The relationship between design and the public good is studied through two very different lenses. Learn what they are and how they can help or hinder you in Design for Public Sector Leaders on October 10 at the Melbourne offices of CPA Australia.
Rather than processes, it may be the clashing of values that has reduced our tolerance for engaging alternative perspectives. Social capital, the once-lauded holy grail of community, is crumbling and being replaced by suspicion, hubris and barefaced lies. Cross-sectoral leadership is the art of reaching across this tribalism to engage competing values and ‘learn’ our way to solutions.
The digital future of support functions will be exciting. As traditional, time-intensive tasks like forecasting, reporting, and distributing information get handled through smart digital tools, people can focus on asking the right questions, running and interpreting analyses, drawing conclusions, managing trade-offs, and generating insights that help business units create new value. Capitalising on this potential, however, requires putting the right organisational structure in place.
"Early intervention is a bit of a nirvana," says Amy Auster, deputy secretary economic at the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance. Hard, but the Victorian government is still trying. It has contracted for two social impact bonds — service partnerships delivered by external providers and funded by investors, where government will pay a profit if the provider is able to achieve certain agreed targets.
Governments don’t govern alone. The shared responsibilities of public sector governance fall broadly into two categories – performance and conformance – and a lot of them land on public servants. Discharging these solemn duties can be a challenge when time is of the essence and process becomes a dirty word. Public service leaders should expect […]
Business leaders mainly have themselves to blame if they feel governments don’t understand their perspectives or listen to their concerns, according to a group of high profile Australians and New Zealanders who generally need no introductions in the corridors of power. Are their problems in the relationship between governments and the private sector? […]
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' Chief Methodologist Dr Siu-Ming Tam steps down at the end of the week. He spoke to The Mandarin about dodgy statistics, the history of the ABS and the importance of fishing.
Benjamin Teed is a senior policy analyst in Canada’s Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Here, he delves into the techniques for coming up with an A-grade mission statement that creates a repeatable, scalable process which lets public servants bring out the best, most visionary parts of our leaders, our stakeholders, and oneself. What’s your […]
As Australia and the First peoples contemplate treaty and constitutional recognition, there must an acceptance that there are two major players in this, the First Peoples and the Australian electorate. A facilitated dialogue, like a mini-public may have the best likelihood of people and ideas coming together in the search for the best outcome.
Victoria’s Special Minister of State and the Victorian Branch Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union jointly announced the Jobs and Skills Exchange (JSE) in July 2019. The origin and future direction of the VPS JSE are not as straightforward as would seem.
Annette Michaux and Nat Kendall-Taylor outline the five major strategies for moving forward on child protection that resulted from a major national research project involving more than 7600 Australians. They say that how safe our children are from abuse and neglect and whether we support them to develop in a healthy way is an important measure of how healthy our communities are.
Amid the ongoing search for the holy grail of “local” service-delivery design, one of the very few certainties is the APS is nowhere near ready to deploy digital regulation to social services. When it comes to people, good policy outcomes do not equate to the best relationship outcomes.
Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter has released a draft package of religious freedom bills, including the much-anticipated Religious Discrimination Bill. These bills respond to earlier inquiries into the protection of religious freedom under Australian law. They implement some of the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Religious Freedom (known as the Ruddock review).
THE BIG INTERVIEW by Martin Stewart-Weeks: An in-depth Q&A with a key player in the Australian public sector or political space. The series starts with the Sarah Pearson toolkit for influence and getting stuff done.
In a world where governing is becoming increasingly difficult and the pressures on public servants are rising, how can leaders navigate transformation and disruption? Being skilled at communicating with all types of staff and communities and understanding their values and needs can help define progressive outcomes.
