The Hypothesis

Think Paper: Winter 2010

The Case The Hypothesis


Change management in the There has in the business
public sector is driven mostly sector over the last thirty A citizen centric
by a focus on business years been more and more approach to public
planning, service delivery, the emphasis on delivering service design and
power of competition and excellence by ensuring a
delivery will be a
better systems management. consistent customer centric
There has been a concerted driven approach. more credible,
effort to import such motivating and
disciplines from the private Many of the basic business
processes for developing sustainable platform
sector as a way of increasing
for change in the
public sector than
simply trusting
The shift from a product and service
professionals ‘to do
orientation towards a customer focused
the right thing’ or
orientation has been profound in the private
through
sector but much less marked in the
exhortations,
public sector
incentives and
penalties to provide
efficiency and effectiveness. products and services are
more efficient and
The adoption of systematic now well established and the
business processes is delivery of excellence in effective public
however, a second order these areas is seen as no services.
activity in most private sector more than a base line
organisations. requirement for success.

The principle function of The shift from a product and

businesses is about winning service orientation towards a
customers, and delighting more customer focused
them through the orientation has clearly been
development of products and profound in the private
services, not the other way sector but much less marked
round. in the public sector, in which
a product and service focus
still dominates management
and professional thinking.
A more sustainable &
culturally relevant approach
People who work in the public
sector do so partly because
such roles provide them with a
strong sense of satisfaction
and personal well-being.
However, in practice, they
often find themselves dealing
with the vagaries of working
within a service verging on the
edge of being perceived as
institutionally dysfunctional
and one subject to continuous
public disquiet.
Developing the means for
a sustained organisational
change and service
improvement through a a better life for themselves,
process of satisfying customer
needs is about developing a
new culture attuned to the
public sector ethos of: care,
support and collective
responsibility.
The Prize
Building on recent reforms
focused on service efficiency
and effectiveness, but also
emphasising customer needs,
will result in a culture that is
more motivated, progressive,
and ambitious and constantly
striving to improve services.
One that is not merely driven
by the need for systems
efficiency, to hit targets or to
satisfy ‘managers’, but one
that is driven by a desire to
serve and produce tangible
benefit for services users.
A ‘Citizen Centric’’ approach
to service improvement will
also gain new respect from
the public.
Public service providers would
no longer be viewed simply as
a once great but failing set of
post war institutions, putting
up with chronic adversity.
A new perception would grow,
over time, a perception of
responsiveness and efficiency
and a service driven by a
desire to satisfy people real
needs.
Big Society
A ‘Big Society’, is one that
empowers, facilitates and
supports its citizens to create
their families and everyone
else also needs to have its
foundations in an ethos of
service.
Putting more emphasis on
citizen driven as well as
citizen responsive services is
about ensuring that everyone
not only gets their needs met
as far as possible but also that
everyone helps all the people
they can to get what they
need.
Big Society needs Big
Citizens
The ‘Big Society’ concept is
the flip side of a citizen
centred approach to public
service delivery. It represents
a social contract that implicitly
accepts that taking forward a
citizen focused approach to
public service reform is not a
one way street. It involves a
change in approach from both
providers and also from the
consumers of public service.
Existing ‘Big Citizens’ like the
thousands of local people who
already give their time and
energy to help others need to
be encouraged, supported
and praised. An army of new
‘Big Citizens’ will need to step
forward. They will also need to
be encouraged and supported
to do so. In a new citizen
centric public service
approach incentives will need
to be developed that
encourage people to make an
active contribution to helping
public services become more
responsive and also to help
deliver some of the services
that people say they actually
want the state to provide.
One of the big challenges will
be to develop and deliver
forms of support and
encouragement that promotes
active citizenship.
There will be a need for
incentives and rewards as
well as many forms of general
encouragement and
information about how to help.
We know that people are
generally disposed to helping
others so it should not be the
case that people need to
necessarily receive some form
of conditional cash payment to
make a contribution. New
forms of incentives in the form
of public recognition in the
shape of awards or publicity
might work for some. Others
might favour some form of
small financial or material
contribution to the work they
deliver to help them do more.
In order to determine the best
way for the Government to
encourage participation
research will need to be
conducted with actual and
potential activists to determine
how best to help them, In
effect thee will need to take
the same citizen centric
approach to developing
support mechanisms for ‘Big
Citizens’ as there will be for
every aspects of developing a
bigger society.
It will also be important not to
fall into the trap of the state
trying to bureaucratise the
process and drive a uniform
approach to engagement form
Whitehall. Rather local
schemes and community
solutions should be supported
by local public services.
Interventions should not be
driven by such things as a set
of targets for the number of
active citizens, or the number
of new projects set up.
Success should be measured
by the impact of interventions,
the real benefits to people’s
lives in terms that they
understand and can believe
are important.
‘Public Service’ not ‘Public
Services’
Citizen centric service design
and delivery will only be
possible if a new culture of
public services is encouraged
and facilitated. This is the role
of central government, to put
in place the incentives and
disincentives to developing
such an approach. Central
government can also foster a
change of culture using ‘soft’
approaches such as training,
capturing and making
available learning and also
through a process of
empowering citizens through
information about what local
providers are doing and how
they measure up to the best
providers.
This paper has argued that
the application of action to
support the hypothesis of
adopting a citizen centric
approach to public services is
a key element in
reinvigorating and refocusing
public service delivery.
Citizen centric design is also a
key factor in reinvigorating
Professor Jeff French
www.strategic-social-marketing.org.
Tel 01428 751 475Mobile 0788 389 4802.
Jeff.French@strategic-social-marketing.org
public sector staffs morale
and pride in what they do as it
rightly reinforces and builds
on their senesce of vocation
and desire to deliver better
and more responsive services
to the people that they work
for.
Citizen centric design also
means that rather than
adopting any preconceived
tactical approach such as
‘Nudging, Shoving, Smacking
or Hugging (See THINK paper
Autumn 2010) governments
and public sector
organisations should insist
that systems are put in place
that ensure that citizens
views , needs and wants are
given weight when making
decisions about how to
promote social wellbeing.
Intervention approaches such
as nudges are often key
ingredients in a successful
intervention mix but they are
not a recipe for success in
every situation. The recipe for
success and to increase
public sector motivation and
morale is to adopt a citizen
centric approach to planning
and service delivery.