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Effective Governance and Planning

Strengthening Communities Conference:

From Policy to Practice

April 2007 - Yellowknife

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Our Agenda – The Governance Cycle

1. Overall Context

2. The Governance and Planning Cycle

• Initiation

• Estimation

• Selection

• Implementation

• Evaluation

3. New Governance

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Overall Context

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Local Government

“The urban economy pays the bills. There is no longer a national economy: city-regions are essentially the

economic units. And they are in intense competition with their U.S. counterparts… Today cities are so important they must be treated, and trusted, as equal partners ”

McLeans – June 2001

“Since local governments deal with services that affect residents on a daily basis residents demand access to

their municipal officials when problems or needs arise. If a street light burns out a resident would telephone the

municipality with an expectation that it would be fixed as soon as possible. If that same citizen telephones the Minister of Finance to discuss reform she might not

expect the same turn-around time.” Stephen Bent

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Defining Governance

• No standard definition, but includes;– Exercise of authority, direction and control– Right and responsibility to determine the purposes and

principles by which an organization will function, and then to structure and arrange for management of the organization accordingly.

• If governance has to do with what an organization is to do, management deals with how it does it.

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Governance Principles & Expectations

Conference Board of Canada

Leadership & Stewardship

Empowerment & Accountability

Communication & Transparency

Service & Fairness

Accomplishment & Measurement

Learning & Growth

Long term strategy & vision

Shepard resources of others

Delegate effectively

Expect to be held accountable

Right information, to the right people, at the right time

Fairness to all

Overall social responsibility

Oversee performance

Adjust in response to results

Demonstrated capacity to learn

Mistakes not repeated

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Governance Roles

Conference Board of Canada

Leader Overseer Steward Reporter

Set Strategic Direction &

Overall Plan, Select Tools

Oversee Executive

Officers and Implementation

Safeguard Resources

Measure Performance

and be Accountable for Results

Growing Expectations

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The Scope of Governance

Vision

Strategy

Policy Implementation

Action Planning

Performance Management

• ethics

• accountability

• communications

• administration

Traditional Governance

Now Part of Stakeholder Expectations!

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The Governance Cycle

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EstimationInitiation

Selection

Implementation

Evaluation

Termination

The Governance Process

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EstimationInitiation

Selection

Implementation

Evaluation

Termination

The Governance Process

Planning!

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EstimationInitiation

Selection

Implementation

Evaluation

What is the problem or issue & what do we want

to accomplish? Why should we be involved?

What are the key attributes of this issue or

problem, and what response alternatives

exist?

Which response should we

implement? How will we do so?

Implementing the policy decision we have made

Measuring Results and Recalibrating to Reflect

Experience

TerminationShould we continue,

amend or terminate the policy?

The Governance Process

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Initiation

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• Preliminary initial thinking about a problem or opportunity.

• Definition of objectives• Innovative option design• Preliminary exploration of concepts, claims,

and possibilities

Initiation

This is about values and strategies and what those who govern think is important

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Problem Recognition

Problem Context

Goals & Objectives –

the “Ask”

Feasible Alternatives

What is the problem or issue? What is the

incentive to consider change?

What are the bounds of the problem? What is its

priority?

What are our goals and objectives – what is our

ask, and why?

What are feasible alternatives we should consider? What choice

criteria?

Will the organization recognize and accept the problem and its

context?

Will the organization agree on goals and

consider a realistic yet creative and constructive

range of alternatives?

Problem Recognition

Problem Context

Goals & Objectives –

the “Ask”

Feasible Alternatives

What is the problem or issue? What is the

incentive to consider change?

What are the bounds of the problem? What is its

priority?

What are our goals and objectives – what is our

ask, and why?

What are feasible alternatives we should consider? What choice

criteria?

Will the organization recognize and accept the problem and its

context?

Will the organization agree on goals and

consider a realistic yet creative and constructive

range of alternatives?

Initiation Challenges

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Estimation

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Estimation

• Thorough investigation of concepts and claims• Examination of impacts of alternative actions and plans• Development of preliminary program or response outlines• Establishment of performance criteria and indicators

The Meaning of Estimation

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Estimation Challenges

Multiple Perspectives

of Reality

• No action

• Use tried and true

• Too optimistic or pessimistic

Unclear Links & Unintended

Consequences

System Control Challenges

• Load

• Lag

• Gain

• Lead

• Revert to authoritarianism

• Use intuition

• Paralysis through analysis

• Buying time that isn’t there

Coping With Complexity –

Projecting Order Onto Reality --Simplification

Multiple Perspectives

of Reality

• No action

• Use tried and true

• Too optimistic or pessimistic

Unclear Links & Unintended

Consequences

System Control Challenges

• Load

• Lag

• Gain

• Lead

• Revert to authoritarianism

• Use intuition

• Paralysis through analysis

• Buying time that isn’t there

Coping With Complexity –

Projecting Order Onto Reality --Simplification

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Selection

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Selection

• Debate of possible options• Compromises, bargains and accommodations• Further investigation of options• Integration of non-rational elements• Decision among options – choosing the plan• Assignment of responsibility

The Meaning of Selection

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Selection Challenges

Overall Decision Context

Points of Leverage & Influence

Importance of the Problem

Nature of the Information

Involved

Biases of Participants

Choice Limits Imposed by

Analysis

All Should be Considered in the Selection Process

Blend Technical, Ideological and Emotional Realities into a Sustainable Consensus

Overall Decision Context

Points of Leverage & Influence

Importance of the Problem

Nature of the Information

Involved

Biases of Participants

Choice Limits Imposed by

Analysis

All Should be Considered in the Selection Process

Blend Technical, Ideological and Emotional Realities into a Sustainable Consensus

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Implementation

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Implementation Activities

Implementation

• Development of tools to carry out policy decision

• Modification of original policy decision to reflect implementation realities

• Refinement of decision into operational terms

• Rubber hits the road here!!

Implementation

• Development of tools to carry out policy decisions and plans

• Modification of original policy decisions & plans to reflect implementation realities

• Refinement of decision into operational terms

• Rubber hits the road here!!

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Implementation Challenges

Rapid Learning

What is actually happening? Is the policy actually being carried out as

intended?

Interface Management

What are the interfaces with other policies and activities?

Maintain Focus and Momentum

Resources Alignment

Does resource allocation reflect

policy intent?

Is intent ‘migrating’? Are time frames adhered to?

Management Reports Along These

Dimensions

Rapid Learning

What is actually happening? Is the policy actually being carried out as

intended?

Interface Management

What are the interfaces with other policies and activities?

Maintain Focus and Momentum

Resources Alignment

Does resource allocation reflect

policy intent?

Is intent ‘migrating’? Are time frames adhered to?

Management Reports Along These

Dimensions

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Sources of Implementation Failure(1)

Inefficiency

Corruption

Inappropriate Delegation

Failure to Understand

Linkages

Inadequate, inappropriate or poorly allocated

resources

Perceptions of Equity – cost\

benefit MismatchSources of

Implementation Failure

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Sources of Implementation Failure(2)

Conflict with Other Initiatives

Preference for Other Activities

Overlapping Commitments and

Overload

Legal and Procedural Problems

Power Vacuums

Leadership and Role

Disagreements Sources of Implementation Failure

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Influences on Implementation

Source of Policy

Clarity of Policy

Support for Policy

Administrative Complexity

Participant Incentives

Overall Resources

Major Influences on

Implementation

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Evaluation

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Evaluation – A Key Part of Governance

Vision

Strategy

Policy Implementation

Action Planning

Performance Management

• ethics

• accountability

• communications

• administration

Traditional Governance

No Ambiguity or Uncertainty Regarding Role of Council

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Learning

• Identification of anticipated outcomes• Agreement on performance data and

measurement and evaluation tools• Reflecting on actual outcomes• Looking at:

• What happened• What didn’t happen• Missed opportunities

Linkage to Agreed Goals and Discussions During Estimation

and Selection Processes

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Three Realistic Alternatives

Terminate

Continue as IsModify & Continue

Decision Makers have the Capacity to Manage Scope of These Considerations, and Nature of

Choices Presented

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The Context for Evaluation

What Policies & Programs Worked, or

Not?

How is This Done? Criteria? Tools?

Who Asked For It?

Who Did It?

Why? How Will Results be Used?

Internal?

External?

• process?

• network?

• organization?

• normal part of process?

• specific incident?

• specific concern?

• third party intervention?

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The Problem with Goals

Imprecise

Hidden

Multiple

Measurement Tools

Severity varies with the effectiveness of the initial decision making process

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Different Types of Goals and Measurements

EconomicSocial

Stakeholders

Administrators

Political

Can meet economic targets without meeting other

objectives

Can meet social objectives and still be very inefficient

and costly.

One or more stakeholders can do well at the expense

of the system

Service provides can meet personal objectives without achieving overall objectives

Broad or narrow, and short or long term objectives can

be met without meeting service objectives

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Overall Criteria

Efficiency

Adequacy

Equity

Effectiveness

Increasing Complexity

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New Governance

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Government is not Alone

Few government agencies can any longer fully encompass any important problems…….. Managers, in short, do not manage programs or agencies. Rather they manage networks. This is important and challenging for policy makers, who often worry little about program implementation. The fact that managers must work through networks limits their autonomy, increases their need to find cooperative strategies, and exposes them to greater political risk as they can exercise less control over what their non-governmental partners do.

Donald Kettl

The direct provision of goods or services by government bureaucrats accounts for only 5% of the activity of the U.S. Federal government.

Lester Salamon

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Managing What You Have Created

What this means is that government does not need to be ‘reinvented’, as the new public management has suggested. That process is already well advanced. The great challenge now is to find a way to comprehend and manage the reinvented government we are producing. For that, however, a new approach is needed, one that acknowledges the existence and likely persistence of ‘third party government’, and that focuses more coherently and explicitly on the distinctive challenges that it poses.

Lester Salamon

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New Governance

Working with Third Parties to Provide

Services

• Other governments

• Private Sector

• Non-profit Sector

• shared authority

• shared accountability

• delegated discretion

• new opportunities and resources

• increased complexity - public management

• increased complexity - policy and implementation analysis

• increased complexity - accountability

Requires New Approaches to the Governance Process: Think and Act Like a Team

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New Governance Mindset

Salamon and Others

From Agency and Program to Tools

and Strategies

From Hierarchy to Networks

Debate is over the tools to be used to achieve objectives, not the specific agencies involved

Recognition of interdependencies by shifting

focus from traditional hierarchy to network management.

• principal and agents

• network theory

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Principals and Agents

Principals and Agents

• information imbalance and ‘moral hazards’ it creates

• objectives and goals mismatch

• costs and implications of increased control and information.

Who is really rowing and who is really

steering??

From Public vs Private to Public and

Private

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Networks

J.A DeBruijn

Networks

• Pluriformity – diverse range of organizations and types

• Self Referentiality – each player has discreet interests – where is the network?

• Asymmetric Interdependencies – varying kinds of dependence

• Dynamism – its all changing, all the time

Creation and management of the interdependencies between governments and a cast of third party actors of various kinds

Potential Chaos

Governing is now a team sport!!!

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A Fundamental Tension

Increased expectations concerning

accountability and results.

Increasingly less direct control over the results

and activities one is being held accountable

for.

More involvement – third parties

More sharing of information

E-government

Clearer Accountability Frameworks

More timely and better justified Decisions

Increasing pressure to use these kinds of tools!!!