Extract

Improving productivity in government services is like dieting. (Almost) all of us agree that it would be a good thing to do. But there are a baffling range of theoretically (yet vaguely) plausible suggestions for changes, none of which are proven to work and few of which are as easy to implement as their proponents proclaim (McKinsey, 2011a). In the short term dramatic results can sometimes be achieved, but often in temporary ways that cannot be maintained so that performance quickly slips back into the old mould. Making an approach work for long enough to achieve worthwhile results is far harder than it looks. And shifting government organizations onto a new and sustainable pathway of continuous productivity improvements is the hardest task of all. Yet there are also many factors that work in favour of improvement, of which we review two of the most fundamental in this chapter – digital changes and the push for organizational learning.