Will the Publicpreneurals Please Take Action

You Can Lead the Public Sector!!

By Dr. Wayne Brock

The political parties search for common ground and maneuver for a way to introduce, discuss and ratify legislative action on multiple issues of public interest. The cry for government reform, change, and cost cutting is loud and clear. Creating reform is not entirely a legislative action, since legislatures create statutes, agencies or authorization focused on services for citizens.  The public administrator is bound by legislation action with administrative rule making for implementation of public programs, determining eligibility criteria and providing services. It is time for the public administrator to lead; become innovative, creative and improve current processes. The public administrator needs knowledge and ability to become a publicpreneurals.

Life in a progressive society is a challenge and is rewarding. Recalling the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus during the pre-Socrates period, related No man steps into the same river twice. Heraclitus recognized the constant and continuous change. Around all of us, change is occurring and to lack recognition is to limit the opportunity to leverage innovation. Society is changing and the ability of public sector leaders to be innovative should not be hindered with reform of administrative process with an entrepreneur spirit.

Public leaders need to gain knowledge and affirm entrapreneural and intrapreneural competencies as a foundation for publicpreneural concepts. Entrepreneurs have existed in society since the creation of communities providing goods and services for others. The competencies refined by Drucker in 1964 and many other guru’s of leadership research continue to be studies in today’s society. http://www.forbes.com/sites/startupviews/2012/06/08/5-essential-qualities-for-entrepreneurial-leadership  Intrapreneurs were first identified in the writing of Gifford Pinchot III in 1985 as persons in many corporations with some of the competencies of entrepreneurs. The public sector has publicpreneurs: a public administrator with the competencies of both entrapreneurs and intrapreneurs.  The chart below summarizes the key competencies of entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and publicpreneurs.

Entrepreneurs	Intrapreneurs	Publicpreneurs
Vision	Dissatisfied with the Present	Seeks Continuous Improvement
Knowing the Advantage	Innovative	Transformative
Ability to Share Vision with Others	Creative	Innovative
Flexibility	Transactional	Persistent
Persistence	Ability to Rally Others	Felxibility

Table 1 – Key Competencies of Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs, and Publicpreneurs ©Dr. W. Brock, 2013

The key aspect for the publicpreneurs is to gain the essential knowledge and ability for each of the key competencies listed in Table 1. Having ability in all of the core competencies provides a strong foundation for the public administrator in seeking quality improvement. The publicpreneur uses every opportunity to seek continuous improvement through existing opportunities. As an example, the performance evaluation should not be a grade or tied to a pay raise; the performance evaluation is an opportunity to identify areas for improvement in processes. Publicpreneurs need to engage a transformative process for the improvement process to be successful. Involvement of others in the process improvement and seeking input provides leverage of creativity and innovation from others.

The vast limitations and barriers could be discouraging, thus, the transformative publicpreneur will require flexibility and learning from setbacks and success. There is a need for the public administrators to lead, be innovative, creative, and transform our public entities for continuous improvement.

Jack & Jill Went Up The Hill …

Looking for a Leader

The election is over; the new Congress began the duties of leading the country last week. The partisan gridlock of the 112th Congress is history (there is little doubt history will not be kind to the 112^th Congress).

Speaker Boehner was reaffirmed and the Senate Majority Leader remains Harry Reid. Finger pointing and political posturing may yield, for a while to allow something to actually get done! Is there a significant change in Congress where progress will prevail?

Did Jack and Jill go up the hill to practice partisan politics or to actually lead the country?

Jack and Jill went up the hill

Looking for congressional leaders

They found Boehner and Reid

Gave a Tug on the Sleeve

And The Action They Just Couldn’t Believe

There is a need for open and honest dialogue for the nation to move forward. The complexity of social, economic, and political issues cannot be resolved with gridlock and political ideology. There is no single political ideology fitting every situation, thus, a need to cooperate and compromise is essential to a country for progress. There are severe economic concerns for the United States, concerns tied to various facets of the government’s powers and global impact.

The tragedy in Newtown, CT renewed the opportunity for dialogue to find a balance of protection of rights for all. Job creation and

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health care are concerns of many in the United States. These and many other important issues require involvement of the people, not just the politicians and political action committees. One look at the We The People link on the White House Website (https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/how-why/introduction) reaffirms the concerns of Americans. The website provides an opportunity to exercise your rights to petition the government and a response is provided for petitions with over 25,000 signatures.

Of course any website attempting to provide transparency is subject to misuse; for example, a petition for state secession from the union. People from each state have submitted a petition to secede from the Union with Texas having the most signatures collected at 125,000 (nextgov.com). In perspective, there are 25.6 million residents in Texas (quickfacts.census.gov) and thus, an attempt to misuse a privilege—the privilege to vote.

Another apparent misuse is the call to deport Piers Morgan of CNN for his view on gun control.  Think about this: if someone does not have the same viewpoint as others, there is no free speech, no rights to one’s view, the response is to deport? There is a need to actually listen to dialogue, yet it appears listening is not practiced (nor patience or tolerance). The petitions may provide a view into congressional thinking – the 112^th Congress could not get anything done because of a lack of respect for others rights and views. The need to have open debates and establish a national priority for progress of the country cannot be accomplished if the view of others is not met with openness. If the people are acting with disregard and responding to opposing views with talk of secession, deportation, recall of elected officials without cause, then how can we expect anything from the officials elected to congress?

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Speaker Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Reid and members of congress: are we in for more of the same partisan gridlock and political posturing? Remember, Jack and Jill went up the Hill with aspirations of finding and learning from leaders. Of course, Jack and Jill may tumble, but at least there is action. It is time to be accountable to the people – dialogue, discourse, decision, compromise, and compassion are needed for a progressive nation.

The Public Administrator Challenge: The Agency and Power

It is the time of year for winter graduation at many higher education institutions; a transition from student to alumni. It is also a time for graduates to begin employment, continue with a current position, and become agency leaders. Agency leaders have challenges when looking at the public sector; challenges to personal and professional values as public administration is practiced in society. The talents of graduates academically prepared for public service will face dilemmas integrating into existing public agency structures, and ensuring accountability.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The public administrator is an independent thinker having researched to complete academic requirements and looked at the past to gain experience. The experience gained in academia provides a strong foundation of knowledge and ability to see through the posturing, flavor of the month, new and improved, and changes portrayed by various entities in the public or private sector. The current public administrators are prepared to practice the art of leading, being competent, and upholding policy and process to ensure public trust. Through professional competencies, critical thinking, and plain common sense the damage of group-think will yield to increased confidence in our public agencies.

Garth Morgan wrote Images of an Organization, a 520 page text recommended as essential reading for all in the profession of public administration. The highlights are Morgan’s description of eight metaphors for organizations. Although the text was written some time ago, the metaphors stand the test of time. The metaphors provided by Morgan include the organization a machine; an organism; a brain; a culture; a political system; an instrument of oppression; change and flux; and psychic prison. It is easy to look at any public or private entity and observe the application of Morgan’s writing each day in practice throughout the world. The challenge to the public administrator is to move the organization to serve the public and realize:

• Almost all organizations are in one of the 8 metaphors describe by Morgan

• A leadership style is dominate in everyone; an organization has dominate framework – both the leader and organization does not significantly change with time

• The organization cannot change because it has a history and culture. Culture does not change in an organization, only policy, processes, and rules change — creating an illusion of change.

• Organizations have a lifecycle and eventually it expands or consolidates. All agencies seem to continue after creation in some form.

Accepting a position as a leader in a public agency (or a private agency) you will have certain power. Always remember the powers are all given to you by others. The five basic levels of power are legitimate, coercive, and reward, given to you based upon your position, and expert and reverent power is given to you by others or how others view you. Think about these levels and how you view power. Power is and can be taken away if misused. There is substantial abuse of power evidenced daily in news articles of corruption, unethical conduct, coercion, and cronyism. If power is viewed as a responsibility, research supports more inclusion of others, better service to others, and a long term successful leader.

Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline related “Today’s problems are yesterday’s solutions.”

Consider your future where your talents are used, where you can contribute, where you can learn and grow. Each person devoted to public administration has a foundation through academic preparation of professional competencies, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, and research. Public administration is no different than many other professions; it is a practice. A good leader is defined by each individual differently and the leader needs to decide how he or she will lead and how to be led. Every person has to be accountable to someone. Your decision on the organization you associate can be a worthy endeavor or waste of time. To progress a public agency each leader needs to decide to stand up, do the right thing, be ethical, and by all means accept responsibility.

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Dr. Wayne Brock is a consultant, researcher, author, speaker, and presenter of collaboration and collaborative leadership He is the founder of The Interdisciplinary Collaborative Leadership Institute and can be reached at wbrock@icli.com.

Images courtesy of: http://www.sbx-osu.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=41_53&osCsid=fdf92f1554e952877291788201f86ad2 and http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2011/08/1_management_is.shtml.

It’s Time to Move Forward

The People Have Spoken

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The Founding Fathers were hunters and gatherers in a new world, embracing a dream of living off the land, and destined to create communities mutually supporting the citizenry while maintaining a free society. Since the time the colonists were threatened by the British, the need to form mutually supported groups were needed to preserve liberty. The Magna Carta was inspiration during the American Revolution and foundation for the 5^th Amendment of the United States (US) Constitution. Mutually supported communities continued to be formed and the free market society was established. It took years for the US Constitution to be completed ratified, yet the lessons then apply in the world today. It’s time to move forward.

Formal education and years as a public administrator have provided an appreciation of the principles of the US Constitution. Application of the principles of administration is essential to ensure equality, liberty, and justice to those in the country. Public administrators and elected officials respond and work for the citizenry – those put in a position of responsibility can and are replaced at the time of election. Programs and services to the citizens of the country are to be mutually supported as a community.

Prior to the election results this message was posted on a website:

It is amazing the venom coming from those displaying support for the country and the electoral process, yet only if you agree with the same view. Disagreement, dialogue, and decisions made this country…with unity.

Pointing fingers at what did not happen is a focus on the past, not the future. Hopefully, regardless of the election result, there can be a return to the values and principal with unity. There were many responses about crying all night, upset at a state or the country for voting in a certain manner. There was a lack of response on the responsibility to vote and elect the representative to govern the country. There seems to currently be a lack of support for those elected and a lack of support of the U.S. Constitution.

The people have spoken!

The founding fathers were truly transitional – aware of the need for discourse, disagreement, and decision. The founding fathers found a way to move forward and let the people vote; those elected would represent their people, and mutually support the best interest of a majority of the citizens of the United States.

The basic principles of a collaborative orientation apply to the founding fathers and for the country to move forward today.

1. Purpose – The elected officials have a purpose; service to others and to represent their constituents. The constituents are whom an elected official is responsible.
2. Decision Making – Action is required to move the country forward. Decision making in a partisan party lines is inaction. Discourse, disagreement and compromise are needed for decision making.
3. Openness – The US is a representative republic – the power resides with those entitled to vote and those representatives responsible to the voters. Openness in information is needed across the board for effective decision making.

It is time to think of unity as a nation. Michael Wolfe on Oct 22, 2012 related in USA Today that the super PAC’s and candidates spent

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over 4 billion dollars on advertising. Arguably the advertising accomplished nothing except polarizing the nation. Polarization has resulted in anger and finger pointing with a focus on the past. Nothing can be done about the past or present, we can only look at the future. Unifying and applying the founding fathers initial principles to move the country forward may bring many people closer to appreciation of the constitutional principles and values of the republic.

Process and Program Improvement with L3

By: Dr. Wayne Brock

Public Administrators are charged with providing services to a defined population normally mandated in the program or public service. The service to the public is often evaluated and many entities collect extensive quantitative data to identify the number of clients serviced during a given period, various demographics, diversity, and household information. The quantitative data assists in reporting and justifying funding with the ability to show how effective the service is to the program target population. Typically additional information is gathered on an intermittent basis to evaluate grant awards, program planning, and client satisfaction. The data is often qualitative and rich in providing a process for continuous quality improvement (CQI) through L^3; Listen, Learn, and Link.

Program mandates, implementation, and the responsibilities of the public administrator require the need to gather information to show the effectiveness and efficiency of public services and justify the value provided to the public. The quantitative and qualitative data can provide rich analysis and synthesis of process and program improvement. The quantitative data impacts the immediate needs of most elected officials, public action committees, and public advocacy groups to show the program snapshot including the benefit to the clients and community. The qualitative data is available and the administrator should share with program staff to dialogue a process and program improvement initiative using L³.

Listen – the qualitative data typically contains open ended questions or comments from participants. Upon examination, the public leader should review the comments to identify the underlying issue, not just a surface issue. Understand what is being stated, what else could be an issue; how can the program change to be more beneficial to the client? Do barriers exist to improving the client experience? As example, a comment ‘I always hate coming here and waiting’ could lead toward understanding a process need (more time between scheduled appointments) or possible change in process using a team service delivery method?

Learn – The agency leaders need to review the qualitative data and learn from what is being heard. There is the ability in today’s information age to research and identify best practices. In generic benchmarking, there is the ability to search for best practices in and out of the public sector to modify and implement. Can the identified best practices be adapted to the agency? Do the practices require modification for adapting? Will the best practice improve the client interaction with the agency and increase effectiveness of the service to clients? The public administrator requires a commitment to learning continually to provide the best possible service to the public. 

Link – The final point is linkage of listening and learning to the process implemented or the program for improvement. Link requires action from the listening and learning of the prior steps to ensure program improvement is attempted. There may be risk involved of creating barriers in the current process or program, yet the administrator can revert to the prior process, if the initiative implemented does not achieve the desired impact. Link is the action requirement to ensure a CQI in the existing public program.

The L³ diagram shows how to ‘close the loop’ to the process and program improvement. The loop is not an episodic event or end to the process; the loop is continuous quality improvement (CQI) through listening, learning, and linking. The need to improve services and programs to the clients served by the public administrator is an ethical, social, and agency responsibility. There is limited improvement without implementation of L³; one must listen to the constituency. To learn is to leverage technology and discover best practices; creating and adapting initiatives of prior success in agencies. Gathering data without analysis, synthesis, and action is to collect data; there must be a link for CQI. Public service can be improved through implementation of L³ analysis and synthesis of existing metrics.

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Dr. Wayne Brock is the Director of Academic Affairs and Advance Certified Facilitator for the University of Phoenix – El Paso Campus. He is also the founder of the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Leadership Institute and can be reached at wbrock@iclinstitute.com

Control the Virus: A Roadmap to the High Road

By Dr. Wayne Brock

            It is not difficult to see a virus infecting the public sector.

• Former Police Chief Stephen Hasler from Lone Tree, CO was fired due to extensive sexual harassment, cronyism and nepotism within the department (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21505603/documents-lone-tree-pd-rife-sex-harassment-fear).
• Chief David Kapler of the Alameda Fire Department,  was videotaped filling his personal vehicle from a city gas pump (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Alameda-fire-chief-s-dismissal-upheld-3850306.php).
• GSA’s National Capital Regional Administrator Julia Hudson planned and invited 1200 federal employees to celebrate her 2nd anniversary in her position (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80844.html).
• Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca accused by a Blue Ribbon Commission to be out of touch with the day-to-day operations of a department that mistreats, beats, and humiliates inmates (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/sheriff-baca-not-out-of-touch-on-jail-violence-spokesman-says.html).
• El Paso County Texas public and private entities working together to commit widespread criminal corruption and bribery (http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_21208215/big-players-el-paso-corruption-probe-plead-guilty).
• The public pension and salary scandal in Bell City, CA (http://abcnews.go.com/US/bell-california-scandal-reaches-court-city-manager-dozes/story?id=13028339).

The temptation for public officials and administrators is extensive and throughout all levels of the public sector. It appears there is a virus throughout the country’s pubic service entities; a virus that needs to be treated to be controlled or eliminated. This virus can be treated through taking the high road: enforcement of a code of ethics.

Public administration and public organizations have various codes of ethics. The examples of unethical conduct provided in the prior paragraph would not occur if the professional  or agency code of ethics were enforced. The International City/County Management Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the American Society for Public Administration all have a code of ethics. The code of ethics is not statutory or regulatory, yet is a professional standard and customary expectation of behavior and morals for those that serve the public interest. The code of ethics begins with awareness, an individual acceptance to uphold and abide by ethical standards, and an organizational commitment to ethical conduct. The lack of the highest ethical expectations in any organization can spread the virus and drive the public toward a lack of trust and negative image of public agencies.  The code of ethics for any organization must be  actionable and enforceable – the code of ethics needs to be more than just words!

The work of the public agency is to create trust, build a positive image, and demand the highest standards of service to the public. Ethical conduct begins at the top – those at the highest level in the agency, municipality, state or federal entity must set the example. The road map to high ethical standards in public agencies begins with a commitment by those at the highest level to create the code of ethics to have meaning. Once there is meaning and substance agency leaders can implement the necessary actions to uphold the code of ethics and control the virus:

1. Early Immunization -Academics provide the basics in public administration programs as a foundation and indoctrination for ethical expectations. Ethical training must be continuous throughout the organization.
2. Annual Check-Ups – Establish the expectations, provide examples, provide case studies, and uphold expectations. Make high ethical standards part of the agency culture.
3. Prescribed Medication – There must be referral, reprimand, remediation, or dismissal for unethical conduct of the agency or organizational code of conduct or the code of conduct of professional organizations.
4. Review Insurance – Establishment and rules for an ethics panel, ethics commission, or civil service commission must be followed to ensure due process. The process must have enforcement capability to ensure ethical conduct throughout the organization.
5. Center for Disease (Ethic) Control – Create or modify an ordinance, regulation, or statute requiring pubic notification and disclosure of unethical conduct of pubic officials, agency and organizational personnel through public notice with specific detail and resolution.

Ethics in public administration is a basic expectation for those in public service to serve the public. The public administrator must set the example for others to follow. Ethical conduct requires one to make the decision to eliminate the virus by taking the high road.

Sincere gratitude to Dr. Adriane Wheat for her review and editing of this document.

Photos courtesy of http://www.discoverd-world.blogspot.com &
http://www.teddysratlab.blogspot.com

Public Service: The Need for Reform

By: Dr. Wayne Brock

Public administrators are facing the same challenges throughout the United States. Leading public organizations at all levels, lean, even effective and efficient public service and programs, are hearing public outcry to eliminate wasteful spending on programs and services during the current economic crisis. This outcry is making the news headlines on a continuous basis. Instantly, this brings to mind a quote from Albert Einstein, “We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”  Public service is in need of reform in many areas, yet the need to reform the hiring and promotion processes is most critical.

Hiring and promotion in many public service entities is based on past performance and tenure. The long-standing reward of a promotion for devotion to public service, while traditional in public service, is logically flawed for innovative leadership. Promotion consideration based upon past performance, evaluated at the annual evaluation period, is an evaluation of skills possessed for a previous position.  The additional skills needed for a promotional position are not normally considered in the hiring process. Tenure provides a cursory evaluation of loyalty, yet loyalty cannot lead the organization.

On August 9, 2012, Kellie Lunney reported in Government Executive that one-third of federal HR professionals do not have confidence in agency managers having the skills to succeed. This should not be a surprise since manager positions are not selected based upon needed skill sets. Leadership skill building and practice are typically provided to employees after being selected for a leadership position. Many public organizations at various levels have mentor programs, yet who is providing the mentoring to employees? The current leaders that provide today’s leadership and those same leaders that created today’s problems? It seems public service has a mechanism to protect traditions in the hiring, promotion and tenure processes.  The mechanism leads to an incongruent process in a system needing effective and efficient government agency leaders.

Many in the millennium generation do not consider a career in public service attractive. A need exists in public service to examine staff, determine the right people for the agency and to retain only those that desire a career in public service and have the skills for jobs. This is a perfect time to examine current practices and reform the civil service processes to create and attract future leaders. Archaic and ineffective systems in hiring and compensation need reform including:

a)     Examining pay systems to ensure the ability to attract talent

b)     Investing in employees with skill based training and development for a position two levels higher

c)     Ensuring leadership skill development takes place with opportunities to practice skills prior to a leadership position

d)     Examining hiring and promotion processes, leading to hiring based on the skill set needed for the position being advertised

e)     Adjusting the focus for hiring and promotion to be based upon knowledge, skill, and ability for the position, not based upon specific job related tasks that may fit better with a previous position

f)      Minimally relying upon past performance for hiring or promotion consideration, even though previous performance may predict the desire to succeed in the future

g)     Ensuring the incumbent is right for the position. Continuously evaluate and invest in the people, not the position.

The need to reform public service leadership to increase the internal and external stakeholder confidence is necessary. The driving force can be found in The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge where he wrote, “Today’s problems are yesterday’s solution.” Tomorrow’s solution begins with reforming public service hiring, promotion and compensation to get the right people in the right positions. Investing in our public leaders after establishing a solid foundation will lead reform in public service.