MISSION-DRIVEN GOVERNMENT

Transforming Rule-Driven Organizations

INTRODUCTIONThe third principle is that of mission-driven government. Public organizations are driven by two things, RULES and BUDGETS. They found that entrepreneurial organizations tend to minimize the rules and focus on their MISSION. Once goals and missions are clear, managers are allowed to manage. Entrepreneurial organizations let the managers determine the best way to accomplish their agency’s mission. The traditional line-item budget system incorporates rules that encourage managers to waste money. In the traditional line-item system, money is cut up in to many parts, and it is often difficult to move it from one line-item o another. If every penny in every line item is not spent every fiscal year, it is lost and less money is allocated the following year.

The built-in incentive is to waste money. There is a very simple solution, which, to the best of the knowledge, was invented in Fairfield. California. With the passage of Proposition 13, Fairfield lost a quarter of its revenue overnight. Out of desperation, the city decided to change its budget system: Line item were eliminated and each agency was assigned a budget number. Agencies were allowed to roll over unexpended money from one fiscal year to the next.

This change saved Fairfield millions of dollars. Another very positive outcome was the change in behavior of managers and employees. Empowering the manager and employees to design their own budget enhanced motivation and creativity. Budget soon reflected the mission and needs of the agencies; they were no longer dictated by line-items or by individuals far removed from agency operations.

THE ADVANTAGES OF MISSION-DRIVEN GOVERNMENT OVER RULE-DRIVEN GOVERNMENT

Mission-Driven Government- responsible for transformation of the rule-driven organizations.

-driven by missions than the rules

Rule-Driven Government- this government is driven by rules

1. MISSION-DRIVEN GOVERNMENT ARE MORE EFFICIENT THAN RULE-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS

-it says that the mission-driven government are performing or functioning their work in their best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort

2. MISSION-DRIVEN GOVERNMENT ARE ALSO MORE EFFECTIVE THAN RULE-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS

-they produce better results-as East Harlem’s Sy Fliegel puts it, “Every school that is successful has a mission, has a dream.”

3. MISSION-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS ARE MORE INNOVATIVE THAN RULE-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS

-they are using imaginative or innovative application to breaks in to the society or government in a better output

4. MISSION-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS ARE MORE FLEXIBLE THAN RULE-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS

-having flexible rules is sometimes quite good for an organizations, why? Because they have nothing to worry about consequences for their actions.-they are manageable; even though they have to break their rules, still they are still in their group

5. MISSION-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS HAVE HIGHER MORALE THAN RULE-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONS

-MDGs have more willpower, obedience and self-discipline in performing their work assigned by their superior-the foundation of strong employee morale is communication-leadership must be flexible and innovative to lift morale

ESPRIT DE CORPS The core values Honor, Courage and

Commitment as a living, breathing entity that is not only the fighting spirit but the pride for the unit or institution or organization and the devotion and loyalty to the other members of the organizations that we are serving.

SCRAPING THE BARNACLES OFF THE SHIP OF STATE In order to

create mission-driven governments, the first task is to scrape off the dead weight of accumulated rules, regulations and obsolete activities.

GOAL:- To get back to the one or two layers of protection that we need so that the ship can move again.

METHODS TO SLOUGH OFF THE OBSOLETE:

Sunset Laws- is also commonly referred to as a

sunset provision or sunset clause-a law that terminates or repeals all

or portions of itself after a certain point in time

-examine gov’t regulations or activities to weed out the obsolete

-the commission has the power to propose statutory changes to the legislature and to put constitutional changes on the ballot

REVIEW COMMISSIONS

ZERO-BASED BUDGET

-is an approach to planning and decision-making

-require agencies to justify every element of their budget every year

RULE-DRIVEN ORGANIZATIONTRANSFORMING A RULE-DRIVEN

PERSONNEL SYSTEM

The only thing more destructive than a line item budget system is a personnel system built around civil service. A typical progressive reform, civil service was a well-intended effort to control specific abuses: patronage hiring and political manipulation of public employees.

1. Hiring-in civil service system cannot hire like normal manager but they have to hire most employees from list of those who have taken written civil service exams.

MAJOR PROBLEMS

2. CLASSIFICATION-Civil service jobs are classified on a graded scale, and pay within each classification is determined by longevity ,not performance . In jobs GS-12 or GS-13. telling manager they cannot pay the salaries they want to because the classification doesn’t allow it.

3. Promotion-processing office—manager have to promote from among those already in the proper career track who have score highest on the promotional exam.

4. FIRING-Federal employees cannot be fired until a manager has spent a months or if not a years carefully documenting poor performance and the employee has then exhausted three appeals processes. The process is so time consuming and difficult that few managers ever fire anyone.

BUILDING A MISSION-DRIVEN ORGANIZATION As organizations scrape off the

barnacles of line-item budgeting, civil service, and obsolete rules and programs, their next task is to define their mission and build around it. A ship freed of barnacles is not yet a ship on course to its destination. Public entrepreneurs use a number of basic strategies to build mission-driven organizations.

CREATING A MISSION STATEMENTClarity of mission may be single. Increasingly, public agencies seek that clarity by constructing mission. The role of a mission statement is to focus on the purpose of the organization, to call attention to what is important and to set organizational goals to align practices with values.

CHUNKING AND HIVING Public organizations work best when they have one clear mission. Unfortunately, gov’t tend to loads several different and often conflicting mission on each agency as the years

ORGANIZING BY MISSION RATHER THAN TURF Particular mission –must

simultaneously regulate existing businesses and try to recruit new businesses. Welfare departments that handle the welfare turf of helping the poor often urge people to get jobs with one hand, while stripping those who succeed of their health coverage with other.

CREATING A CULTURE AROUND THE MISSION The mission of an organization on its members, leaders build a culture around it. They articulate their values and model the behavior they want.

CREATING PERMISSION TO FAIL Entrepreneurs are people who fail many times.

Tom peters and Robert waterman told managers to make sure their org. generated a reasonable number of mistakes- because if they weren’t failing occasionally, they weren’t trying hard enough to succeed.

A NEW ACCOUTABILITY SYSTEM Spread of mission- we’ve always done it

this way. Driven budget- desire by some elected

officials to retain control over the pork barrel, through the line-items.

Personnel system- the usual short age of trust between legislature and executive

CREATING A MISSION-DRIVEN BUDGET SYSTEM Government’s rule are aggregated into

systems: budget systems, personnel systems, purchasing systems, accounting systems.

The real payoff comes when governments deregulate these systems, because they create the basic incentives that drive employees.

Budget- is the proper distribution or allocation of money to be spent on each of the product.

-the budget system actually encourages every public manager to waste money.

Budgets control everything an agency does. They are onerous and omnipresent, useless and demeaning. They suck enormous quantities of time away from real work. They trap managers in yesterday’s priorities, which quickly become tomorrow’s waste.

FAIRFIELD’S EXPENDITURE CONTROL BUDGET Expenditure control budget- a

new system that transformed the way managers thought about their money.

The new budget system also proved itself when sales and property tax revenues plummeted during the 1991 recession.

Over the 10 years, perhaps a dozen other cities have adopted the Expenditure Control Budget, including Scotts Valley, Kingsburg and Portville in California; Chandler, Arizona; and Las Vegas, New Mexico, Dade Country, Florida uses similar system, which it calls Operational Budgeting.

ADVANTAGES OF MISSION-DRIVEN BUDGETING 1. Mission-

Driven Budgets give every employee an incentive to save money

2. Mission-Driven budgets free up resources to test new ideas

3. Mission-Driven budgets give managers the autonomy they need to respond to changing circumstances

4. Mission-Driven budgets create a predictable environment

5. Mission-Driven budgets simplify the budget process enormously

6. Mission-Driven budgets save millions of dollars on auditors and budget officer

7. Finally, Mission-Driven budgets free legislatures to focus on the important issues