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“. . . an astonishing amount of the laws created today are not made by elected, and therefore recallable, representatives, but by unelected bureaucrats and judges.”

– Governor Mitch Daniels

In Keeping the Republic, Governor Mitch Daniels laments how unelected officials (bureaucrats) make policy and law.  I was once a bureaucrat and so was Governor Daniels – lest he forget his time at the OMB.  However, Governor Daniels has a view of a right way and a wrong way to be a bureaucrat . . . and so do I.

Much of Governor Daniel’s view has to do with having a favorable cost-benefit ratio and making sure a law didn’t already exist.  This seems reasonable, especially considering Governor Daniels staunch fiscal discipline that he has embraced as Governor of Indiana.

For me, the issue is the same I have written about in posts many times before.  The question becomes, “by what method?”  Setting our cites on costs alone – always increases costs.  The method to improve government requires method.

I have long been an advocate of the virtues of the 95 Method.  Getting knowledge is always the best first step to improving service organizations.  The problem is that it is a rarity to find executives or elected officials willing to get in the work to get knowledge.  Instead, they rely on reports, anecdotes and others to do this for them.  Bureaucrats are in a position to be in the work and make decisions based on knowledge.

This doesn’t mean elected officials should abdicate the responsibility, but the reality is they do.  Elected officials are too busy embracing political ideology, and creating new laws to be bothered with facts.  As a bureaucrat, I remember being more hand-cuffed by dumb laws than wanting to create new ones.  Plenty of opportunities to do what makes sense than to pass a law.

Bureaucrats need good systems to work in too.  What I have seen in government is the influence of ideology over evidence that dictates the design.  Each new government has a different ideology and the learning is skipped in favor of ideology.  Misguided laws and ideology make government systems run poorly.  Blindly running down the privatization path is as faulty as embracing government to do things.  Better design of government is in order, but that is not what we get.

Bureaucrats are stuck in systems that are poorly design.  Not by choice, but by laws and ideology that rule thinking.  Government management and workers have been marginalized.  If we are to fix government, we need everybody engaged and the bureaucrats are in the best position to see the problems and identify ways to fix them and help fix the systems they work in.

Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public).  His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work.  Read his articles at Quality Digest and his column for CustomermanagementIQ.com.  Learn more about the 95 Method for service organizations.  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbittor LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.

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There was an election recently in Indianapolis between incumbent Mayor Greg Ballard (R) and challenger Melina Kennedy.  A reporter for the Indianapolis Star (and the Star) put their endorsement behind the challenger because she had better vision . . . and we aren’t talking about eyesight.

I consider myself an independent, so there things I like and don’t like about Republicans and Democrats.  However, I found the whole “vision thing” to be pathetic.  I’ve seen it in business too.

Too many executives with “vision” running companies into the ground.  They need to understand the business first and not just bullet points and anecdotes.  They need to understand what it takes to do the job and interact with constituents or customers that use the service.  Visionaries often gloss over the “understand the business first” piece.

Mayor Ballard won despite the endorsement of the Star falling to his challenger.  Why? Because he and his staff did the things that matter to the voters.  Do the fundamentals well and reelection will follow.  The “vision thing” can wait for the basics to be mastered and knowledge to be gained.  If you aren’t doing the things that matter to customers and constituents than you aren’t going to win an election or make profit.

Vision and political ideology in government seemingly go hand-in-hand.  More government, less government, privatization . . . how about “what works”  for a change.  This requires knowledge, not plans or policy.  This is completely counter to the “big picture” people we too often see in government.

Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public).  His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work.  Read his articles at Quality Digest and his column for CustomermanagementIQ.com.  Learn more about the 95 Method for service organizations.  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbittor LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.

I recently read an article from Governing, Human Services by the Batch.  I felt a familiar pain associated with the “answer” for social services – process management, modernization, automation – the Greek trilogy and tragedy.

I posted a comment at Governing that explains why process or task management is NOT the way of the future.  I had to go back and adjust my answer (over the character limit) so the comment below is longer:

I am a former CIO of FSSA in Indiana. The “process management” system that is proposed here is similar to the IBM (and partners)-led modernization failure in Indiana.  This was a billion dollar contract that the Governor was forced to cancel.  In essence, “process management” is doing the wrong thing, righter – or possibly wronger.

Here is why – we have a fundamental thinking problem in government about the design and management of work.  The design of “process management” deals with three traditional questions, How much work do I have? How much time will it take?  How many people do I need?  These are the WRONG questions to start with to improve services.

All demand is not work to be done – some of the demand we receive is in the form of failure demand (demand caused by a failure to do something or do something right for a constituent).  Eliminating the amount of failure demand which I have seen as high as 90% in social services offers us a huge opportunity to reduce the demand coming in.  A leverage point for better designed social services.

Secondly, the flow of the work is interrupted by designing the work into teams and things wind up taking longer when functionally separated – a counter-intuitive truth.  Separated work even with a team will create more failure demand and less flow.  Better ?s are how many demands are done one-stop?  What matters to the constituent?  How long does it take end-to-end from application to benefit sought?

Improving the design of the work requires different thinking about how we manage work.  Unfortunately, I didn’t discover this thinking until after the IBM fiasco in Indiana.  However, you can learn from mistakes others have made.

A better method is to first understand the “what and why” of current performance.  When variety of demands is high – like in social services – IT systems and standardized process can’t absorb the variety resulting in failure demand (or more work to be done).  Redesign the flow of the work by eliminating failure demand and making the work one-stop.  Then automate with IT when a design that works (good flow) is found.

The problem we had in Indiana was that political ideology ruled the day – this at the expense of evidence and knowledge.  Case workers replaced by process and task management.  The system that the case workers worked in was flawed, but the flaw was from poor thinking from management . . . not bad workers.

With 49.1 million Americans living in poverty, we need better services that reach those in need.  Better social services needs to be a government management issue regarding how we think about the design and management of work.

Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public).  His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work.  Read his articles at Quality Digest and his column for CustomermanagementIQ.com.  Learn more about the 95 Method for service organizations.  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbittor LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.