Public Sector Futures in The Connected Republic IV

Some more in the series of posts on public sector 'futures' in the lead up to the Global Public Services Summit in Stockholm next month...this post focuses on values and attributes that we might expect to see in the new public sector...

Another way of thinking about the future of the public sector is to reflect on the kinds of values and instincts that we expect to see manifest in the way the public sector works and in the way public servants behave.

Here are some of the traditional values which we’ve come to assume are characteristic of the public sector:

• Rigorous analysis
• A capacity to weigh ideas and options with independence and disinterest
• Speak truth to power
• Give effect to a lively and pragmatic conception of the public good
• Progress based on merit and skills (adhering to the concept of “contribution, not status”)
• Independence
• Fair and balanced
• Faithfully serving the government of the day
• A commitment to public service and public outcomes (public service as a vocation?)
• Efficient systems and predictable process
• Transparent and accountable

But if you scan more recent discussions about government’s changing role and purpose, a new set of demanding ideas emerge, not necessarily at odds with those traditional values but certainly adding some interesting new challenges:

• Orchestrating, facilitating, negotiating – networks, partnerships, collaboration, integration (both within government and between government and external organisations)
• Investing in innovation...exploration and experimentation (“the power of random connections and the opportunity to combine ideas and knowledge from unrelated and distant areas is fundamental to the process of innovation” Honest Brokers: Brokering Innovation in Public Services, Matthew Horne, The Innovation Unit, UK, 2008)
• Risk taking, tolerance for ambiguity, accepting failure
• Adopting a design ethic, especially including service user experience
• Responsive to ‘customers’, respectful of ‘citizens’ – better service, increasing engagement
• Results and performance…execution matters as much as policy
• Agile and responsive
• Systems thinking, not linear processes

The essence of the change between the two lists seems to be (a) a move from a predictable world of known processes and systems to a world of discontinuous, and therefore unpredictable change and (b) a growing realisation that public value is a function of collaboration between lots of different and diverse interests. 

An important part of the conversation about public sector ‘futures’ has to engage the debate about the values we want, or expect, in a public sector that is capable of doing the job.  Does this list make sense?  What’s missing?  Are there contradictions or confusion about what some of these ideas might mean, or look like, in practice?