Government Efficiency: It Doesn't have to be an Oxymoron
- March 1st, 2009
- Posted in Systems Thinking and Government . Uncategorized
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This blog title is truly bi-partisan. I am not posting for or against any political view, but to agree that services could actually be distributed for the greater cause. I have worked in state and federal governments as a contractor and an employee. There is no shortage of waste in the provisioning and outsourcing of government services.
Government management in agencies that I have worked with were consumed with the following types of issues:
- How much money could the agency get.
- How much did it spend.
- How the agency could get more funding.
- How does the agency avoid (unwanted) attention.
Unfortunately, at the government management level there was limited discussion of how well the services were being provisioned, unless the agency received “unwanted” attention (bullet #4). When there was unwanted attention there was usually some knee-jerk reaction to fix the issue, or a previous administration, vendor or person to blame. Sometimes the media or interest group with an issue got the facts wrong and those were easy to defend. Rarely was the conversation about how well a service was executed.
The four bullet points above became the de facto purpose of the agency. To be good stewards of the taxpayers money the purpose should have been related to how well the services were provided. As in the private sector, the public sector believes that the provisioning of services is a zero-sum game, where costs increase as service improves. The management paradox here is that costs actually go down as service improves.
I have seen a movement in recent years to manage the costs like a business. The focus on the management of costs will always increase them. I am not saying we shouldn’t know the financial score . . . we should. What I am saying is that the total costs go down as service improves. A systems thinking service organization (private or public sector)understands these differences.
To find out more on systems thinking go www.newsystemsthinking.com.
goodness gracious. This is justification of “the operation was a success, but the patient died.” What we need is a government that dleivers what is needed by the people. By design, the people need very little from government. People are already self organizing and understand how kindness and helping each other furthers the goals of society and culture. All government need do is standardize a those ideals not create and distribute their own rendition and versions and pat each other on the back for “good delivery” of unwanted unvalued and unneeded programs.
Dan, inevitably this brings up a political overtone for some. The reality is our government provisions services at great waste. I don’t see that going away unless there is a political revolution, which you may favor. Someone will be providing many of these services, regardless of the who. While the revolution wages, which is likely as change comes slow we can continue to find ways to provision these services. I don’t think the change you seek will happen in my lifetime.