Building on the entrepreneurial spirit of such landmark works as Reinventing Government, (1993) by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler (who is now city manager of Rancho Cordova), Built to Last, (1994) by James C. Collins and Jerry I, Porras, the 2004 book Governing by Network, (reviewed in our current member newsletter) by Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers proposes vision, mission, and innovation as the foundation of effective management of public organizations.
In this article Mr. Goldsmith talks about his book and how crisis breeds innovation.
An excerpt.
Management Insights
A weekly columnpublished in collaboration withthe Government Innovators Network
at Harvard’s Kennedy Schoolof Government
Posted October 11, 2006
Crisis Breeds Innovation
By Stephen Goldsmith
If crisis breeds innovation, then we are surely on our way to a large set of new initiatives.
Officials at all levels of government experience the incessant demand for services that exceed the revenues available to support them. And today’s “pressures” will become full blown crises over the next 25 years as an aging population produces demands that far outstrip resources. Health care and pension costs, combined with national security requirements, will overwhelm government’s funding ability — if government continues to perform as it does today.
I remember a comment that now-Governor Ed Rendell made when asked how he had the courage to accomplish so much in Philadelphia in his first term as mayor. He responded that Philly was on fire and the conditions of the time drove citizen demand for innovation; as he said, “The fire department had to be called.” Similarly, the prospectively difficult circumstances outlined above will provide the context for bold government innovation.
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Harvard’s Innovations in American Government Awards. Since 1986, the Kennedy School of Government has awarded more than $20 million to innovative government programs, recognizing and promoting excellence and creativity in the public sector. (Click here for more information on the IAG Awards.)
Already we are seeing a shift in the types of programs that win the seven $100,000 prizes we bestow each year on programs that meet a significant need and are truly creative, measurably effective and transferable to other jurisdictions. Current winners represent a shift from an older model in which enlightened officials tried to wring more production out of government
bureaucracies to a newer model that looks at how government can manage partners to produce public goods. Twenty years ago, officials primarily promoted internal increases in productivity accomplished through government bureaucracies, a model similar to the way U.S. automakers produced cars. Today we see government officials creatively managing relationships, similar to the just-in-time supply chain process more commonly seen in manufacturing now.
In fact, in the United States, local, state and federal governments all deliver ever-increasing high-quality government services through third-party providers — nonprofits, private-sector, and faith-based and other community organizations. In our most recent book, Governing by Network, Bill Eggers and I write about this shift from traditional, command-control, hierarchical government bureaucracy to government by and through partnerships. Fundamentally, government simply cannot successfully discharge all of its current and future responsibilities by itself. For government to move forward, private and not-for-profit providers need to contribute public value by providing solutions.
