Strategic government requires a strategic centre: and a note on
program reviewL21 Public Sector Conference
13 May, 2010
Associate Professor Joanne KellyDirector, ANZSOG (NSW)
University of Sydney
Strategic government requires
a strategic centre
1. At present, the centre is not strategic
2. In response, the centre is reverting to deliberative control-based approaches to strategy making; this approach will not succeed.
3. A strategic centre must
A) Perform the role of facilitator, co-ordinator and network manager across and within these domains.
B) operate within three distinct (often competing) strategic domains of political, policy and operational; and
C) recognise differences in logic, mandate, span & capacity within each domain
D) ensure domain are internally robust to ensure capacity and balance between domains (program review is one such tool).
Not a strategic centre….
At present, the centre is a loose conglomeration of agencies; most
suffering institutional identity crisis; mistaking power & muscle for strategy; highly competitive; often cause more
harm than good; undermine line agencies.
Common structures, evolved historically
Table 1: Central Agencies in New Zealand and Australia (at April 2009)
Jurisdictions Central Agencies
New Zealand Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet
State Services Commission
The Treasury
Commonwealth of Australia
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Australian Public Service Commission
Department of Finance & Deregulation
The Treasury
New South Wales Department of Premier & Cabinet
The Treasury
Victoria Department of Premier and Cabinet
State Services Authority
Department of Treasury & Finance
Western Australia Department of the Premier & Cabinet
Public Sector Commission
Department of Treasury and Finance
Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet
Public Service Commission
Queensland Treasury
South Australia Department of the Premier and Cabinet
Department of Treasury and Finance
Tasmania Department of Premier & Cabinet
Office of the State Service
Commissioner
Department of Treasury and Finance
Northern Territory Department of the Chief Minister
Office of the Commissioner for Public
Sector Employment
Northern Territory Treasury
Australian Capital Territory
Chief Minister’s Department Department of Treasury
Built to perform 5 key functions; clustered differently
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Composition of "the centre": Australia and New Zealand (FTE at June 2008)
Treasury &Finance
PSC /SSC
DPC/DPMC
Variation in relative size & composition of centre
Historically derived conglomeration of agencies that perform five functions
of varying importance
What are the three key strategic challenges facing your organisation
over the next 5 years?
Strategic challenges facing your organisation?
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Neither a strategic centre...
Suffering an identity crisis ….unsure of mandate or operational or political capacity
a collection of loose affiliates rather than a cohesive whole with a unifying purpose and set of organising principles
result is vagueness, tension and conflict around roles, responsibilities and organisational boundaries.
rather than pulling together in pursuit of a common set of objectives, too much energy is spent on power games, managing personalities and sheer duplication of effort.
Nor a ‘strategic’ vision? .
Political
Policy
Operational
The notion of a strategic centre is appealing….
It suggests an ethos that is selective, creative, responsive, future-directed, and provides the basis for “whole-of-government” direction and
policy making...
...and governments are trying to move in this direction
“….one of the biggest challenges for the three central agencies in this place is the fact that we have lost the sense of what
our responsibilities are”.
“we can issue guidelines and we can do tool kits but we’re only ever going to change
behaviour …if we come up with a different form of relationship between our agencies
and the central agency.
The really challenging thing within government is to work to forward plan… to
predict as far in advance as possible the demands on government and then to adjust one’s priorities and activities to
meet those changing expectations.
But the centre should not formulate
“the strategy” because...
Three preconditions for deliberative strategy
1. neutral internal political environment;
2. a knowable and stable external environment; and
3. highly centralised and uncontested power structure, typically a single person running a simple organisational unit.
Strategy is viewed as an ongoing process of constant learning experimentation and risk taking. It is an adaptive incremental and complex learning process in which the ends and means are combined and often specified simultaneously
And government operates And government operates across different strategic across different strategic
domainsdomains
Central paradox is that…
....centre agencies must operate simultaneously across different strategic domains but cannot
become maker of the strategy or adopt a top down deliberate
approach...
What to do? 1. A strategic centre must organise itself to operate in three
strategic domains: political, policy and operational
Defining role & mandate of the strategic centre
The three strategic domains reflect the functional groupings that already exist within the centre, albeit across different organisational structures.
Therefore existing structures provide the basis for moving toward a ‘strategic centre’ through evolutionary reform & adaptation within the specifics of different jurisdictions.
Organisational entity
Functional Specialisation
Primary Strategic Domain
Political Domain Department of Premier and Cabinet
Policy Domain
Departments of Treasury & Finance
Public/State Services Commissions
Operational Domain
Specialist Policy Analysis (DPC)
Managing interface between
political & bureaucracy
Human Resources
Budget Office
Economic Analysis of
Policy
Aligning organisational form and strategic function
What to do? 1. A strategic centre must organise itself to operate in three
strategic domains: political, policy and operational
2. Domains have different logics/actors, timeframes... so must be sufficiently robust to ensure internal capacity and balance between domains.
Current emphasis?
Political
Policy
Operational
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Composition of "the centre": Australia and New Zealand (FTE at June 2008)
Treasury &Finance
PSC /SSC
DPC/DPMC
Current emphasis?
What to do? 1. A strategic centre must organise itself to operate in three
strategic domains: political, policy and operational
2. Domains have different logics/actors, timeframes... so must be sufficiently robust to ensure internal capacity and balance between domains.
3. Develop new instruments & tools; skills; and employ different staff
a) The role of the centre is less about analysis & control; b) more about facilitation, co-ordination & synthesis; c) relationship & network management skills increasingly important.
Traditional tools of central agency coordination
Political domain: cabinet process v ad hoc intervention;
Operational domain: budget process (finance); direct delivery v regulatory (HR)
Policy domain: either professional expertise (Economics); personal patronage/power; hand of
www.anzsog.edu.au31
Hollowing out’ refers… to the way the state has been eaten away and fragmented by the
consolidation of market-style policies initiated in the 1980s: privatisation, the contracting out of
services and the setting up of qangos and quasi-
markets.
Network management
www.anzsog.edu.au33
Dimensions of network management Elements of each dimension
Game Management: managing interactions within the existing network
Network activation
Network arranging
Brokerage: someone in the network has to bring together participants, problems and solutions. Requires political entrepreneurship.
Mediation, arbitration and facilitation
Network Restructuring: building and changing the institutional arrangements of a network
network analysis:o understand existing network structures within the
policy area/domain and how they shape the capacity to deliver programs; and or the paradigms within which policy solutions are developed and understood.
network re-organisation: the changing resources, relations and rules that govern the network
network reshaping: changing culture, perceptions & behaviour of participants (influencing; narrative)
Program Review is part of the answer
Re-defines “policy” work away from “new policy” development to include questions of policy implementation, evaluation & adaptation;
Provides a mechanism to link the three strategic domains of government: Issues and priorities defined in the political domain; Is the current policy setting right? Are they achieving
their desired ends? Who is/should be responsible? Are delivery agents sufficiently resourced to perform
these mandate – money, people, technology...
Real answer... put a moratorium on all “new policy” for the next five years…
Conclusions
Strategic government requires a strategic centre
At present, the centre is not strategic
….trying to tame the ‘strategy’ problem by adopting deliberative models of strategy making (tactical & ad hoc interventions; imposing strategic plans etc). Basically a return to command and control….
But the complexity of government – organisationally & in policy terms – means this approach will not succeed
What to do? 1. A strategic centre must organise itself to operate in three
strategic domains: political, policy and operational
2. Domains have different logics/actors, timeframes... so must be sufficiently robust to ensure internal capacity and balance between domains.
3. Develop new instruments & tools; skills; and employ different staff
a) The role of the centre is less about analysis & control; b) more about facilitation, co-ordination & synthesis; c) relationship & network management skills increasingly important.
4. Program review is a co-ordinating mechanism that enables the centre to operate strategically rather than incrementally, and to link the three strategic domains.
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