Today's Problems, Yesterday's Toolkit
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TODAY’S PROBLEMS, YESTERDAY’S TOOLKIT Developed by Owned by and working for Australian and New Zealand Governments. 1 THE ROADMAP: TODAY’S PROBLEMS, YESTERDAY’S TOOLKIT 4 THE PUBLIC PROBLEM SOLVING IMPERATIVE 5 The Death of Trust 6 Why Public Problem Solving is So Urgent 7 Why Building Skills will Restore Trust 10 How Public Problems Differ 12 The Public Problem-Solving Pathway 14 INNOVATION SKILLS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 16 Definitions of Innovation Skills in the Public Sector 17 The Public Entrepreneur’s Skillset 18 Training for Innovation Skills 21 ANZSOG Survey of Innovation Skills 27 THE INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT 35 Features of Innovative Institutions 37 New Innovation Institutions 41 Policies to Catalyse Innovative Institutions 46 Talent Mobility: Moving Brains Around 48 Sustaining Innovative Institutions 50 CONCLUSION: LOOKING TO TOMORROW 53 Acknowledgements 56 About the Authors 57 ANNEX I 58 Section I. Respondent’s characteristics 60 Section II. Awareness of skill & training 63 Section III. Use of skill 67 Section IV. Interest in learning skills and learning preferences 71 Section V. Enabling environment 74 Section VI. Relationship between skill practice, training and environment 79 ANNEX II — AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND INNOVATION SKILLS SURVEY INSTRUMENT 83 ANNEX III — LIST OF INTERVIEWEES 106 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. © 2019 The Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) and the authors. 3 THE ROADMAP: TODAY’S PROBLEMS, YESTERDAY’S TOOLKIT Governments of all political stripes are being The report begins by explaining why public problem- buffeted by technological and societal change. There solving is so urgent at this moment in history. Public is a pervasive sense globally that governments are not problems are increasingly complex, requiring doing as well as they ought to solve our biggest policy coordinated solutions across many actors and public problems. Pressure has intensified to provide better involvement to collect the necessary data, define the services and experiences, and deliver measurable problems, and work together on solutions. The report results that improve people’s lives. The failure to meet then argues that improving individual skills provides our most pressing challenges help to explain why in the linchpin for tackling public problems and restoring Australia, trust in government is at an all-time low. trust in government. New technologies, however, bring with them the We outline the core skills — the 21st century toolkit opportunity to rethink how the public sector in — of the public entrepreneur, and how governments Australia might solve public problems by building a around the world are putting these skills to use. We workforce with diverse and innovative skills, especially offer 10 recommendations for designing an effective how to use data and actively reach out beyond the public sector training program, emphasising the need to public sector itself. include both qualitative and quantitative skills. Commissioned by the Australia and New Zealand We emphasise the need to use a mix of methods, School of Government (ANZSOG), this report builds avoiding a headlong rush to embrace any individual on a pioneering survey of almost 400 public servants one, such as design thinking or data science, to the in Australia and New Zealand, dozens of interviews exclusion of others. with senior practitioners, and original research into how governments around the world are training public The report calls for a radical reshaping of training officials in innovative practices. for public service leaders. Hybrid online and offline learning, and problem- and project-based coaching and The survey findings show that public servants are mentorship, would all help public servants to become eager to embrace skills for innovation but receive public entrepreneurs, skilled in public problem solving. inadequate training in them. Knowledge of new ways of working far outstrips practice. Blunt public sector Finally, the report sets out the need for institutions management tools, including hiring freezes, efficiency to enable, support and reward public servants who dividends, and funding cuts that hobble innovative or exercise innovation skills. We document success experimental initiatives, are creating what interviewees stories of adaptive, evidence-based and collaborative for this study describe as a creeping crisis for the public organisations. In particular, we identify how new public sector. The slow adoption of tools widely used institutions — labs, hubs and mission-driven organisations beyond government, together with cultural inertia, — are overcoming the fear of failure, promoting erodes the prospect of a more collaborative, creative interventions based on what works, and developing and empathetic public sector workforce. policies and practices rooted in deep collaboration with those that government services most affect. To reverse these trends, this report argues that governments must train public servants to become We believe that the ideas set out in this report “public entrepreneurs” who tackle problems using provide the foundation for rebuilding trust in innovative, data-driven, and participatory methods, and government by equipping public servants to provide who are comfortable with risk and even initial failure in solutions that address the most urgent public policy pursuit of outcomes that improve the lives of citizens. problems of our time. THE ROADMAP: TODAY’S PrOBLEMS, YESTERDAY’S TOOLKIT 4 THE PUBLIC PROBLEM SOLVING IMPERATIVE THE ROADMAP: TODAY’S PrOBLEMS, YESTERDAY’S TOOLKIT 5 THE DEATH OF TRUST Trust in government in Australia is at an all-time low. According to survey data, fewer than 41 per cent of Australian citizens are satisfied with the way democracy works, a precipitous decline from 86 per cent in 2007. Just 31 per cent of the population say they trust the federal government. State and local governments perform little better, with approval ratings hovering around one-third. Ministers and MPs (whether federal or state) do far worse: they rate at just 21 per cent.1 A YouGov-Cambridge Globalism survey of 1006 Australians found that 55 per cent believe politicians are listening to them less, while 63 There is a pervasive per cent believe the people running the government are “crooked”, and 76 per cent feel that “important sense that information” is being concealed from the public.2 government is not The phenomenon is not unique to Australia. The Edelman Trust Barometer paints a bleak picture, doing as well as it asserting that “government is now distrusted in 75 ought to improve per cent of countries.”3 In Europe, Dalia Research finds that anti-establishment parties are on the rise people’s lives. because Europeans are fed up with the political classes: barely a third trust politicians to do the right thing, with Eastern Europeans registering only 23 per cent confidence in their leaders.4 Thus, notwithstanding empirical evidence that people In the United States, public trust in the government in democracies live longer, healthier lives, and despite remains near historic lows. According to the Pew the proliferation of electoral democracies since World Research Center, “only 17 per cent of Americans today War II, our democratic institutions are coming under say they can trust the government in Washington to do siege.7 According to another recent Pew Research what is right “just about always” (3 per cent) or “most Center poll in 27 countries worldwide, a median of of the time” (14 per cent).”5 Societal distrust extends 51 per cent is dissatisfied with the way democracy is beyond the public sector to include all four traditional working in their country.8 institutions: business, government, NGOs, and media. Trust in all of them has, in fact, declined broadly, with As the crisis of governance reaches a nadir, people damaging consequences not only for governments’ are seeking an alternative vision for democracy and effectiveness but for individual well-being. The sense for governance that is both more effective and more that the system is broken only “increases a person’s legitimate. That search provides the backdrop to vulnerability to fear, ultimately causing deeper distrust this report. in institutions.”6 THE DEATH OF trUST 6 WHY PUBLIC PROBLEM SOLVING IS SO URGENT Government is indeed failing to deliver solutions that improve people’s lives in measurable ways. Every day, public servants help to land planes safely Yet despite these many great successes, there is a and on time, ensure that our food and drugs are pervasive sense that our public institutions are no safe, educate and feed our children without direct longer up to the task of running things. cost to those who need these services, and ensure that our communities are protected from crime and This distrust stems from more than perception. fraud,9 among countless other everyday success Government is indeed failing to deliver solutions that stories of government. improve people’s lives in measurable ways. Government continues to do much good. In Australia, In a global study on infrastructure projects and the governments deliver world-class health and education waste of billions of dollars through poor project outcomes. The Federal Government ranks 5th globally management, Australia fared worse than the global on the International