Successive waves of Government modernization strategies over the last two to three decades have yielded improvements in service delivery, effectiveness and productivity, However, many public services organizations still struggle to respond quickly to rapid changes in the level and range of needs in the economy and society.
Historically most Government administrations were designed and organized by function and with a supply-side perspective – health, education, transportation, tax, justice etc. Today, the leading jurisdictions demonstrate a much more customer-centric approach.
To be able to deliver services effectively in the post-pandemic society and economy public services, and the enabling operating models and ways of working models must be designed in the context of the wider ecosystem, including as it does, many stakeholders with diverse needs, including citizens, businesses, public servants, other public service organizations and partners and suppliers from the private sector. While models of joined-up Government are maturing, in practice specific citizen or business needs often still require input from multiple agencies or organizational units to deliver all the service elements required.
In summary, Government and Public Sector organizations need to continue their focus on transitioning to organizational and operating models that are designed around the needs of their customers and which are resilient, but agile and flexible enough to change quickly.
Based on our research and practical experience of working with leading businesses and Government organizations, and in particular during the pandemic Pearsons Consulting Ltd has identified five key characteristics that the organizations who have been successful all demonstrate:
- Understanding the customer – aligning services around the needs and dynamics of citizens in society and business in the economy: who they are, where they are located, what they need and the optimum channels through which to deliver services to them.
- Empowering people – developing a culture, organizational environment and ways of working focused on engaging the workforce and providing opportunities for them to develop their careers and skills, and to maximize their potential.
- Leveraging data – having a holistic and real-time view of the internal and external data needed to make decisions in relation to service delivery and organizational performance and ensuring its integrity and security.
- Governance for fast decisions – implementing leaner organizational structures, governance models and decision-making processes at both the organizational and sectoral level to ensure that resources – be they financial, human and other – can be quickly allocated or reassigned to where they are needed.
- Business-led IT – demonstrating a clear strategy and principles for how technology is continually introduced and managed to enable all aspects of the value chain across business functions and between agencies.
- Design, implementation and operationalization of a new statutory Decision Support Service for a national mental health service including organizational structures, processes, governance and citizen relationship management applications.
- Designing and implementing the operating model and systems for a new outsourced national service to process and manage applications from citizens for learner and full driver licenses.
- Design and establishment of new experimental prison facilities for a national directorate of penitentiary administration to improve detainee rehabilitation and to minimize recidivism
- Design a new platform of services for a Department in charge of Assets Transfer for the French State, using design thinking approach and co-creative approach in the context of transformation of the Service
- Lean management office for a national defense organization to get its processes more effective.
- Definition of a national set of user requirements for Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services for the UK Space Agency and Cabinet Office using an agile methodology.
