From: New Ideas for Innovative Government By Stephen Goldsmith | July 22, 2009 Governing Magazine

Stephen Goldsmith former mayor of Indianapolis, is director of the Innovations in American Government Program at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The search for innovations has just gotten easier with a new resource for better, faster, cheaper government. Today, the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Governing are launching a Web site and this monthly e-mail newsletter with one simple goal: to create a marketplace for ideas that will spread the adoption of creative public-sector solutions. The Better, Faster, Cheaper site and this Efficiency newsletter aspire to be the first places public officials will look to learn about innovations.

The Better, Faster, Cheaper site is one of the best ideas have heard of in some time it will be a valuable resource for government employees seeking innovative ideas. Government employees are no different from private industry employees they generate good ideas. But there is a problem in getting the innovations implemented in a bureaucratic government that is not shared with private industry.

I like this idea of a collection point for innovative ideas but it ignores the fact many ideas will never be adopted by a bureaucratic organization especially with a powerful employee union. Innovations that increase efficiency that lead to fewer employees have about as much chance of being implemented as a snowball in hell.

So what type of ideas do bureaucracies like? They especially like ideas that make them look good with the public because it puts pressure on law makers not to oppose an increase the budget that they want. Any innovation that enhances service to the public and makes the bureaucracy look good is a sure thing to be adopted.

The real innovation here is to bury the 19th century bureaucratic structured form of government and replace it with a streamlined downsized 21st century government like that found in industry using the best management practices. On my website I give details and a guide for implementing the reforms using mostly the resources that the state already has.

An example of this is in my Article 116. Private Industry Example of Lean Teams. Each year Fortune Magazine surveys industry employees all over the US to determine the top “100 Best Companies That Employees Want to Work For”. The number one ranked company is NetApp. Headquarters: 495 East Java Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94089. NetApp is one of the best examples of Lean Teams that I have found. You will remember how Toyota and Honda took over the auto industry using TQM from GM and Ford. The American auto industry thought that TQM was just a gimmick which they could use to increase quality and compete with the Japanese it was never fully implemented.

It was never given a fair trial in government either. I was reminded recently that TQM had been tried in government and didn’t yield the efficient results expected. My response was that TQM is almost totally incompatible with bureaucratic government. TQM would only be tolerated by a bureaucracy and would reject any ideas that would actually increase efficiency. Besides most bureaucracies believe that top management should screen ideas for those that make the organization look good and enhance its power and reject those that decrease its employees. The TQM and Work Improvement Team (WIT) name has been renamed the Lean Team which better describes what they actually do.

So what does the state need to change?
1. The Legislature needs to change its method of budgeting to more like that based in the private sector using Work Measurement and bottoms-up budgeting. See my article 113.

2. Lean Teams need to be implemented. This private industry technique has been around in the US since the 1980’s but some form of it is still one of the best ways get efficiency through continuous improvement. See my article 116.

3. Get rid of the bureaucratic organizational structure of government. Downsize to a two tier Steering and Functional management form of government. See my articles 103 and 104.

4. Modernize State Computer systems to a centralized Relational Database Management system. This is necessary to efficiently manage the states resources and to implement a state wide Customer Relations Management (CRM) portal. See my Articles 84, 101, 102, 120, 138, 142, 143, 144, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156, 157 and 158.

After these reforms are in place you will find that the new state government is actually more efficient and effective than privatized services especially because there is no need for them to make a profit. See my articles 112 and128.