245 – Council BI – some more thinking.

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880 words (7 minutes reading time)  by Lancing Farrell

Source: Qlik

Summary

Australian local governments make decisions on a range of issues that impact their communities, such as planning, zoning, environmental management, infrastructure, waste management, community services, traffic management, and economic development. The decisions they make are influenced by legislative requirements, public input, and deliberation among elected officials. The specific responsibilities and decision-making processes of local governments can vary depending on the state or territory in which they are located. The decision-making process typically includes planning and preparation, public consultation, council meetings, decision-making, implementation, and review and evaluation.

In Colin Weatherby’s post on BI, he looked at how it is used by companies and how it might be used by councils. With some assistance from ChatGPT (I am becoming quite a fan), I have tried to drill down to the actual decisions councils make where BI would be useful.

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244 – Council BI.

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1300 words (12 minutes reading time) by Colin Weatherby

Source: ChatGPT

I am trying a new approach with this post and using ChatGPT to provide a summary with short and long versions to match your reading appetite. It might be a little repetitive if you read them all but it will reinforce the key points! Your feedback will be appreciated.

Summary

Business intelligence (BI) is a set of techniques and tools used to analyse data and make informed decisions. It is widely accepted in the private sector but is still evolving in local government where data collection is mainly driven by performance reporting requirements. However, with the financial challenges faced by councils, many are starting to adopt a ‘BI approach’ to understanding their financial position and improving decision-making. Councils can benefit from a BI approach that is tailored to their specific challenges and priorities to support performance monitoring, decision-making, and service delivery to the community.

Short version

Recently, I was talking with a colleague about the financial information they were using to understand the impact of rate capping on the financial sustainability and resilience of their council. This led us to discuss what kind of business intelligence councils need.

Business intelligence, or BI, is defined in the image above. In the private sector, BI is widely accepted and standardised, and there are consultants who provide these services to companies. Companies know what decisions they need to make and that the data to support those decisions is available, they just need it to be discovered, collated, and analysed. However, in the council sector, access to data and data collection is typically driven by performance reporting requirements, rather than a the need for improved data in decision-making.

Businesses use BI for various purposes, including decision-making, performance monitoring, trend analysis, data-driven planning, competitive advantage, and fraud detection. Councils, on the other hand, may have different priorities and challenges. While competitiveness may not be a high priority, customer satisfaction and loyalty can still have a significant impact on the council. The recent financial crunch due to rate capping and high inflation has prompted some councils to start using BI to understand their financial position over time.

Therefore, it’s beneficial for councils to adopt a BI approach that incorporates their specific challenges and priorities to support decision-making and performance monitoring. This can include data analysis, performance monitoring, requirements gathering, process improvement, and budgeting and financial analysis. The goal of BI in local government is to improve decision-making, increase efficiency and effectiveness, and enhance the delivery of services to the community.

Keep going if you are interested in a more detailed discussion.

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243 – Ken Miller – Myth Buster.

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1350 words (12 minutes reading time) by Lancing Farrell

Summary

Ken Miller’s book, “We Don’t Make Widgets: Overcoming the Myths That Keep Government from Radically Improving,” presents the author’s experiences of working in government and his insights on the three myths that hinder the improvement of government services. The first myth is that government services are intangible and cannot be measured or managed, unlike widgets in the manufacturing industry. The second myth is that the people receiving government services cannot be considered customers, as they are hostages who cannot make choices about the provider and have competing interests. The third myth is that governments are not here to make a profit, which Miller defines as the private sector’s way of measuring return on investment.

Thank you to Adam Thompson from Zen Organisations for heading me in the direction of Ken Miller and his book ‘We Don’t Make Widgets’, subtitled, Overcoming the Myths That Keep Government from Radically Improving. It is an interesting read from the viewpoint of someone who has worked in government and spent their life trying to improve it.

Ken Miller was an original myth buster.

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242 – A Grand Strategy.

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850 words (10 minutes reading time) by Colin Weatherby and ChatGPT

A passage from The Book of Local Government:

“And lo, the Local Government was filled with aspirations for the community. But when the State government imposed a rate cap, limiting their capabilities, the leaders knew they must align their aspirations with their limitations through strategy. And Richard Rumelt, a wise strategist, spoke unto them saying “A good strategy addresses the most important and high stakes challenges through a coherent set of analyses, concepts, policies, arguments, and actions.” But many Local Governments strayed from this path, with strategies that lacked a clear central idea and failed to address important problems or opportunities. And Rumelt warned them “If thou fail to identify and analyze the obstacles, thou doth not have a strategy, but instead a stretch goal, a budget or a list of things thou wish would happen.” And the leaders heeded his words, and developed a good strategy to overcome their challenges.”

Source: ChatGPT

I have been inspired for the title of this post by John Lewis Gaddis, who says strategy is necessary for ‘the alignment of potentially unlimited aspirations with necessarily limited capabilities’.  It is strategy that aligns our most important aspirations with our capabilities so that we can achieve them. It is especially important when capabilities are being limited.

Local government is full of aspirations. We deliberately ask the community what they want to create a list of things to do. We don’t wait for them to tell us. Our workers are expert at identifying new needs. We like to say that we really understand community needs and expectations. I suppose, this is where the problem starts when a State government disagrees and decides that people are being charged too much for councils to meet their needs and they introduce a rate cap.

Worse still, is when the State thinks some of those needs should not be met by the council at all or they are being met in ways that are inefficient or frivolous.

“The days of ratepayers footing the bill for Arnold Swarzeneggar impersonators are over.”

Labor leader, Daniel Andrews, 2014

I have recently re-read Richard Rumelt’s book ‘Good Strategy/Bad Strategy’. It is over 10 years old now and remains a classic on strategy. I also read his new book, ‘The Crux’. He has recently described his ideas about strategy as ‘challenge-based strategy’, which is useful when thinking about them in the context of local government. We have challenges.

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241 – Rate capping – the final words (from our future)

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250 words (3 minutes reading time) by ChatGPT (with some help)

The Victorian government has implemented a policy requiring councils to operate and deliver services within the constraints of annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases. This means that councils must fundamentally re-think the way they deliver services to the community in order to meet this requirement.

If there are certain services that cannot be delivered within this framework, councils must identify these “special” services and seek a higher rate cap for them. The need for these services must be explained and justified through a community engagement process, as it is essential for the council to have the support of the community for this change.

These special services could vary, such as infrastructure projects that are partially funded by the government but the operating costs fall on the local community, or natural issues specific to a region such as tree canopy coverage or flooding.

To request higher rate caps, councils must demonstrate responsible and efficient use of resources in delivering their regular services within the CPI increase constraint. This will require a dedicated team within the council to understand and work with the Essential Services Commission, the regulator overseeing this policy.

Overall, while it may require a re-thinking of current processes and the development of new skills, there is a pathway for councils to live within the rate cap and meet the needs of their community.

Footnote

It is somehow fitting that the last post on this topic (at least for now) is written by AI using information taken from previous posts. It is illustrative of the efficiencies the rate cap must drive if councils are to deliver services with only CPI increases. Over 500 words in random paragraphs were reduced to 250 words of clarity in seconds. The essential actions were gleaned from many ideas. Councils need to do this.

Footnote to the Footnote

When asked to take the Footnote and re-write it, ChatGPT became quite chatty about itself …

The task at hand for councils is clear: to deliver services to the community within the constraints of annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases. This requires a fundamental re-thinking of the way services are currently delivered, and an emphasis on efficiency and productivity. The use of AI, like in the example of this post, serves as a reminder of the potential for technology to aid in streamlining processes and identifying key messages. It is now up to councils to take this concept and apply it to their own operations, in order to meet the demands of the community within the rate cap.

240 – In the beginning …

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1000 words (10 minutes reading time) by Carole Davidson

The posts so far about the impact of the rate cap explain what is happening, but do they really help to work out what to do about it? Councils can tighten their belts and, perhaps, raise alternative revenues to replace lost rates. My question is will that be enough?

I thought I would go back to the beginning. Why did the Victorian Labor government think the rate cap was needed and what were they hoping to achieve? I am pretty sure that unless they see the changes in local government that they were after, they will not change their position. Even if they did, it is my understanding that the rate cap has bipartisan support, so the opposition will need to agree or they will simply reintroduce it if they win office.

The earliest information I can find is a report in The Age on 4 May 2014 saying that the then Labor opposition leader Daniel Andrews was promising a rate cap if his party were to be successful in the election being held in November that year. Their stated intention was to give ratepayers a ‘fair go’. Under the rate cap, councils would have to detail where every dollar they spend goes.

“The days of ratepayers footing the bill for Arnold Swarzeneggar impersonators are over”

Source: State councils must cap rates under Labor plan, The Age 4 May 2014
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239 – Zombie councils

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500 words (5 minutes reading time) by Tim Whistler

I have read Lancing and Colin’s posts with some interest. As a long-term, self-appointed local government pundit, I don’t think the rate cap can be an existential threat to local government, but it is going to turn councils into zombies. Like zombie companies, councils will become dependent on others for their survival. They will be alive but unable to think or act for themselves. Despite what people would like to think, ultimately, they will be simply the local branch of the state government delivering the services the state decides they must. This is at odds with what many councils currently think they are doing.

“Councils have autonomy to provide services that meet the needs of their local community, and will establish a range of discretionary processes, including local laws, to guide certain activities that can occur within their municipality.”

Municipal Association of Victoria, ‘Vic Councils’ website
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238 – Il comune povero- ‘The poor municipality’

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1600 words (15 minutes reading time) by Colin Weatherby                                                                                                                

Great post by Lancing Farrell. I like the link to the creative and enduring solutions people have devised in response to food scarcity. Human ingenuity can be a marvellous thing.

The impact of declining financial sustainability on asset management is disturbing. As anyone directly responsible for council assets knows, for many years the biggest challenge for local government in Victoria has been the cost of caring for assets. The Institute of Public Works Engineers (IPWEA) has been advocating for better asset management for years. I would argue that the principal council service is to own and care for assets on behalf of the ‘community. The rate cap has rapidly made this much more difficult, and as Lancing showed, the challenge is not spread evenly across councils.

What can councils do in response to funding scarcity? Will our commitment and creativity help us find new ways to provide the services the community needs and expects? Our own il comune povero.

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237 Di necessità virtù – ‘Need gives rise to virtue.’

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1500 words (14 minutes reading time) By Lancing Farrell                                                                                     

I was reading an article about la cucina povera, the cuisine created in Italy over centuries based on the food prepared by poor and sometimes starving people. Throughout history, people have experienced food insecurity and famine and they have adapted, but none have done it as well as the Italians.  In Italy, love, ingenuity and scarcity combined to give birth to a new and delicious cuisine that has become mainstream.

I wondered, can a similar thing happen to local government as it is starved of funds and impoverished by the Victorian government’s rate cap?

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236 – Organisation design in local government

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1000 words (9 minutes reading time)                                      by Colin Weatherby

I am intrigued by the thinking behind council organisational restructures. It seems that every new CEO feels the need to redesign the organisation to make it work better. Are they successful? The question on my mind is, how can a restructure make the organisation perform better?

I recently came across a useful publication on the topic that has been provided by the Victorian Public Sector Commission. It is entitled ‘Organisational Design’  and is part of the ‘Leading Public Organisations’ series. The intention is to provide ‘prompts, thought starters, practical ideas, and reminders for leaders and managers working in Victorian public sector organisations’.

There were certainly some useful reminders. In the first section on ‘the basic concepts’, the reminder is that organisational design is a consequence of the organisation’s goals, the work it needs to undertake, how that work is divided up (and how the bits are then connected, especially information flows), and how the work will be authorised and governed. The design is communicated through formal documents (e.g. the organisation chart, position descriptions, instruments of delegation) and informally through workplace practices (i.e. ‘the way things are done around here’). The design is also dynamic and changes in response to formal decisions (e.g. work allocation) and evolutions in practice (i.e. the workarounds that develop over time).

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