The Trap Within Public Service Change-making
Leaders in public service walk a tight line that often leads them away from where they want to go
I feel for many of my clients who work in the public service. They are close to the action and understand the problems their organization faces and their people. They care passionately about what they do and how well they perform, yet many are left unable to do what needs to be done.
One of the neglected aspects of public service is the stress that comes when you have precarious control over the quality and output of the work you do. The recent COVID-19 pandemic presented a great example of this. When speaking to public health and healthcare leaders, one of their most consistent challenges was changing directives from the Ministry of Health. Often, these directives changed so quickly that they heard the changes from the public they were serving or the news rather than from their organization.
The implications of this are many. Sometimes the public gets frustrated because they think public servants are mistaken or incompetent. Public servants also begin to lose trust in their colleagues or the systems they are a part of. This is compounded when the decisions made are not based on the same principles, values, or data they use.
Politicians are responsive to the entire community and weigh the benefits and risks of decisions differently than most public servants with tasks with a specific role or function. This means the calculus that goes into decisions differs from what many of my clients use. That’s not always a bad thing, but it is certainly problematic from the perspective of service organizations.
Traps of Performance
The trap many leaders find themselves in is directing an organization with a long-term mission while being governed by those with a short-term focus. Politicians look at the issues today, not what things will look like in 20 years. Great leaders attend to their organization's present and future, knowing that some decisions won’t look as good today as they will tomorrow.
That’s what leadership is.
However, performing well is hard when you cannot grow, transform, or augment your organization efficiently. Strangely, the ability to plan is rarely curtailed, although the ability to plan well certainly is.
I’ve been asked to support projects that involve strategic planning, where I’ve had to say that the planning was pointless. In times of turbulence, like the one we faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, it made more sense to plan for the near term, learn, adapt, and plan again. These rapid iterations allow the organization to learn and wisely change where necessary. A static plan might look suitable for governance, but it means either being weak in your vision or committing to something that will likely be impossible to achieve.
Once again, the leaders of these public service organizations will be held to account for the ineffective plans and their outcomes, not the politicians who demand it. It’s a trap because we don’t want politicians running the show. Still, we want the external perspective to look at the big picture to help public service organizations serve the entire public.
My role is often finding ways to protect, enhance, and support the work of leaders in ways that fit the context but also allow them to be effective on things that matter. Organizational cultural issues are one of these areas. (Most politicians don’t pay attention to or care about this).
This is my salute to all of those public sector leaders who struggle to do their best for their teams and the mission they seek to fulfill in light of all they face to counter their best innovation efforts. This trap is the dilemma that these innovators face.
Image credits: Nick Fewings on Unsplash