Jim Chrisinger, PSG Senior Partner
January 2009 Thought Piece
What If?
Start from Scratch,
Include All the Resources,
Build it Better Together
A fiscal storm is howling down the halls of every county building, city hall, and state capitol. We don’t know how bad or how long; we know it’s big.
Governments are freezing spending and hiring, cutting travel and training, declaring across-the-board cuts, conjuring ever more creative accounting, deferring maintenance and other expenses, accelerating revenues, spending down reserves, foregoing pay and COLA increases, and ultimately rolling out furloughs and layoffs. Some may increase taxes.
This is what we expect in a serious fiscal downturn. For some jurisdictions, these techniques may balance the books. They will not make government more effective or efficient.
But what if these moves are not enough? What if the usual tricks can’t close the gap without gutting services and leaving employees limp in the wreckage?
What if, instead of the usual responses, some courageous leaders seize this crisis as opportunity, opportunity to wipe away current assumptions about how we do the people’s business and create 21st Century government?
What if, instead of just cutting budgets we take the money we do have, leverage it with others’ resources, and collaboratively deliver better results for each government dollar?
Begin with the results the people want us to accomplish. How do they want to be better off for what we do?
Next, acknowledge that we have $X to spend, which is substantially less than last year. Admit that there’s only so much we in government can directly accomplish toward those results with the dollars and people we command.
Recognize that government is not the only player out there that cares about the result, say better health outcomes. Many other people and organizations care about better health: non-profits like the American Cancer Society, foundations, other levels of government, employers who want to pay less for health costs, schools that know healthy kids learn better, and every individual who wants to feel better, do more, live longer, and pay less for “sick care.” Even more have an interest in contributing to solutions: recreational sports leagues, unions, service clubs, churches, youth groups, for-profit companies that sell products and services that contribute to better health, and more.
Recognizing all that, what if governments saw their limited budget money not as all the money available, but as initial matching funds or a foundation upon which to build a much larger effort to create value? “Value” is government’s bottom line. Results per dollar equals value.
What if government convened these players and led an exploration of what we could all do together to create more value, in this case better health outcomes for the dollar? Each of these players brings unique talent, knowledge, skills, access, and more to improve health outcomes. And financial resources. Together, this network of players could design and put into motion a web of interconnected strategies and actions to maximize health outcomes.
Think of all the ways a broad array of private, public, and non-profit entities could coordinate and focus efforts to reduce the top five behaviors that undermine health: poor diet, inadequate exercise, smoking, drinking, drug use, and poor parenting.
It’s no longer about government budgets. It’s about network building and orchestration in pursuit of public value.
Not that many of these players don’t already communicate with each  other and coordinate some activities. But what if they took collaboration to the next level? What if they saw themselves as co-producers?
Networked government and co-production acknowledge that the 20th Century’s bureaucratic paradigm of government – with its organizational silos, hierarchical structure, walled-off budgets, and one-size-fits-all rules – is finally beyond incremental salvation. It can no longer meet our needs. It’s no port in this storm.
The gleam through today’s dark clouds is not more government or less government. As President Obama says, it’s government that works. The answer is government that focuses on what it can do best, including marshalling others to do what they do best. Who’s really good at what? Who has the best leverage? Who can bring what resources to the table?
Government is uniquely positioned to play the “steering” role in 21st Century governance. Authorized by voters, elected officials need to steer, to determine overall direction: what results government should seek – often with direct input from the people – and then convene the all the best “rowers” available. There are many excellent ways to propel the ship.
How we weather this storm – how well we turn this crisis into opportunity – may well define our generation in public service.
What if indeed.
|
