The public service is not fit for purpose

Chaos is the natural outcome for organisations that can't respond to the demands asked of them, writes Bill Hobbs

To convince the bond markets that the state is trustworthy to lend money to, this Government is being forced to brutally eliminate jobs in a way that will undermine the quality of public services for years to come.

It’s an evitable consequence of a political system that failed to lead the transformation of a public service. Designed for an Ireland that no longer exists, the public service hasn’t been fit for purpose for some time.

Dominated and controlled by influential groups, it’s a system hardwired not to change. It’s led by people who look in the mirror to take credit when things go well and look out the window to apportion blame elsewhere when things go wrong.

When such organisational systems, designed around the principles of collective unaccountability and non-responsibility, are faced with a crisis they spiral into dysfunctional chaos.

In any organisation there are people who are skilled at making it do what it’s supposed to do despite the best efforts of others. Rob an organisation of these people and it will quickly disintegrate into chaos as staff and managers struggle to keep its processes working. They gum up, become stuck as knowledge and experience gaps appear.

Front line staff, the people who span the boundary between the system and the people it is supposed to serve, are no longer able to drag value from it. Within health service systems as patient care deteriorates despite the best efforts of staff, people may die. Yet Health Minister Mary Harney maintains that front line services will not be affected through cost reductions which will see five thousand support staff forced to leave within a matter of weeks.

Real leadership requires leaders to communicate honestly and openly on the consequences of their decisions. Such ruthless job elimination violates two fundamental motivating precepts: a need for job security and justice.

Had politicians delivered on public service transformation in the recent past, there would be no need for the brutality of what is now being done. It’s being done not because of a political determination to transform but to convince the bond markets that the state is trustworthy to invest in.

Reforming public sector organisations requires strong political leadership, a disciplined management focus on what matters, engaging people in defining change and challenging thinking about how to do what really matters, better.

In his book “From Good to Great”, Jim Collins identifies a pre-requisite of great service providers as having the right leader and the right people on board. He says the first step is to get the right people on the bus, get the wrong ones off and make sure the right people are in the right seats and let them figure out how to drive the bus to where it should be going.

Our Government and public services are stuffed full of the wrong people who are expert at doing the wrong things far too well.

Not one of the current cabinet has worked in a meaningful business leadership position demanding accountable decision making and none have the slightest experience of the dysfunctional organisational effects of the wholesale job eliminations they are about to unleash. Nor will they be held accountable as they’ll be gone when vital public services start collapsing.

Our senior public servants succeed because they are skilled at not rocking the boat within a system that fast tracks those who display the skilled incompetence of their bosses.

Mediocrity, deficit thinking, management by the numbers, emphasis on a command and control hierarchy, blind deference to authority and little understanding of the fundamental difference between management and leadership, with a management class system based on status, rank and service, all combine to protect the system.

Public sector unions act to preserve a status quo in which work gets done at the pace of the slowest performer.

Hard workers seeing that their dedication and commitment to being of service is of little extrinsic value, internalise their perceptions and work less hard.

Such systems are rife with influential informal networks, cliques who act to subvert change. Myopic and self-serving they turn inside out - the citizen serves the system rather than the system serving the citizen.

Public service transformation will require elected politicians who do not fear failure and who will deal with brutal facts with transparent honesty, having a passionate commitment and determination to overcome obstacles.

The challenge for any new Government is to ensure the right leaders are in place, the right people are on the bus in the right seats and the wrong ones are told to get off. But how many election candidates have the experience, and ability to lead the fundamental reform required?

A critical first step will be for voters to identify and elect only those who they believe should have a seat on the bus.

A version of this article appeared in the Irish Examiner, Business Section, Monday 8th November 2011