this. |
| 1:26.3 | I've heard from Leon all about you and I know your conversation thank you. I'm so excited about this. I've heard from Leon or about you, |
| 1:28.9 | and I know your conversation you have. |
| 1:30.3 | Yeah. |
... |
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