John Tizard, an Independent Strategic Advisor and Commentator shares his thoughts on why significant change can transform public services…
Over the last few years, the public sector has faced some of its biggest challenges for decades. Unprecedentedly significant and immediate public expenditure cuts have been accompanied by an ever-rising increase in demand for core public services including health and social care. And whilst the public (rightly) seeks higher quality outcomes and more responsive services, so too is technology transforming the ways in which the public can and do interact with many public services, with social media and the internet in particular making citizens and service users better informed and more challenging.
So, a period of rapid change – and of uncertainty, with the only certainties being that there will be still more change, and that the pace will increase further.
Against this backdrop, the challenge for public sector leaders and other leaders in the business, social and voluntary sectors who find themselves engaged in service design, commissioning and delivery is, to say the very least, formidable. Specifically, how to achieve change that is sustainable, affordable, accords with public expectations, and remains true to some sense of public service ethos.
Given the level of cuts already made and planned (and we should not forget that the majority of the cuts resulting from the 2010 Spending Review are yet to be implemented) and the strong expectation of more to follow the 2015 general election, it is inevitable that some services will simply disappear whilst others will become hollow shadows of their former selves.
Every organisation with any sense of ambition and public (or indeed, private) purpose will wish to improve continuously. Of course, sadly some are content to stagnate but thankfully, most are not. And the reality is that most of the public sector and most public services can no longer look to some small scale, incremental improvement if they are to thrive and survive. The challenge I have outlined above specifically requires that leaders should be inspiring their organisations to ‘thrive’ and proactively evolve, not just survive.
Addressing this challenge demands new thinking and innovation; productivity has to improve; new ways of doing new things to secure better outcomes are required; and long term problems with their long-term costs have to be addressed intelligently and swiftly to improve both the quality of life for people but also to and survive. The challenge I have outlined above specifically requires that leaders should be inspiring their organisations to ‘thrive’ and proactively evolve, not just survive. Addressing this challenge demands new thinking and innovation; productivity has to improve; new ways of doing new things to secure better outcomes are required; and long term problems with their long-term costs have to be addressed intelligently and swiftly to improve both the quality of life for people but also to save money.
Many of these long-term social, economic and environmental challenges are complex and require interventions and contributions from more than one sector or organisation. Given this fact, plus the need for financial restraint and the public’s desire for responsive and seamless services, it is both inevitable and obvious that services and agencies will have to collaborate and share resources. Artificial, egotistical, professional, institutional and bureaucratic barriers must be torn down.
The imperative to both innovate and collaborate, and indeed for innovation and collaboration to mesh together, forms the building block to any future strategies if significant social, economic and environmental issues are to be effectively addressed; and if increasingly scarce resources are to be deployed in an optimum manner.
At first glance innovation and collaboration and the necessary conditions to make them happen may appear to be different. However, in fact, they have much in common.
Both require inspired leadership, focused on outcomes for people rather than institutions. They require empowerment of service users, staff and others to facilitate flexibility and exploration of solutions. Rather than processes, procedures and manuals – they depend on people at all levels (politicians and professionals, and senior executives, managers and frontline staff) having the right mind-sets and behaviours, as well as the space and time to explore, experiment and simply to ‘talk’ to each other, service users and the public.
Public service leaders must personally champion innovation and collaboration. This has to be more than slogans, project and job titles, and vague concepts. These leaders must themselves adopt and practice the behaviours consistent with effective collaboration and innovation. They need to be part of the solution – not part of the problem.
It is still too common to hear so called ‘leaders’ in all sectors claiming to be in favour of innovation and/or collaboration. But during a short conversation, it soon becomes clear that those initial right words and platitudes are in fact covering up a lack of any real understanding, dysfunctional behaviours, and a wholesale failure to embed the concepts in their organisation. In other words, such so-called leaders lack ‘authenticity’.
Excellent leaders create and foster a culture of improvement, change, experimentation, looking beyond the organisation itself, learning and listening. They ensure that innovation and collaboration are encouraged and rewarded, and are ‘core’ to their organisation – not some ‘add-on’ or delegated as the responsibility of the ‘innovation’ or the ‘collaboration /partnership’ team. They invest in training and support for their staff and partners. They remove restrictive rules, regulations and procedures that get in the way of effective collaboration and innovation. They are ready to accept some failure as part of the natural learning process, and their first instinct is to learn rather than to blame.
Collaboration and innovation are not ends in themselves but they are vital to maintain the necessary momentum of change and continuous improvement such that public services do not just survive, but thrive.