Administrategy: Public Management 2.0? | Maciej Kisilowski | TEDxDanubia

[Music] many of you may be wondering right now why on earth are we listening to a TEDx talk about something as boggling as Public Administration I mean creative Public Administration sounds a little bit like a vanguard Skoda a glamorous guy on a flight it makes no sense and maybe we don't even want it to make sense or do we it's our public administration really like our good old family car we want it to run efficiently but we would be scared if it becomes too creative I'm hearing a lot of this preconception since my car out of a book on strategy in public administration of administrator Jim came out what is fascinating however is a response you get to just slightly different question I recently asked a group of managers to give me five innovative changes that must happen here in Hungary Poland Romania central Eastern Europe for our countries to become as prosperous as Germany of Austria and here are the responses and if you think about what I just said these responses are quite interesting yes when we think where innovation does happen today what inevitably comes to mind is new apps or gadgets or electric cars yet when we start reflecting or on where innovation needs to happen we focus on goods and services provided not by businesses but mostly by governments education healthcare infrastructure political and legal system public administration business innovation and is in many ways easy today I mean when we create right conditions businesses innovate in a sense talking about business innovation is almost a waste of time it's been figured out we know how to do it a monumental task facing countries like Hungary is to figured out a way for our government to start innovate because thank you yes because just take a look again and our to-do list of top things to catch up with Germany and Austria education on an international test of 15 year-olds Pisa Hungarian schoolkids underperform on every measure science reading mathematics their willingness to learn science is among the lowest of all countries studied only one central Eastern European country Estonia is among the global education leaders health care on your health consumer index Hungary's sixth from the bottom among 35 countries studied no central Eastern European countries in top ten though Czech Republic comes close it's 12 on the world bank doing business ranked measuring bureaucratic burdens on entrepreneurs Hungary's 41st again just one country from this region in this case Macedonia is in the top ten eighty Carnegie global cities index Budapest breathtaking architecture amazing location still ranks only 54 and just one city in this region Moscow is in the top 25 and finally in the transparency international corruption perception index Hungary's 57th no central Eastern European country is among the top 20 cleanest political systems in the world ok but maybe you'd say let's look at each of those areas and simply copy the salute winds from the countries that are higher up yes actually smart learning from each other is a big chunk of what innovation is about even in private sector you have very few products that are kind of completely out of the blue ideas mostly it is about standing on the shoulders of giants but make no mistake we will not simply copy our way to world class fantastic public policies and services for one we are just too poor for it the Hungarian state can spend only four thousand three hundred twenty eight euro a year for all goods and services provided to its average citizen and that's everything making sure criminals don't want your seat you have the army to protect your borders your kid have a school you have a hospital your parents have a pension your water a food is safe everything must feed four thousand three hundred twenty eight euro a year actually if you think about how much a business would charge you for an annual subscription of all those services Hungarian state is actually quite efficient Germany however can spend fifteen thousand 123 euro a year for its public goods and services this is free and health times more I mean for the Hungarian state to compete in its public services with its Western neighbors it's almost like for Skoda to compete with Porsche in it if you realize the sheer size of this difference Hungarian polish Romanian Central European countries should really be operated like garage startups laser focus on key areas of value creation and kind of putting all hands on deck to compete with the Porsche guys because great startup can get talented a fraction of its cost since in layoffs salary it offers talented people something else an opportunity to make a meaningful change in the world to disrupt an industry address long underserved social need or develop a product that people have dreamed about for decades an interpreter in many ways is a person who connects talent with impact you know over the last decade I've studied numerous public sector institutions to figure out what we can do for our governmental managers to be a little better connecting talent with impact what holds them back you probably would think some you know crazy laws bureaucratic rules not really the single biggest enemy of innovative value creating state is not only law but simply bad habits like a conventional wisdom that the best path to a great public sector career is for being passive and opportunistic wrong even under the current highly imperfect system my research shows that the most successful public managers not unlike their counterparts in businesses or NGOs operate based on a clear proactive and coherent strategy and when I say strategy I don't mean some vak document or lofty mission statement what I mean is strategic management you know a certain philosophy of leading that starts from a clear story of whether your organization or community wants to add value management rooted in a compelling internally consistent plan for how to make that happen such living strategy is truly the glue that connects talent with impact in a public sector context for free interrelated reasons so first a strategically managed organization is built on a solid foundation of talent because strategy allows you to communicate to the outside world what type of people you need you know the neonatal intensive care unit in Budapest mehek Hospital is known for its amazing health outcomes rooted in a philosophy of not over medicating preterm babies so if you are a doctor or a nurse believing in alternatives to antibiotics planes a fair chance you would try to seek a job in this unit and if the critical mass of like-minded professionals self-select themselves to work for one organization it is so much easier to manage and motivate them second a good strategy solves one of the most vexing problems of managing and knowledge intensive organization how to give people enough freedom to make them creative while keeping them accountable strategy in short gives your people a direction while making them free and empowered when Klaus johannes romanian mayor of the city of CBO and now Romania's president again invented his town of hundred twenty thousand as a little berlin attracting events to it when German industrial investment he created a very clear direction of where the city is going and what type of conduct is expected of his City Hall officials on the way that resulted in a rapid curtailment of corruption and nepotism because corruption flourishes mostly in muddy waters of conflicting objectives and shifting priorities finally and perhaps most importantly a clear and attractive strategy provides a lot of meaning to your public sector professionals Robert film Havel the founding director of Copernicus Science Center central Europe's largest science museum located in new also does not have much trouble motivating his highly-skilled curators to be passionate about their job why well think for a moment what else a Copernicus Science Center curator could do for a living maybe he or she would be an engineer in a manufacturing firm of a banker or consultant as many science graduate' end up doing today if you set aside every stereotype you have about the public sector what is the more inspirational job expect explaining the solar system to a five-year-old dying to know of packaging yet another mortgage product if enterpreneurship is about connecting talent with impact our public sector institutions sit on a to goldmine of potential positive impact impact that literally begs to attract some great talent because talented professionals do not need financial legal inducements to be motivated to work for a cause just look at thousands of citizens who invest so much time organizing themselves and peacefully protesting corruption in Romania standing with my University CEO and the academic freedom here in Budapest you know our public managers must realize that they too can capture this quest for meaning for making a change in the world so prevalent especially in the Millennial and post millennial generation we all the engaged citizens must demand from our public sector officials to take some proven lessons of strategic management to hat and have a courage to act not as mere administrators but as value-creating administrator geez indeed a to aspiration for our democracies would be for our left right and center to offer us a choice of competing coherent strategies so that when the election day comes we can choose among realistic plans and not empty slogans and false promises to paraphrase a famous quip of an American journalist if you don't like the strategy you see implemented in your town your school your hospital or your country go out and create your own thank [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 31,669

Rating: 4.7037039 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Hungary, Social Science, Activism, Democracy, State-building

Id: AuiFN32waeY

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2017