The Last Post - maybe

Well it's a hot and humid Thursday July 8, 2010 in good old Toronto the Good.  After four years, tomorrow is my last day as CEO at IPAC.  It has been quite an experience working for a not-for-profit that focuses on public administration and management.  In those four years, I think we have accomplished quite a lot. When I joined IPAC in August 2006, I replaced Joseph Galimberti who had joined IPAC in 1969 and became Executive Director in 1975 until his sudden, untimely death in April 2006.  As you can imagine it is quite interesting and challenging to join an organization that had one person as its leader for 31 years. The thing one has to remember is that you cannot be the person you are succeeding, you have to be your own person and do things your way - which can sometimes be difficult for long time staff!

In these last four years, IPAC has evolved in terms of its outreach, programming and web presence (including this blog and my tweeting!).  There are more innovations to come in terms of IPAC's web presence but I will not divulge these as I don't want to spoil the surprise.  In this day and age organizations such as IPAC must embrace technology to leverage its work and spread the word about what it is doing.  I will leave others to judge what was accomplished in those 4 years.  In my previous post, "All Good Things", I  wrote about the support, or lack thereof from various jurisdictions in Canada.  I know that some will say that they do not provide core funding to organizations or they may even say why support IPAC as opposed to some other organization.  To these comments I just say that IPAC is the only national organization that brings together public servants from all orders of government in Canada and academics in the field of public administration and management.  IPAC conferences, both National Conferences and local events organized by any of our 17 active regional groups, bring together people from all orders of government and academics to discuss and debate issues in public management and policy and allows us to learn from our peers and create connections that will ultimately help create better public services. To those who have the power to do so, I say, support your chosen profession of public service.  If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

I think that all of us who have a few years under our belt (or in my case quite a few years!) have an obligation to give back to our chosen profession and ensure that the next generation of public servants have the same opportunities that we had to connect with their peers across the country, with their peers working in other orders of government and the opportunity to contribute to the evolution of excellent public service in Canada and around the world.  Remember that most of the public policy issues that we now face will require collaboration within government and between governments, between municipalities, provincial/territorial governments, aboriginal governments, broader public sector organizations and the federal government.  A crisis is a difficult time to build good working relationships, IPAC offers the opportunity for us to get to know each other and understand each other through our common bond - the desire to provide excellent public services to Canadians.

Well this may be my last post on this blog.  I want to thank all of you, my faithful readers, for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you over the last number of years.

Benchmarking the performance of the Australian Government

Came across an interesting study by KPMG on "Benchmarking the performance of the Australian Government Service"

In September 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia announced his ambition to further strengthen the Australian Public Service (APS). As a first step, he has established an Advisory Group on Reform of the Australian Government Administration to develop a blueprint for reform of the public service. Its mission is to advise on how to create “the best public service anywhere in the world unified in pursuing excellence and putting Australia and Australians at the centre of everything [it does]”.

To inform the Advisory Group’s work, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet commissioned KPMG to compare the performance of the APS against leading public services around the world.

The Advisory Group drew up a set of key criteria which reflect the characteristics of a model public service. According to the Advisory Group, the public service of the future must:

-have a values-driven culture that retains public trust;

-provide high-quality, forward-looking and creative policy advice;

-deliver high-quality programs and services that put the citizen first;

-provide flexible and agile responses to changing realities and government priorities; and

- be effective and efficient in all operations.

This study compares the performance of the Australian Public Service (APS) to those of eight other public services in France, Denmark, Canada, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands. It evaluates six key criteria, including the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, the ability to provide flexible and agile responses to changing realities, and the capacity to attract and retain people of the highest quality. According to the results of the survey, the APS is a high performer where responsive to changes in the economy is concerned but performs comparatively poorly in terms of its capability for coordinated, informed and strategic policy.

This is fascinating comparative study of the public service in these 8 countries and provides some food for thought for all those interested in the performance of public services.

If we can put a Man on the Moon

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a session with Bill Eggers, global director for Deloitte Research and director of the Deloitte Public Leadership Institute. Bill is responsible for research and thought leadership for Deloitte’s public sector industry practice.

You may have read some of his previous books (if you haven't read them!) , namely Governing by Network; Government 2.0; and The Public Innovator’s Playbook.

Well...he has a new book out called "If we can put a Man on the Moon: Getting big things done in Government".

Tonight in front of a roomful of invited guests Bill talked about his book and about how governments, in Canada as well as the USA, can make things work in this ever increasingly complex world.

People are frustrated with their government — dismayed by a series of high-profile failures (in the US: Iraq, Katrina, the financial meltdown). Yet both Canada and the USA have a proud history of great achievements: the Canadian healthcare system, the highway system, welfare reform, and the moon landing.

In this book If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, Bill Eggers and John O'Leary explain how to do it. The key? Understand — and avoid — the common pitfalls that trip up public-sector leaders during the journey from idea to results.

Bill talked about the Seven Deadly Traps that could result in the failure of an initiative. These are:

The Tolstoy Trap: Seeing only the possibilities you want to see;

Design-Free Design: Designing policies for passage through the legislature, not for implementation;

The Stargate Trap: Idea never makes it though the legislature or is so distorted that it will never achieve its intended results;

The Overconfidence Trap: Creating unrealistic budgets and timelines;

The Sisyphus Trap: Failing to understand the special challenges of the public sector;

The Complacency Trap: Failing to recognize that a program needs change;

The Silo Trap: Fumbling handoffs throughout the execution of the project.

Bill showed us an interactive map that illustrates the traps and shows a journey to success. I would encourage you to take a look at this website.

It was a fascinating talk and I would encourage you to buy Bill's latest book.

Role of the State

In this week's edition of The Economist the cover story is about the growth of government, especially in the developed world. The editorial and accompanying article show that even in the United States under George Bush, government has grown. This growth in the US began before the recent market meltdown and the intervention by the state to prop up the US banking industry and automotive industry. The Economist editorial and article make the point that the upcoming baby boomer retirements will create even more pressure on governments as this generation start to access health care and other services.

The editorial makes a good point that "smaller" government does not necessarily mean "better" government - what is needed is a "right" sized government to deliver the services that citizens demand.