Leading Public-Sector Change FAQs
Q: Why is public-sector change so important
today?
Q: What is the main activity or purpose of your group?
Q: Who tends to call you, collaborate
with you, commission you?
Q: How does the Public Governance Institute
help people in and around government lead change?
Q: How does that differ from conventional
consulting?
Q: How would Public Governance Institute go about helping a
public-sector group?
Q: Where does the Public Governance Institute
fit into the change process? In other words, after the "education,"
what do you do?
Q: Can you give a sample or "preview"
of your method?
Q: Who devised that framework, and how
tested is it?
Q: Who is the founder and driving force
of Public Governance Institute?
Q: Who do I contact about your seminars,
and where can I go for some detail about how they function?
Question: Why is public-sector change
so important today?
Contrast 2006 with 10 or 15 years ago. From Indonesia to Morocco
to the United States, government “matters” again.
Electorates have rising expectations -- for competence as well
as promptness -- when it comes to dealing with terrorism, navigating
natural disasters, and a few other core needs. Bottom line:
Any governmental leader who thinks that good intentions and
empathy are enough is in for an unpleasant surprise.
Question: What is the main activity
or purpose of your group?
The Public Governance Institute fuses the
"what to do" of the national policy-maker with the
"how to implement it" duties of leaders and managers.
We are an educational operation trying to increase the capacity
of policy-makers and public administrators to lead change effectively.
Question: Who tends to call you, collaborate
with you, commission you?
Members of Congress who (individually and in groups) need
strategic planning conferences organized. Parliamentarians from
beyond North America who are studying any aspect of U.S. governance.
Advocacy groups (e.g., the Healthy Florida Foundation) who desire
changes in public policy but are not a formal part of the legislative
process.
Question: How does
the Public Governance Institute help people in and around government
lead change?
Consider change-management in the private sector. Twenty-five
years ago, larger businesses were content to let “unconsciously
competent” leaders manage big agendas by intuition. Today
companies expect their executives to be “consciously competent”
leaders of change. The Public Governance Institute is translating
the related private-sector knowledge -- in other words, what
businesspeople learned in progressing from a reliance on intuition
to a systematic and therefore “conscious” competence
-- for a public-sector audience.
Question: How does
that differ from conventional consulting?
(1) We prefer not to tell any group or organization what it
should change. We serve to increase public-sector effectiveness
by teaching policy-makers and program managers how to successfully
implement change. Our emphasis is mostly on the How, not so
much on the What. And (2), our whole approach has its roots,
and validation, in the private sector.
Question: How would
Public Governance Institute go about helping a public-sector
group?
By delivering educational programs that increase the capacity
of leaders and public administrators. The program starts by
focusing on the nature and process of change. Following this
“capacity-building” activity, a public leader or
group is better equipped to design and lead whatever he or she
believes are the imperative changes in public policy.
Question: Where does the Public
Governance Institute fit into the change process? In other,
after the “education,” what do you do?
(1) Once capacity-building training has been completed, the
Public Governance Institute helps a public-sector group identify
a range of options and helps it plan. Tailored to the group’s
critical changes, the plan would avoid easy, “quick fix”
answers in favor of effective, long-term change. (2) During
the execution or implementation phase of a complex change project,
the Institute supports a group by providing more detailed and
relevant training in order to address specific challenges that
typically arise.
Question: Can you give a sample or
“preview” of your method?
A key part requires getting clear about the four change
roles: SPONSOR
means the person or group that needs no permission to define
and commence the change. AGENTS
implement the change. TARGETS
are those who must actually change. On the way there, their
objections must be surfaced, as they come to understand the
changes they are expected to accommodate; they must also be
part of the implementation.
Which leaves the biggest deck of wild cards in any reform agenda:
ADVOCATES and
ADVOCACY GROUPS.
By our lights, an “advocate” is the individual or
group that wants to achieve change but lacks the power to implement
it or to change the needed policy. In the public sector, they
are far more influential -- as a class of personalities and
forces -- than their counterparts are inside private-sector
organizations.
In governance, all those role-definitions shift. Knowing who’s
playing what role, and where and when, is vital to executing
your policy goals.
Question: Who devised
that framework, and how tested is it?
Our advisory board includes Daryl R. Conner, authored of Managing
at the Speed of Change (Villard Books, 1992), Leading
at the Edge of Chaos (John Wiley & Sons, 1998), and
more than 100 publications, including journal and magazine articles,
monographs, book chapters, and videos. For three decades, Conner
has worked with Fortune 500 companies, government agencies,
and nonprofit institutions. PGI values his work because it’s
built on diligent research, extensive consulting experience,
and a master's degree in psychology.
Question: Who is the
founder and driving force of Public Governance Institute?
The founder and president is Jerome F. Climer, who has 40
years experience in public administration, public policy and
issue development. In 1987, he spurred creation of the Congressional
Institute, which works directly with Members of Congress and
the public to enhance how the national legislature addresses
complex policy questions. He regularly briefs international
legislators and public-policy researchers on consensus-building
and the operations of legislative bodies. With the Atlanta-based
Conner, Climer is co-authoring Leading Public-Sector Change.
Question: Who do
I contact about your seminars, and where can I go for some detail
about how they function?
E-mail: seminars@publicgov.org
Phone: (703) 837-0800
Fax: (703) 837-8588
Address: Public Governance Institute
401 Wythe Street, Suite 2-A
Alexandria, VA 22314
|
