205 – ‘We don’t need to be clever – just less stupid’, The Age 23 February 2016.

Posted on February 25, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Colin Weatherby 700 words

I read this article and though it was fortunate that the writer, author and polymath Satyajit Das, hadn’t been dealing with his council. No doubt a greater attempt would have been made to feign ‘one stop’ service but if it was anything but a simple matter, he would have come across the same dysfunction. His acuity is evident in his analysis.

Das’s dealings with his bank highlighted how the quest for efficiency and lower costs has achieved the opposite result. This is a recurring theme in the writings of John Seddon about the public sector. Das lists six sources of ‘unproductive and inefficient’ failures that he believes are now common in many organisations.

Tasks have been fragmented across different locations and the simplest activity is now complicated.
There is no continuity. ‘One person is not accountable for the complete activity. Workers lack any idea of how what they are doing, or not doing, affects the whole process overall’.
Staff lack the skills and knowledge required.
Performance measurement has lowered, rather than improved, performance. Staff actions detract from results instead of helping achieve them.
Leadership is lacking in ‘domain knowledge’ (i.e. valid knowledge in a particular area).
There is a tendency to see history as old and irrelevant. The latest technological wizardry is the best solution to any problem. Valuable lessons from the past are routinely ignored.

There have been a number of posts on these very topics. Continue reading →

204 – Rate capping: an update.

Posted on February 20, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Whistler 900 words

It has been some time since discussions commenced regarding the imposition of a rate cap on local government in Victoria. There have been a few earlier posts on the topic (see here, here, here, here and here). The rate cap has now been set and the process for any council seeking an exemption from the rate cap has been communicated. The Essential Services Commission has been effectively positioned as a regulator for local government. So what have councils been doing?

I would say not much. The requirement that the community support must be demonstrated if seeking an exemption, coupled with 2016 being an election year, has stifled activity across the sector. According to The Age newspaper 21 councils have indicated they may apply for an exemption. Some councils, including Melbourne City Council, have attempted to demonstrate community support for their rating strategy, which could support an application for an exemption from the cap.

The results from the few people’s panels held have been interesting but not unexpected. The community expects the council to use current resources well before asking for more. They want to see value for money before they will support asking people to pay more tax. Fair enough. Continue reading →

203 – ‘Systems Thinking for Social Change’ by David Peter Stroh.

Posted on February 15, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Colin Weatherby 950 words

The subtitle of this book says it all – ‘A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results’. Every so often you pick up a book and it provides answers to problems that you and thousands of others grapple with every day. This is one of those books. David Stroh co-founded ‘Innovation Associates’ with Peter Senge, who later wrote the management classic ‘The Fifth Discipline’. Both are proponents of systems thinking. The premise of this book is that ‘applying systems thinking principles and tools enables you to achieve better results with fewer resources in more lasting ways’. Wow.

Stroh uses detailed, real-world examples to make his case. His ‘systems stories’ explain how people can improve performance by shifting from just trying to optimise their part of the system, to improving the relationships between all parts of the system. The systems stories start with seeing the big picture.

It is often the case in local government that people focus mainly on their functional responsibilities and either fail to see connections to the work of others, or they are not interested. Life is simpler when achievable goals can be set and complexity is overlooked. Putting the effort in to understanding the whole system is seldom rewarded. Local government is epitomised by sayings like ‘keep it simple’, ‘look for quick wins’, and ‘pick the low hanging fruit’.

In contrast, Stroh uses the ancient Indian story of the blind men and the elephant to illustrate the importance of the big picture. Continue reading →

202 – Essay No. 6 – Local government and public value.

Posted on February 8, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Lancing Farrell 6500 words

Value is often mentioned in local government when talking about services, particularly ‘best value’. However, there is often inadequate understanding about the different types of value, the difference between private and public value, and how value is actually created and managed by an organisation. Sometimes there is the assumption that because we have been busy, that we must have created something worthwhile.

This essay brings together ideas from several earlier posts and is constructed around four hypotheses:

That there are different types of value created by organisations and for local government public value is the most important.
Public value is the primary value that must be understood and delivered if councils are to deliver what is expected by the community.
Value-led management is a way of managing that could transform local government and make it more responsive and effective in serving the community.
There are simple and effective tools that can be used to improve value creation in local government.

Hypothesis 1: There are different types of value and public value is the most important for local government.

Private value

In a metaphorical sense the value that you add is what you ‘bring to the party’. This is determined by what other people think you have contributed and by thinking about what the party would have been like if you hadn’t arrived.

There are different types of value and it is worth briefly considering the difference between private value and public value. Public value is the collective view of the public or community about what they regard as valuable, especially with regard to the use of public money and authority. Moore describes this as occurring along a spectrum from value that is obtained from public services that is essentially private value, similar to the concept of customer value, to public value that reflects the aggregate value expectations of citizens.

At the private value end of the spectrum, the focus is on the individual service recipient and delivering value that satisfies their expectations. At the public value end of the continuum, the focus is on achieving the social outcomes sought by the community or public. Continue reading →

201 – A response to Essay No. 4 – Local government and customer service.

Posted on February 7, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Whistler 250 words

Lancing Farrell has written an engaging essay that reveals many home-truths in customer service in local government. It is a bit on the long side but worth the effort to read. I have a few comments to make about what I think you can do to act on the ideas.

To begin, make a list of the services offered and who can receive them. Some councils call this a service catalogue. It doesn’t matter what you call it, make it. Once you have this list your strategy is becoming explicit. The choices made in developing the list reflect the strategy of the organisation in delivering services. For many councils, this will formalise custom and practice.

Next, re-design the systems for customer service so that there are fewer escalations and fewer requests channelled through councillors. It is expensive to handle normal service requests through a ‘councillor request’ system that has been designed to provide high level information to support councillors in decision making. Improve website information, online payment, and online service requests. Manage expectations and make services as convenient as possible.

Then, train and support Customer Service Officers in understanding the different capacities in which people present and to separate (and manage) private and public value expectations. This is easier than it sounds. Telephony companies do something similar when they train customer service staff to identify different customer types and to then treat them differently according to their characteristics. They even have special names for each type of customer.

Lastly, re-design services to ensure customers get what they need and that the value is visible.

200 – Using a local government service catalogue.

Posted on February 2, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Colin Weatherby 700 words

Some time ago I discussed how to create a local government service catalogue. The process was simple and effective in describing services in customers’ terms and linking services to cost centres in the budget and those responsible for the cost centres. You might ask, what else needs to be done? Well, for the service catalogue to be really useful it needs to be linked to the organisational planning processes. Here’s how that can be done.

To begin, it is a good idea to test the service catalogue with the community. I have heard of a council using it to lead discussion with ‘peoples’ panels’ about the services delivered, how rates can best be spent, and whether or not the council should seek an exemption from the municipal rate cap being imposed in Victoria. If the community can relate to the services described in the catalogue and understand what they involve, it is likely that you have got the catalogue right. It doesn’t mean that it can’t be further improved, but it is a good start.

The next step is to link the service catalogue to the traditional ‘business unit by business unit’ planning that occurs in local government. Continue reading →

199 – Missed the quiz? Don’t worry, here are the answers (apologies to John Clarke).

Posted on January 31, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Whistler 680 words

Mr John Clarke

There was a huge response to the ‘Giant Local Government Utopia Quiz’. Not unexpectedly, the winner was Gordon Brittas, star of the Brittas Empire (a 1980’s documentary series about local government). For the record, here are the answers:

True. Public servants have an implied constitutional right to express private political opinions but the opinions mustn’t be expressed to anyone else. This is because it is widely acknowledged that allowing public servants to contribute to public discourse could undermine the infeasibility of political decisions and confuse people with logic.
False. TotalPave is not a municipal engineering project to cover the world’s surface with concrete with 1% fall. It is the innovative idea of some college students in the U.S. that we will studiously ignore in Australia. Well done.
False. The ‘Women of Bologna’ is not a new municipal sitcom showing on Netflix. No, women in Bologna have joined forces to work with local government and care for public infrastructure, forcing the creation of the innovative and precisely worded ‘The Regulation on Collaboration Between Citizens and the Administration for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons’. Citizens are now helping their cash-strapped council instead of strapping their council for cash. Amazing really.
False. Public value, best value, value for money and value-adding are all related ideas that your council may talk about but it will have no real idea how to make happen. These terms are often heard in conjunction with innovation, efficiency and cost saving – more ideas that councils have very little idea about.
False. Despite occasional conjecture to the opposite, John Seddon and Mark H. Moore have pretty much wasted their time since the last century writing about the problems with current public sector management and proposing alternatives. Never mind, there is always next century.
False. Slacktivism is rife in local government. It is becoming an epidemic. Anyway, it beats face to face engagement or any other form of engagement that requires effort and for people to be accountable for their views.
True. There are no followers in local government, only leaders. Everyone is a leader. Many of those leaders are highly innovative and do not conform to traditional leadership practice, which dictates that when something goes well the team is given credit and when it goes badly the leader takes the blame. It is one area where local government leads.
True. Local government rate capping is not the equivalent of knee capping, window capping or introducing a new player into the Australian cricket team. It is an attempt to stop the most accessible and responsive level of government from being accessible and responsive when inaccessible and unresponsive levels of government have successfully been inaccessible and unresponsive. Well done again.
False. Because councils are asking families to obtain permission to use public parks and then charging a fee for a permit, does not mean that councils believe people are not smart enough or don’t have sufficient wit to work it out how to share a park themselves. No. It is simply saying that councils reckon they are so much better at working these things out. In fact, all governments are. Letting people make decisions and sort matters out for themselves has led to conflict all over the world. Government intervention is the answer.
False. The Strategic Triangle is not the local government equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle, where people and ideas are mysteriously lost without trace. It is a simple to understand and even easier to ignore idea about the fundamental relationship between politicians, public administration and the community in the use of authority to create services that the community finds valuable. Never mind.
False. Wanksy is an internationally celebrated artist whose ephemeral and inspirational works are quickly obliterated by councils in accordance with their road management plans. Like his namesake Banksy, his work has challenged public policy and the way councils respond to illegal artworks. I say bring on more asphalt.
False. This quiz was not intended to highlight the systematic failure of local governments to think about what they do and take heed of information and thinking that is freely available. It is simply a bit of fun.

198 – Essay No. 5 – Local government and leadership.

Posted on January 26, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Colin Weatherby 1300 words

Mark H. Moore’s ‘strategic triangle’ – the basis for value-led public sector management

I have been thinking about leadership a lot recently. It has been a recurring theme in posts on this site. Reading Jeffrey Pfeffer’s book has challenged my thinking about how leaders work and what motivates them. It has reinforced some of my scepticism about leaders and why they do what they do. I tend to agree with Peter Drucker’s questioning of the distinction between leadership and management. Ultimately, organisations, particularly in the public sector, have to be managed. The idea that somehow managers aren’t leaders or that leaders aren’t managing doesn’t make sense.

Having said that, I can think of organisational leaders I have known who couldn’t manage. At some point they just ticked the leadership box and assumed the position! Pfeffer explains how and why everyone then goes along with it. Once you are a leader it seems you can get to stay there without any real scrutiny and accountability for your performance. That has definitely been my experience in local government.

I keep imagining myself working in an organisation with an effective leader who manages the organisation for high performance (not career advancement). One that provides clear strategy, direction and goals. One who coordinates effort to across the organisation to achieve those goals. In particular, I have been thinking about how they could do that in local government. Continue reading →

197 – Blogging – some introspection and reflection.

Posted on January 4, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Lancing Farrell 550 words

It has been an interesting 12 months of blogging. Many things have been learnt. What started out as an opportunity to get a few things out of heads and onto ‘paper’ has turned into a tremendous professional development process. The ideas being written about have generated a response that has informed practice.

So, what has been learnt?

The objective was to use the posts to tell a story, say what it really means or reveals, and then what could/should be done to make a difference. Some posts have been a bit darker and tended to show how ideas are progressively compromised or eroded until they are ineffective or counterproductive. Some posts have been persuasive in support of an opinion or course of action. Hopefully all have been entertaining and/or informative.

Readers’ interest in different topics has been evident though the number of views of each post (hence the ‘Most Popular Posts’ page). There were over 6000 views for the year. The ‘likes’ show which posts have particularly appealed to readers. ‘Comments’ indicate further interest and have led to posts being written in response to matters raised. The growth in ‘Followers’ indicates general interest in the ideas being posted. Overall, it has been a satisfying response and it has encouraged writing.

It has been surprising that readers have come from such a large number of countries (113 and counting). The majority are from English speaking countries with a similar system of local government (i.e. Australia, USA, UK and Canada).

The posts have changed over the course of the year in response to feedback. Images have been added, questions have been posed, there have been several series on a topic, and there have been the long reads. The idea has been to engage with the readership in different ways.

Multiple viewpoints have been presented – explanatory, teaching, positive critique, negative critique, the voice of reason – sometimes on the same topic. This has created a certain tension but has hopefully ‘rounded out’ thinking on the topic.

After the first 25 posts an ‘index post’ was created to briefly discuss each post and then to describe the various themes covered in the posts. Later a ‘syntopicon’ was created covering all posts to allow new readers to quickly find posts on different themes. Hopefully it has been useful.

The ideas for posts have come from daily work interactions, colleagues in networks, blog ‘supporters’ providing comments and feedback, newspapers, newsletters, other blogs – anywhere. The intention has been to link theory with practice from the viewpoint of middle managers.

The lack of interest in reading across the sector, especially top management, has limited posts (mostly) to 500 to 1000 words with the ‘long reads’ (2000 to 4000 words) for those with the fortitude for a deeper discussion of a topic. Posts discussing books of relevance have been popular and links to articles are often used. Some people are up for a good read.

The limit of 200 posts has been set to avoid blogging for the sake of blogging or becoming involved in the egotistical and delusional blogging evident on some sites where the author had something to say but after a while they seem to have just started writing to maintain their following.

There is only so much of your introspection and reflection that you can impose on the rest of the world.

196 – Making local government organisations simpler to manage – why is it necessary?

Posted on January 4, 2016 by lancingfarrell

Posted by Colin Weatherby 1700 word

I was at a meeting recently where the team charged with conducting an organisational self assessment (OSA) and preparing an organisational improvement plan (OIP) using the Australian Business Excellence Framework were evaluating progress. It was an interesting meeting of a diverse group of people. By the end of the meeting we had reached a common conclusion – a council organisation is complex and systems need to be disentangled and simplified so that it can be managed effectively.

The OIP actions were developed independently from the outcomes of the OSA. It was only after 12 months of effort to implement the actions that the high level of congruence between them became apparent. Very few actions relating to core organisational systems could be implemented without impacting on each other – they overlapped. Attempting to deal with them one by one wasn’t going to work but joining them all together would create a large and very complicated action.

There is an earlier post on complexity which describes some of the sources of complexity in local government. It helps to know what you are dealing with but that doesn’t make it any easier. This was reinforced by reading former Victorian Premier John Brumby’s excellent memoir ‘The Long Haul – Lessons from Public Life’. In reflecting on the last four years in which he has viewed politics as an outsider, Brumby comments on the lack of trust that ‘permeates almost everything we see and hear about politics today’.

He believes that part of restoring trust and credibility in politics is to give the public a better understanding of the complexity of the issues.

“When I first sat in the federal parliament, an older and wiser member told me: ‘For every complex problem there is a simple solution … and it’s always wrong’. We live in a world where the questions are becoming more complex, while the public appetite is for ever simpler answers: the kind that can be summed up in 140 characters or less”

My question is, do you think that people want to be bothered by the complexity involved in getting what they want through political processes? Continue reading →

Local Government Utopia

Two hundred and fifty (or so) opinions, essays and observations

Author Archives: lancingfarrell