Benjamin Taylor, Public Sector Show 2017: the future of commissioning and public service...

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The future of commissioning and public service transformationPublic service transformation academy

http://www.publicservicetransformation.org/


Introducing myself

www.linkedin.com/in/antlerboy@antlerboy

Please connect!

Please note I’m independent of Government and speaking on a personal basis.



Purpose – goals

To make the world a better place, we help people to transform the way their services, organisations, and leadership are experienced We:• help the public sector transform itself to be a beacon of excellence• work on ourselves to change consultancy forever• help people to save money and improve their business

by giving them the skills to work on the business for themselvesBig, hairy, audacious goals:

Consultancy how it should be done

Transform the public sector• People able to make better choices about the

public services that help them to achieve their goals in life

• Public service a cross-industry exemplar –provide the benchmark (our public sector clients are featured as Harvard Business Review case studies for all sectors to learn from)

Transform consulting• No more complicated than it needs to be• Network consulting• Authenticity, value-adding, humanistic,

non-manipulative• Focused on positive experience of

services, organisations, and leadership

To change consulting To change public service delivery



Most things out there are bullshit

• Most systems leadership is bullshit• Most commissioning is bullshit• Most transformation is bullshit• Most performance frameworks…• Most excellence models…

But not everything…



Five principles for the future of commissioning and transformation

1. Citizen world: listen to and deal with demand – but don’t stop there! Your job is to do yourself out of a job

2. Service world: focus less on how limited funds can provide services, and more on how the resources you have and can influence and achieve real outcomes

3. Management world: think ‘freedom within frames’ and embrace the realities of complexity4. Leadership world: take responsibility for all the outcomes – the actual experience of all the people

in your organisation and all the people in your community5. Learning world: accept nothing less than real-world feedback!

I’ll explain these five principles – and the five worlds they come from



RedQuadrant system transformation approach



* WARNING *

•No learning in the room•No outcomes in the roomWe are in ‘workshop world’ here. Fortunately, we have the wisdom of the people in the room.And we know we don’t have the answers.

Until something is proven in the real world, you never really know.

If we take responsibility for learning about outcomes, we will get there



CITIZEN WORLDPURPOSE – NEED – DEMAND



What is a service?

• A service co-creates value with and for the customer • Our mission is to reduce the effort, time, cost, steps, process…

FROM customer needTO positive outcome



demandcontrol

needs



SERVICE WORLD

Resources to outcomes, not money for service



Whole system – partners and suppliers

'Commissioning is deciding how to use the total resource available in order to improve citizens’ outcomes in the most efficient, effective and sustainable way'

Inputs• Finance• Capital• Workforce• Markets• Citizens• Communities

Outcomes• Community and

place outcomes• Citizen outcomes

and experience

Commissioning is the most efficient,

effective and sustainable route

Model from Richard Selwyn – download ‘Outcomes and Efficiency’ free at http://goo.gl/r12UeL


http://goo.gl/r12UeL


Fundamental questions

1. What is the system (part of the system) we are investigating? Understand key issues in delivery today (what’s wrong – what might be causing that)

2. What’s the underlying purpose of the system?3. What is the actual activity to be delivered to achieve the underlying purpose? What are the options for delivery of that activity? What organisation and support services would enable delivery of that activity? How could that activity best be governed and managed?

4. How do we get there?5. What have we learned?



MANAGEMENT WORLD: THE REALITIES OF COMPLEXITY

Freedom within frames



Four dimensions of complexity: freedom within frames

Responsibility for outcomes and responsibility for learning; not blame

Partners and suppliers as a system

The organisation is a living thing

Wicked, messy problems in the world

Human psychology(how people really act)



LEADERSHIP WORLD



How can we take responsibilitywithout taking blamewithout disabling ourselves?



it isn’t about you

The quality of what you get depends on the judgements your team make about you and their experience.

Therefore the quality of what you get depends on how good you are at sensing what’s in the hearts and minds of your team.



You never understand an organisation until you start to try to change it



LEARNING AND CHANGE

Remember: no learning without planning



Transformational learning

• Single loop: doing things better• Double loop: thinking about the problem differently• Tripe loop: changing our identity

From Argyris

Identity

Thinking

Actions

Results

Single loop learningActing – changing behaviour

Triple loop learningTransforming – changing our perceptions

Double loop learningReframing – changing our thinking



No learning without prediction

• Think massive, start very small.• Start changes

in service world – how you meet demand in citizen world – help people to help themselves in management world – create the freedom within limits that liberates workers to be the best

they can be And in leadership world – learn how you, as a leader, are shaping the culture

Take responsibility for all of that, however great or sh*t it is. Make your best prediction about how your changes will land – their impact on people in the organisation and those receiving services.

And as you start to makes changes, and it turns out different from your prediction, think about why that is. Then you’ll be working in learning world too.



How to stop things turning out sh*t

• Accept you don’t have all the answers• To get more power, give up control• To deal with complexity: collaborate; enlist discretionary effort; be honest• Listen out loud, ask good questions, co-design, start from strengths• Hierarchy, accountability, limits, plan

I’ll explain a little in the panel session…



What do we NOT talk about?

Power• The rules of the game• The effort and learning it takes to stay dysfunctional• The power of community• The power of perspective

CAN we talk about those things?



I welcome follow-up and conversation!

Benjamin P. TaylorChief Executive, Public Service Transformation Academy& Managing Partner, RedQuadrant+44 (0)7931317230benjamin.taylor@[email protected]

www.twitter.com/antlerboywww.linkedin.com/in/antlerboy

www.publicservicetransformation.orgwww.redquadrant.com


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.twitter.com/antlerboy

http://www.linkedin.com/in/antlerboy


http://www.redquadrant.com/

Benjamin Taylor, Public Sector Show 2017: the future of commissioning and public service...

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