“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
In the 21st century, government transformation initiatives have become increasingly more common, rather than exceptional. Some ambitious public sector initiatives turn out to be at least partially successful, though many others do not. Even when transformation success is declared, the outcome is often plagued by significant limitations that must be dealt with for many years.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
In the 21st century, government transformation initiatives have become increasingly more common, rather than exceptional. Some ambitious public sector initiatives turn out to be at least partially successful, though many others do not. Even when transformation success is declared, the outcome is often plagued by significant limitations that must be dealt with for many years.
For years, I’ve been telling my federal customers that an IT Strategy is often not very helpful, and that all of an agency’s resources (whether people, processes, technologies, services, or facilities) should be collectively aligned and applied to enable a single enterprise strategy that is driven by mission and business needs – in short, an Enterprise Business Strategy. “Instead of an IT Strategy,”1
I would go on to say, “What an agency needs is an IT Roadmap.” Despite that advice, which did go against the grain of prevailing government practices, nearly every CIO would persist in his or her efforts to promulgate an IT Strategy – as an emblem or accoutrement of the office they held, it often seemed.
If the purpose of Government is to serve the needs of the public, as many agree, the main objective of Governance is to ensure that public needs are efficiently, effectively and impartially served.
Governance mechanisms can help to achieve that objective by providing well-defined processes and structures for all aspects of procuring, deploying, and managing the use of government resources. A recent study by the World Bank found a strong relationship between good Governance and good Government performance. Other studies have revealed similar findings[1]. The purpose of this article is to underscore the need for investing adequate resources in (and leadership of) an agency’s Governance processes.
Ever heard the old saw – perhaps in a crowded sports arena or while standing in front of the TV on game day –, “You’d make a better door than a window?” The idea, of course, is that one can see through a window but not a door.
I was both privileged and pleased to have the opportunity to present a keynote address at the BrainStorm DC Conference in Washington DC last summer, where my presentation focused on the subject of relating enterprise strategy to business outcomes. By way of reintroducing the topic, I prepared a brief summary of that presentation for publication in the January 2009 edition of the Government Bulletin.
Experience has shown that major change initiatives undertaken by government agencies seldom succeed according to plan. Too often, expectations are frustrated, budgets are over-run, schedules are exceeded, and/or programs are abandoned. Why is this story written so often, after the fact, about so many government programs? From years of working with federal agencies on some of their toughest challenges, I have found that leaders tend to underestimate the difficulty of the journeys they embark upon, at almost every stage of their more complex transformation initiatives.
Imagine yourself as the owner of a business domain within a government agency. Let’s say you’re the Deputy Administrator of entitlement programs in an organization that processes claims for benefits.
A few years ago, a private liberal arts college in Vermont decided to reinforce the image of its campus, which features lots of quads and open spaces, as one that encourages students to do more walking. Concrete walkways were built over existing dirt-paths that the shoes of students and faculty had been shaping and re-shaping for generations. When the renovations were done, the local newspaper reported that fewer students showed up in class thereafter with muddied sneakers, though more of them were walking across the campus, even on rainy days.
Government decision makers faced with the need to streamline their business operations have begun to worry that the architectural construct we call services-oriented architecture (SOA) cannot be reconciled with the implementation of bundled, enterprise-wide product suites – a.k.a. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions.
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