Finding a path to sustainability

Cutting public sector jobs may decrease overall expenditures, but it doesn't amount to the fundamental change we've been talking about, nor does it put us on a path to sustainability. At least that is what the recently released Drummond Report argues:

If civil servants and public sector workers want pay raises, they should find the money through cheaper ways to do their own jobs.

That’s what Don Drummond recommends in his new report, which takes a wide-ranging look at streamlining a vast bureaucracy that eats half the money Ontario’s cash-strapped government spends on programs.

“This government should provide a zero budget increase for wage costs,” the report said.

“Ministries and agencies will then have to drive out inefficiencies to absorb any wage increase.” Drummond rejected wage freezes — as proposed by Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak and as mandated by the Liberal government for its non-union workers — arguing they only result in “catch-up” costs later. 

And he saw no point in setting limits on the number of civil servants, instead pushing for a hard look at programs the government offers — and eliminating unnecessary and ineffective ones — as the best way to shrink the public payroll. 

“There should be . . . only a consideration of practical logic — what produces the best result for the people of Ontario at an affordable cost?” - Rob Ferguson, Drummond Report: Ministries, agencies urged to ‘drive out inefficiencies’, the Toronto Star.

Looking beyond job cuts

Looking beyond the next round of cuts can obviously be difficult, and while those decisions are obviously made well beyond my pay grade, I can't help but try to offer some advice to those who have the responsibility to do so.


Consider the whole value chain

Often we frame things in a single lens. Cutting costs almost always means losing jobs, but as Drummond points out, it doesn't have to. It can also mean (pardon the jargon) finding efficiencies. For the uninitiated, "finding efficiencies" is govspeak for either improving the outcome of a particular policy, program or service at current costs; or reducing the costs thereof without harming current outcomes.

Herein lies the core challenge for public servants: In order to find efficiencies, organizations need to be better at systems thinking. They need to step back and see all the moving parts, evaluate them, posit improvements, test them, and implement them where appropriate. This is an incredibly complex task and many public servants are simply not in a position to undertake it. This is not due to some sort of lack of intelligence on the part of public servants but rather the lack of information. This is the natural consequence of a long history of large organizations, hierarchical systems and information silos. Simply put, no one can put the puzzle together if no one has access to all the pieces.


An lesson from the private sector 

By now we are all familiar with the historic decline of the record industry; an industry that had suffered from such myopia that it maintained its preoccupation with physical record sales even as traditional revenue streams dried up and new (long tail) markets emerged. What many in the industry failed to do was look at how the entire value chain was changing:

[E]very "free" video by an amateur requires that amateur to buy a camera, a video-capable laptop, editing software, and a broadband connection through which to upload the completed piece onto a conglomerate-owned video server, along with most its rights. Value is still being extracted from the work - it's just being taken from a different place in the production cycle, and not passed down to the creators themselves. - Douglas Rushkoff, Program or Be Programmed, p.121

Entrepreneurs like Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, were successful because he looked at the entire system, recognized the shift towards greater and greater self-production, saw the gap left by the major players, and stepped in to fill it (creating a tremendous amount of wealth in the process). Had the big record labels paid closer attention to the ground shifting beneath their feet they could have easily stood up a service like CD Baby themselves. But hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.


An example from the public sector

"Health care is at once the biggest item in the Ontario government’s budget, the issue of most concern to Ontarians, the source of the most intense and emotional public policy debate, and the centre of the most complex delivery system of any set of programs financed by the provincial government." - p.143 Public Services for Ontarians: A Path to Sustainability and Excellence (aka the Drummond Report)

While the quotation above outlines the Ontario experience, some of the most basic challenges of the health care system apply across the country. That is why I am really excited about the recent launch of the BC Health Service Locator App. The app, for reasons I will outline below, is exactly a step in the Drummondian direction.

Why is it a move in the right direction? 

First, it was cheap. It was developed entirely in-house and on volunteered time. A couple of public servants saw an opportunity, learned how to code, did a proof of concept, and the rest is available for download on iTunes. Moreover, the additional work required to bring this application to market is reusable. The process included bringing the data into line with the DataBC standard, meaning that it is now also available for use via BC's open data catalogue. Also, all of the legal costs associated with evaluating the terms of use with companies like Google or Apple can be re-used for future application development across the BC government.

Second, it took a bunch of data and made it relevant for citizens. Creating a dynamic list of health care options that literally builds itself around the geographic location of the citizen means more informed decision-making; and while I cannot say for certain that this will lead to hard cost-savings, it is my experience that more informed decisions are usually less costly ones.


Let's push it further

This app is just the beginning of what the future of mobile health services could look like.

What if the BC app took it a step further and combined location-based health services with real time emergency room wait times? Imagine you need to head to the emergency room, you pull up the app to find its location and right next to it is the estimated wait time. What if the app can automatically calculate the fact that you would most likely be admitted to an emergency room a little further away because it has a lower wait time? The app could simply use your GPS, Google maps, and the hospital wait time to calculate your most expedient option.

How about if you could complete the initial triage paperwork while en route to the emergency room via your smart phone? By the time you arrive the hospital already has your info ready to go, but it doesn't physically check you into the queue until you present yourself at the desk (or are automatically confirmed to be at the hospital via your phone's GPS).

Would you travel a little further or provide preliminary details via your mobile if it meant shaving two hours off your wait time?

Would lower wait times have spillover effects into issues like overtime pay, stress leave and quality of care?

Possibly.



A final thought

If you haven't seen Bill Ford's TED Talk on "A future beyond traffic gridlock" you should watch it, because what I am hinting at is essentially the exact same thing: smarter data driven health care services that circumvent the coming gridlock, the exact same kind of services that I think Drummond is arguing for when he says:

This context lifts the task ahead well beyond that of merely cutting or restraining costs. We must be students of history and history shows that simple cost-cutting by governments too often generates fiscal improvements that peter out after a few years as pressures build. In the end, spending surges again and the result is more of the same, but at a higher cost.

The only way to get out of deficits and stay out, in a period of limited economic growth, is to reform government programs and the manner in which they are delivered.

This should be viewed as an opportunity, not a problem. Ontario can and should have the best public services in the world; this is an opportunity to reach for that goal. To get there, we should study promising practices around the world by others who have faced similar issues.

 

Note: the TED Talk starts out a little like a Ford commercial, but if you can tolerate it, there is a lot of really cool ideas in it.






Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

On Fearless Advice and Loyal Implementation

I traveled across British Columbia last month, visiting a series of three Employment Insurance (EI) processing plants, to deliver talks about engagement and career development. I met a lot of dedicated public servants, made new friends, and learned more about front-line service delivery than many Ottawa-based policy wonks do this early in their career.

I've been thinking a lot about the sessions and the conversations that emerged at the three different sites and here is where my mind has settled ...

Regardless of what you were hired to do - be it providing traditional policy advice in the National Capital Region, or "crushing" EI claims for Canadians in a processing plant in Kamloops - your role as a public servant is to deliver "fearless advice and loyal implementation". What I've found is that there is a divide, real or imagined, between those of us in Ottawa who were hired to deliver "fearless advice" and those of us in the regions who are expected to "loyally implement". This isn't ubiquitous, but was my general impression. It is an impression that was hammered home when someone asked me why Ottawa couldn't just fix the culture in the regional office, as if some sort of Deputy decree could change their specific working conditions. What struck me most about the comment wasn't the idea that culture could somehow be made by decree, but rather the underlying sense of helplessness, as if culture couldn't be affected by those who are actually mired in it.

I think the problem is that we have collectively misinterpreted the significance and underestimated the opportunities we have to effect our work culture and sub-cultures, regardless of where we work or what we work on. We mistakenly think of fearless advice as something that only the people at the very top of the organization do; something that is reserved for private meetings between Deputies and their Ministers. In fact, I think that speaking truth to power (fearless advice and loyal implementation) more often means pushing against the small "p" office politics and the small "c" culture of the bureaucracy. In other words, fearless advice isn't reserved for ministerial briefings, but rather happens in the hallways, over cubicle walls, and in the lunch rooms among peers.

Think of it in terms of the long tail:




Let me end by saying this: regardless of where you work, or what your role is, your responsibility is to articulate an argument, back it up with the facts, infuse it with passion, and deliver it with non-partisan conviction, wherever you see the opportunity to do so.

Open Gov West Recap: Change, Connect, Contribute

This week I took some time off and headed out to Victoria British Columbia so I could be a part of Open Gov West BC.

It was an absolutely amazing experience

I had the privilege of sharing the opening keynote with friend Walter Schwabe. Walter and I have an excellent rapport and wanted to shake things up a little bit, we wanted to try something different, we wanted to inspire immediate action. We didn't just sit at the front of the room and talk down to audience from the riser. We walked among the crowd, armed with microphones, iPads, and a surprise.

Under the cover of darkness a few nights before the conference we created a group blog and invited everyone in the room, and those watching remotely to engage right now by changing, connecting, and contributing. We drove the theme home by telling everyone why we thought these things we so incredibly important.


Change

When I first joined the public service I was struck by how closed it was, the system has a hard time surfacing talent and ideas. Moreover, it is being constantly reinforced by a culture of playing your cards really close to your chest. After a year circling the drain in a closed system I decided to approach things from an ethos of open. But it wasn't a fluke, I recall a conversation with a senior manager:

"Just because that's how everyone else acts, doesn't mean you have to do it too."

It was such a simple statement, but made at an opportune time. It completely changed my perspective. Since then I've come to better understand some of the challenges facing the public sector: impending retirements, out migration of knowledge and expertise, budgetary constraints, and the lack of sustainable engagement. Through hard fought experience I've come to the realization that openness isn't a panacea, but it is without question part of the answer. Often people just need to be told that change is in fact possible, I certainly did.


Connect

With this in mind, the single most important thing that people can start doing is narrating their work. So much of what we do as public servants gets locked away on proprietary drives, closed records and document management systems, or email. We need to start readily sharing not only the information we currently have on lockdown but also how we are making sense of that information, and how we are contextualizing it within our work.

Never before has technology allowed us to paint such a clear picture of what is informing decision-making, policy, and program delivery. Embracing a more open ethos and grabbing hold of enabling technology will do more for our public services than we could possibly imagine. It starts with a simple switch: connecting what we used to write in the margins of our paper based notebooks on the web.


Contribute

This was the thinking behind the communal blog. We wanted to not only drive the message home but make participation as easy as possible. In addition to unleashing the blog, Walter purposefully walked participants through other low risk ways to be a part of the online conversation. We wanted to show them the path, and make it as easy as possible to walk down.

In the end, all we asked of participants was 100 words.


What we got was so much more



By about noon the traffic to the blog actually crashed the site. Participants weren't scribbling way in their individual notebooks, they were creating one communal one online and in real time. Participants had taken the message to heart, they changed, connected and contributed both in the room and online, which tells me that the event was an incredible success.

Kudos to everyone who participated.

Round-Up October 20

News

1. BC Public Service ranks in the Top 50 employeers in BC (ranked # 4)
2. Here are the top 100 rankings nationally, all we are saying is have a look.
3. Hard financial times could mean a freeze on public service hiring.

Other Publications

I came across this interesting read from the OECD: Cultural Change in Government: Promoting a High-Performance Culture.

Here is are a couple of excerpts worth sharing:

(Intro): No organization can remain the same without loosing relevancy in a changing society. Governments are now part of a global movement that has been described by many (Barzelay, 2001; Hood, 2000; Kim and Moon, 2002) as an era of new public management (NPM). Public cynicism and frustration with government have led to many policy developments to provide catalysts for high performance organizations. The current challenge is not to determine whether to change but how to change to increase organizational effectiveness and global competitiveness. In order to respond to such challenges, many organizations attempt to carry out various organizational initiatives. Without an alteration of the fundamental values and expectations of organizations of individuals change remains superficial and short-term in duration. Failed attempts to change often produce cynicism, frustration, loss of trust, and deterioration of morale amongst organization members.

(Culture Change): Human organizations build up tremendous inertia over time, and it takes tremendous initiative and determination to budge them. It takes large amounts of energy for people to shift beliefs, habits, thinking, and rationale away from how things have always been done. Such changes require a long-term commitment and sustained application of time and energy from leadership and the organization (Fitzgerald, 1988). It is also critical that the cultural-change processes are viewed as ongoing, not as a project with an end. Senior leaders should be directly supported by a personal executive coach for at least the first few years of the change process so that they can sustain the commitment and effectiveness in role modelling the new cultural behaviors. It is important to point out that if the leaders do not change, culture will not change (Crane, 2002: 205).

(Creating a High Performance Culture): High-performance organizations also recognize that all employees-both those involved directly in the mission and mission support help create organizational value and that job processes, tools, and mission support arrangements must be tailored to support mission accomplishment. A dedication to continuous learning and improvement can not only help an agency respond to change but also to anticipate change, create new opportunities and pursue a shared vision that is ambitious. Incentives that are result-oriented, citizen-based and realistic are particularly important in steering the workforce and subject to balanced measures that reveal the multiple dimensions of performance. Incentives should be part of a performance management system under which employee performance expectations are aligned with the agency missionstatement, and in which personal accountability for performance is reinforced by both rewards and consequences.

(Practical Application): ... those who lead government reform should persuade and/or communicate with ordinary government employees for better understanding and broader participation. Without such efforts, the simple delivery of reform measures from the top would be too naïve to succeed. [Enter our Blog]

(Conclusion): Cultural change could happen at different levels ranging from visible to invisible levels. A change in process or policy does not necessarily lead to cultural change. Therefore, it is fair to say that real cultural change requires that the organization's members accept the changed behaviors, beliefs, or assumptions and that the change is sustained over a relatively long period of time.

Round-Up October 6

Here is a small editorial from the Sault Star entitled, No need to clam up.

Jessica McDonald, BC's Premier Gordon Campbell's deputy minister and head of the public service gave an interview to the Vancouver Sun. Here is a great excerpt:

"The new generation of workers is less interested in a career with one organization for their whole career than they have been in the past," she said.

"We need to grab hold of these employees in their first year and let them design their career path, rather than just assuming -- the way it was in the past -- that where they started is where they want to be out into the long term."

To really change, she said, the public service needs to shift its attitude from within.

"We want people to feel like their jobs are rewarding, like they actually have some influence over their own work environment and how they can do their job the best," she said.

Frustrated federal prosecutors across Canada are quitting over poor pay coupled with increased work loads.

The National Post came out in favour of less government regulation citing the recent listeriosis outbreak while referencing the CFIA employee who sent a classified document to his union.

Meanwhile, a bureaucrat fighting the Public Service Commission has won the right to remain anonymous.

... and, PSAC has [an] opportunity to elect '[their] employer says Fitzpatrick (c/o Hill Times so a subscrption is required) [Aside: Given, how the party that assumes power will approach its relationship with the public service matters (to both public servants and Canadians in general) but union involvment in this issue makes me a bit uneasy. Does anyone else see this as a potential conflict of interest issue? I assume their is an official policy somewhere on this, if anyone could provide us with a link on we would be happy to share it.]

Government of Canada Offerings

Armchair discussions at the CSPS have resumed. Click here to see their Calendar.

PCO just released a great page on their website, The Role and Structure of the Privy Council Office 2008 -- one stop shop for understanding everything PCO does.


Finally - thanks for all your comments (on the blog) and your emails. It is great to hear from you, keep it up.

Round-Up: September 24

News

Senior Civil Servants in BC are still under the gun for their pay raises.

Former president of the Nuclear Safety Commission, Linda Keen, is in the news again.

Public Works has apparently put the kaibosh on all new contracts posted on MERX unless a compelling case can be made for the procurement as essential.

There is an interesting article about the new head of the New Brunswick civil service, David Ferguson. He sounds like a pretty good guy to work for:

One senior civil servant who has worked closely with Ferguson said he demands both quality and timely recommendations, putting a premium on thorough advice. But he is blessed with a management style that exudes conciliation over confrontation.

"He puts people at ease with an informal manner. He's not at all hierarchical, wears a tie only as needed, and a great sense of humour runs in the family," the source said.

A video of a bureaucrats is making the rounds on the internet, albeit for completely political reasons.

The video is getting a lot of press (including a great spot on the Current on CBC Radio One this morning) and the numerous versions floating out their on youtube combine for about 100,000 views. Imagine if we put together a tongue in cheek video about renewal that got that kind of coverage.

(BTW, I feel it worth mentioning that I can't actually view the video from behind the firewall ... so I hope that link works... if not try youtubing for 'culture in danger' or 'culture en peril'.)

Blogs

Mike Kujawski posted the presentation he did from Podcamp 2008 in Montreal. You can head on over to check it out.

FYI we are 'mentioned" in slide 42 as an unofficial government blog. (Thanks Mike!)

Round-Up: September 23

Blogs

Mike Kujawski reports back from Podcamp 2008 in Montreal. Here is the snippet relevant to Public Servants:

My main take away from my own presentation (based on the discussion) was that the government needs to get out of silos and start working together as one entity. There is a ton of existing internal support for better citizen engagement and there are high-level public service renewal initiatives currently underway that social media engagement can easily piggy back on. I have decided to organize something in Ottawa to address this. Stay tuned…

Looking forward to it Mike.

Also, Peter Smith makes a good case for repositioning GoC websites launch pads for content rather then as destinations.

News

Public pressure once again means lower then expected/promised pay increases for Civil Servants in British Columbia.

Events

The Conference Board of Canada is holding a conference in Ottawa in November. The opening address would be of interest but obviously the cost is prohibitive. Here is a snippet from the conference brochure:

Renewal and Change
in the Federal Public Service

Jim Lahey, Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, Public Service
Renewal, Privy Council Office

Driven by the service and transparency expectations of citizens, changing demographics and the need to reinvigorate the public sector brand, change is now top of the agenda for leaders in all levels of government and the broader public sector. Kevin Lynch, Clerk of the Privy Council, believes there is a choice between renewal and government “becoming less relevant, less useful and less respected as the years go by.”

Jim Lahey will set the scene with his insights into Canadian Public Service renewal, and how change management is needed at the individual, team, department, and organizational levels.

Round-Up: August 26th

News

FYI the BC public service is on a recruiting drive if anyone is looking for a change of venue on the west coast.

Blogs

Etienne has posted his 'Personal' PS Renewal Vision, here's a taste:

One inherent danger of setting specific priorities and objectives for PS Renewal, is that we may pursue them at the expense of equally important factors that might impact the end results or even cancel off all our efforts. Such is the case with recruitment. There’s no question that shorter delays in external recruitment campaigns are critical in order to get the “best and the brightest”. But assuming we can get them in, how long will they stay? If the public service keeps welcoming new hires the way it currently does, maybe not that long… If you think the public service does rather poorly when it comes to recruitment, here’s a news for you: it’s generally downright awful when it comes to the on-boarding process, i.e. the first few days, few weeks, few months they experience inside the public service. If we want to have the slightest chance of retaining the recruits we relentlessly worked to get through the door, we better take them seriously once they are in.

Round-Up: August 13th

There has been a lot of press lately on the large pay raises for provincial public servants in British Columbia. Most of it talks about how it shows a deep disconnect between the taxpayers and their government. However I came across this piece written by Keith Baldrey that presented some good points about raising pay for senior civil servants. Here is my favorite excerpt:

Now, I don't have any problem with paying our senior civil servants big bucks. I know a lot of them - some of them for more than 10 years - and I have to say I have enormous respect for their talents and abilities.

I have little time for those who whine and complain and compare the wages of, say, cafeteria workers or taxi drivers with those in charge of managing a $30 billion-plus corporation as if they are on some sort of equal playing field.

And I think people who subscribe to the lame view that civil servants are by nature lazy, useless or obstructionist can more accurately apply those terms to themselves.

As always I encourage you to check out the whole article.

Cheers.