2. “BPS is changing how the public sector thinks...but we
are not yet seeing system change…
There are many drivers of collaboration, and shared
responsibility and integrated funding are key…
There are significant opportunities at middle
management” (excerpts from SenateSHJ report on SSC site, 2014)
“…a public sector that embraces innovation” (John Key)
Collaboration within the Public
Sector
3. …some “dynamic investment” or “good waste” is
required to support innovation (Potts, 2009, p. 42)
Innovation is a collaborative process
involving:
Small and large firms
End-users
Government bodies
Regulatory agencies
Universities and research institutes
Innovation – a virtual oxymoron
for the public sector?
4. “Using a whole-of-government approach to
providing system-wide orders has been
strengthened, and will continue to be a lever.
But most collaboration will be expected
without being directed” (State Services Commission, 2013)
Compliance relies on:
Adequate knowledge
A belief that advantageous to comply
Adequate resource (Weaver, 2014)
All of Government
5. “the creation and implementation of new
processes, products, services and methods of
delivery which results in significant
improvements in efficiency, effectiveness or
quality of outcomes” (Albury, 2005)
Most public sector innovation arises to solve a problem
Less barriers for Crown entities to innovate – greater
autonomy
Innovation
6. ICT Strategy
“…delivered collaboratively, with delegated decision rights and clear
accountabilities that connect at a system level”
“Information leadership will pervade government, from Ministers through to
front-line delivery personnel”
“…accelerating transformative
change through the use of
information and technology”
(Cabinet, 2013 on the ICT Strategy)
7. 1. Technical system leadership - transaction
focused and looks for system solutions
2. Adaptive or transformational – looks to
involve people in collaborative work to
support long-terms outcomes
Leadership
9. Middle Managers
Level of awareness of ICT Strategy?
60% have a good level of awareness
“middle management generally wasn’t involved”
10. 74% of middle managers involved in an innovation over
the last 18 months – with
1. Vendors
2. Public sector agencies
3. Consultants
4. Professional organisations
“the biggest barrier is the inability of organisations to
line up and support each other – it is very hard to get
cross-agency activity”
Are managers engaging collaboratively
to support innovations?
11. “Territorialism”, with a narrow view
“Often middle managers don’t know
other people in their sectors as it is the
CIO or CEO that gets out and does the
relationship management”
Reluctance to share resources
Sector networking valued, as is
support provided by the GCIO
“No support” a common response
Support to collaborate?
“Collaboration is just a part
of the way I naturally work”
“Often there is talk
of collaboration
…but when actual
resources need to
be put on the line
nothing will
eventuate”
12. Barriers
1. Workload and budget
2. Leadership thinking
3. Internal governance mechanisms and risk aversion
“we have not rewarded risk-taking, entrepreneurial
behaviour”
Enabler
1. Support of senior manager
“we need business leaders who are more attune to
the potential of information use and technologies”
Support to innovate?
13. “Better With Less” means…
Knowing what innovation &
collaboration is, and supporting
& rewarding it through realising
‘dispersed leadership’
Managed rather than eliminated
risk – governance that supports
innovation
Collaboration with wider range of partners
Recognising middle managers need to be
involved in development of AoG strategies
Collaborative forums and tools
Adequate knowledge to support
compliance with AoG approach
14. Collaboration and innovation explicit in PD’s
Some time allocated to foster ideas and innovations
Senior managers who both expect and support their
staff to succeed
A Ministry where anyone can have an idea and put it
through a process of evaluation
“I have been lucky to have visionary managers”
Cool stuff is happening…
Editor's Notes
Building on work from SenateSHJ and looking at legislative environment and BPS and AoG ICT Strategy.
Awareness of the ICT strategy?
Are MM’s collaborating and innovating, if who with?
Interviewed SM’s and surveyed middle managers with mainly open ended Q’s – giving middle managers a voice.
Firstly need to ‘unpick’ innovation, technology, collaboration and role of middle managers – and inevitably, leadership
“It is the middle management who are stuck between being told to control their areas without being high enough to see the whole picture” (2014, p.6).
The need to have innovators and collaborators in the public sector to embed change was also noted by SenateSHJ.
“…collaboration is not a priority for managers looking for promotion, or those driven by personal ambition”
Hendy and Callaghan (2013) in writing about innovation in NZ talk of ‘innovation ecosystems’. They consider collaboration key to supporting innovation in a country as small as NZ. Innovation ecosystems require an effective understanding of all of its parts, including contribution from the wider state sector as well as the private sector.
So we have:
Expectations around innovation and collaboration
A sense that we are not maximising our middle managers…
Technology key innovation enabler, and collaboration critical
Drive for efficiency does not readily allow for experimentation and risk-taking
“The language of innovation, ‘I’m hoping to see’… is not a good fit with a project management mind-set. Success couched in those terms is often seen as failure by Management…and their reputation is too delicate to risk it” (middle manager)
The public sector drive for accountability and transparency also casts a spotlight on any behaviours that may be considered to waste public sector resources.
One senior manager interviewed felt that working collaboratively minimised resource constraints, and another one noted that the
structure of government finance did not support the achievement of shared outcomes, with a lack of incentive for agencies to “take one for the team”.
Innovative staff tend to reject the public sector, and are not rewarded in the public sector.
Need to examine AoG and collaboration.
Plus change in legislation, Crown Entities Act…
“…there is now an increased focus for Crown entities to work across boundaries in the collective interests of government. Using a …” (preamble to quote)
Clear in Enduring Letter of Expectation to Crown Entities – but what guidance is provided?
Commissioner Marie Shroff in her 2014 lecture “policy thinking behind Crown entities or their reform has never been deep or wide”
Technological innovation is “a highly politicized process” (Peled, 2001, p. 202).
Crown entities and innovation study based on IRD and DHB.
There are barriers to any public sector agency innovating. There is no competitive pressure to innovate and this is combined with stringent constraints that, although designed to minimise corruption, stifle innovation.
Was clear from middle manager survey responses that some were unclear as to what ‘innovation’ is – even when given a definition.
Innovation predominantly in Leadership and Culture Change
Dispersed leadership important for transformative change – sophisticated model
The concept of delegated decision-making supported by Professor Banks, Dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government - innovative ideas are as likely to originate at the bottom of the organisation as at the top.
Supporting this is challenging for agencies that tend to be hierarchical, with innovation driven from the top down (Rosenblatt, 2011).
In some circumstances a hierarchical approach may exacerbate risk, with most technology failure in government showing evidence of “fragmented approaches that missed key enablers, operated within separate bureaucratic domains, and ignore synergies for sustained transformation and ecosystems for sustained innovation” (Hanna, 2011, p. 253).
Leadership clearly critical
Transformational leadership includes the ability to foster dispersed leadership – enabling…supporting decision-making and ideas generation through the ranks…
NZ better at transactional than transformative from the 2014 UN e-govt survey, less evident as regard e-participation (wider collaboration).
Leadership in partnership settings is challenging due to the diversity of culture
Leadership requires a willingness to cede power and resources (people, finance information , assets).
So…what insights were discovered??
Dispersed leadership would support a transformational leadership approach – enabling managers
Did not get general agreement on what ‘dispersed leadership’ is (i.e collaborative, delegated decision rights) from senior managers. Therefore the likelihood of it happening appears fairly low given this, and given comments made by both senior and middle managers.
Comment from one senior manager was that dispersed leadership really just applied to leadership across the sectors, rather than down through the ranks.
Middle managers would have difficulty surfacing ideas.
Most innovation comes from the middle (75% in Commonwealth nations survey) connected with top and bottom (Innovative ideas as common at the bottom of the agency as the top with larger and more radical innovation from senior management)
Required to implement strategy
Ability to influence in both directions, upwards and downwards.
It is the ability of the ICT managers to work effectively within and across organisations that may impact on ability to derive longer term sustainable advantage (Mata, 1995). It is the intangible assets that are the main drivers of innovation performance (Bakar & Ahmad, 2010).
But – difficulty in describing innovations, even when a definition was provided.
If it is an expectation, how do we know when it is being achieved?
Collaboration happening infrequently with
Universities
Citizens
NGO’s
CRI’s
As a senior manager suggested – staff can get involved if they wish, if they have time to do so – up to them
As often as there is support to collaborate, there is no support
Collaboration “redefines the boundaries of the problem…and starts to open up the potential for some new ways of looking at a problem.” The senior manager interviewed also said that collaboration can minimise considerations around resourcing.
And remember that non mandatory compliance relies on:
Adequate knowledge
A belief that advantageous to comply
Adequate resource (Weaver, 2014)
O’Leary (2014) sums up the issues related to realising collaboration in the N.Z. public sector in the following way:
stifling of grassroots innovation
managers have no time to think about new ways of serving the public
lack of shared understanding concerning the meaning of the words collaboration and co-production
a culture where risk is discouraged and public servants fear deviating from standard operating procedure; and
the fact that prime movers of collaborative ideas leave when room to manoeuvre closes down.
Leadership thinking as barrier no. 2 is high – but perhaps reflects nature of ICT and risk…
How to enable dynamic efficiency? How to support dispersed leadership? Supporting innovation and collaboration requires…
What is BPS to the wider public sector?
Collaborative forums, facilitators and tools (like and want more) – and policies that support collaboration and systems thinking
Supportive senior managers - managed rather than eliminated risk, governance that supports innovation.
“It would be good to know what other agencies are doing/have done, and who can be contacted to leverage off their learning and IP”
“Visibility into what other groups may be doing under the radar”
“Better central leadership that works on supporting/enabling people and projects, not telling
them what to do”
“Support from my manager to attend seminars, networking and a work programme that gives me “think” time to develop ideas so work not so reactive”
(Middle manager quotes)
Word cloud – comes from middle management responses to Q’s (removed innovation and collaboration to determine related concepts)
