This issue

– being a public manager in times of crisis
– Indigenous evaluation strategy
– using collective intelligence to solve public problems
– Australia's Federation post-pandemic playbook
– equal opportunity in Australia 2020 
Plus what I'm reading.

Research brief: Being a public manager in times of crisis​

Administrative capacity is a major factor as to whether societies emerge from a crisis with resilience and optimism, or despair and disconnectedness. A paper in Public Administration Review by Associate Professor Zeger van der Wal looks at the capabilities public managers need during a crisis. The paper identifies three essential competencies: stakeholder engagement; managing political masters; and leveraging collaborative networks. Read our brief on the paper.

Indigenous evaluation strategy ​

The Productivity Commission has released an Indigenous Evaluation Strategy. The strategy provides a whole-of-government framework for government to use when selecting, planning, conducting and using evaluations of policies and programs affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

The strategy’s objective is to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by having policy and program decisions informed by high‑quality and relevant evaluation evidence. Central to the strategy is the importance of drawing on the perspectives, priorities and knowledges of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people when deciding what to evaluate and how to conduct an evaluation. 

Evaluation guide 

The strategy is accompanied by an evaluation guide which provides practical advice on how to conduct evaluations of policies and programs affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  

It covers: 

• building evaluation into policy and program design 
• deciding what policies and programs to evaluate 
• evaluation planning, design and conduct 
• reporting and using evaluation findings 
• building capability and a culture of evaluation. 

Using collective intelligence to solve public problems ​

A report from NESTA and The GovLab lays out a framework for how public agencies can use collective intelligence techniques to tackle community challenges. 

What is collective intelligence? 

When groups of people work together, they can mobilise a wider range of information, ideas and insights. Collective intelligence is when such collaboration results in more than the sum of its parts.  

How collective intelligence is making a difference 

Benefits to using collective intelligence processes like crowdsourcing, collaboration and co-creation include: 

• engaging larger and more diverse perspectives 
• understanding the root causes of problems 
• solving problems in new ways 
• providing greater accountability 
• strengthening legitimacy of decisions. 

A focus on case studies and tools 

Case studies are used to illustrate how collective intelligence can be used to solve different kinds of problems. They range from sustainability to transportation and include local, regional, national and international perspectives from six continents. 

They also illustrate different methods and tools. The tools include everything from simple mobile applications for opinion gathering to more complex data analysis tools that use artificial intelligence. The methods range from completely digital consultations to in-person deliberations, and everything in between. 

The report is accompanied by a public sector checklist which provides advice on designing and managing collective intelligence problems. 

This CEDA report analyses the effectiveness of the revised approach to Commonwealth-state relations through National Cabinet. It also outlines actions that should be taken to lock in its long-term effectiveness. 

The success of National Cabinet can be explained by a range of factors which reflect the unique experience of COVID-19: 

• National Cabinet was established during a galvanising event with a common goal of managing and defeating COVID-19. 
• Decisions established consistent overarching responses while allowing state and territory variation to reflect different health systems, demographics and rates of infection. 
• Leaders focused on problem-solving and decision-making and avoided the highly engineered politicised and public bargaining that characterised COAG processes. 
• Experts were brought to the fore in a more visible way, closer to leaders’ decision-making processes. 

Setting up National Cabinet for success 

The report outlines areas where action needs to be taken to bolster National Cabinet’s chances of success: 

1. Enhanced transparency and reporting through a log of agreed outcomes. 
2. Establishment of (i) an independent secretariat; and (ii) an implementation forum to unblock delays and disagreements.  
3. Abolishing tied funding agreements and replacing them with outcome agreements. 
4. A commitment to reducing the fiscal imbalance between the Commonwealth and the states. 
5. A prioritised National Cabinet agenda focused on (i) the health response to COVID-19 over the next six months; and (ii) pursuing structural reforms in 2021 and 2022 to boost productivity. 

Educational opportunity in Australia 2020 ​

A study by the Centre for International Research on Education Systems for the Mitchell Institute reveals large gaps in educational opportunity from early childhood through to adulthood. The report shows how students are progressing at four milestones: school entry, the middle years, the senior years of school, and early adulthood. 

Despite pockets of excellence, the report reveals the education system is mired in inequality. It highlights uneven development of skills and capabilities across the population and clearly identifies the groups of young people who are not being well prepared to participate socially, democratically and economically in adulthood. 

Key findings 

• Where you grow up and your family’s resources strongly influence your access to critical educational opportunities and services from early childhood through to adulthood. 
• Indigenous students show high levels of confidence, although the system is failing to address gaps in educational opportunity and academic achievement.  
• Large gaps in development are evident from school entry and usually widen as children get older, with students not receiving the support they need to catch-up to their peers. 
• Even before COVID-19 too many students were falling through the cracks during the critical transition between school and the next stage in their lives. 
• Despite strong foundations in the early years, too many young Australians are not developing into active and informed citizens. 

1. Getting serious about diversity: enough already with the business case 

This Harvard Business Review article critiques the popular rhetoric about diversity and the economic payoffs of hiring more women and people of colour. Instead the article argues that to fully benefit from increased racial and gender diversity, organisations must adopt a learning orientation and be willing to change the corporate culture and power structure.  

Four actions facilitate the shift to a learning-and-effectiveness approach: 

• building trust 
• actively working against discrimination and subordination 
• embracing a wide range of styles and voices in the organisation 
• using employees’ identity-related knowledge and experiences. 

2. Why procrastination is about managing emotions, not time 

According to traditional thinking, procrastinators have a time management problem. This BBC article presents the view that procrastination is an issue with managing our emotions, not our time. The task we are putting off is bringing up negative feelings such as boredom or worrying about failing. To compensate we start doing something else, like watching online cat videos. This fresh perspective on procrastination is opening up new approaches to reducing the habit which could even help improve approaches to work. 

‘Til the next issue

Maria Katsonis