The systematic improvement of public services of national, regional and local governments is now 10 to 15 years underway. Alex Lambregts participated in this process for 8 years and would like to share some personal reflections with the audience regarding the do's and the don’ts. He hopes this will encourage the attendees to comment and to share their reflections on the development of public services in their own countries; not to criticize but to learn and inspire.
reflections on improving public services in the Netherlands
1. SMARTER CITIES SMARTER SERVICES Alex Lambregts Chairman VDP Netherlands It takes (your)individual leadership to change and improve public services
2.
3.
4. model for growth: 5 fases Orientation accessibility One clear access Many accesses Demand orientation Supply oriented fase 2. Channel gives answer fase 3. Frontoffice gives answer fase 4. Municipality gives answer fase 5. Government gives Answer fase 1. Department gives answer
6. Callcenter Website E-mail FAQ Counter products (deliverd in 24 hrs) Proces- design SLA’s Mid-office Client research Training Organisation change Culture Product & services catalog Performance KCC Governance and processes Systems and Information Products, services and channels . Leadership and employees
7. Midof f ice Suite Technical Architecture Biztalk 2006 CRM 3.0 SQL 2005 Sharepoint 2007 & SQL 2005 Front-office Mid-office Channels Back-office Web services SQL 2005 Taxes Record administration Webservices Permits Social security
26. change at the national level Sense of urgency Leading coalition Vision and strategy Communication Empowerment Short term successes Consolidation and acceleration Anchoring in culture
27. change at the local level Sense of urgency Leading coalition Vision and strategy Communication Empowerment Short term successes Consolidation and acceleration Anchoring in culture
28.
29.
30. Matrix of leadership context type international national local Visionary Collaborative Every day
Changing public services; more customerdriven bij listning to their needs, take their logics as a start for the organisation of processes, products, taking these needs seriosly, cooperate with them in the processing, making things more transparant, better, easier, quicker, comfortabler, cheeper, redundant. This is difficult; there are many rules of legislation, burocratic organisations with a conservative arrogant and internal orientated culture, too many managers and too little leaders, etc, a steep mountain to climb The dirver of change is leadership; we need more leadership on the national, local and individual level Also we must do the right things in the right order to avoid failure in the process of change How about Answer, leadership and change What is Aswer Which changes and results have we achieved in the Netherlands in the last decade on a national, local and individual scale? conclusions
Clientdriven City as the first counter for the citizen; the front office of the government, no wrong door Emphasis on digital (self)services
The ascent of Mount Everest from basecamp 9 camps to the top
Change is difficult and dangerous Resistance in a conservative world Risks for the innovator
Urgency:the world is changing rapidly and it takes us too long to coop with that, national board for e government Ad hoc regional boards for collaboration Branche organisation VNG tries to manage standardisation, collaboration between cities. Etc Local; town mayor or an elderman responsable for public services Professionals: one or more directors responsable
Since 2006 improvement of civil services part of the programs of the the executive board of the municipalities, extra budgets Now in 2011 due to economic crisis huge retrenchments and cuts in budgets Less urgency with the governors because of high customer satisfaction 7/8 and less sexy Successes: most cities in fase 2; per channel one entrance more than 100 cities use one . Many cities are in fase 3; have a front office in a clientcontactcenter. Better information, more reliably, More content webbased and thus available via all channels, and questions are being answered corectly at the first go, performances are measured, monitored and evaluated leading to improvements, benchmarks, more interactive communication with citizens, use of multimedia and organizing for fase 4. Emplyees are trained and empowered
Visionary leader: the one with the idea, the daring grand design, the briljant perspective; onorthodox thinkers, intellectuals or just daring Collaboritive leader: Leading the process of collaboration Good listenrs, communicators, trustworthy, clear goals, win win,perseverance, binding, negotiance, little ego Every day; contributing, Leadership of individuals, not only at the top, but throughout the whole company, every day trying to improve by taking initiatives with a lot of sacrifaction, commitment and creativity and contribute in their way to the agenda of change By eternal learning you develop your leadership, even if you are 40, 50 or 60 years old, you can still develop and achieve new summits; there is nothing in your DNA that prevents you from doing that Too many managers too little leaders
But leadership is not only conceptual and grand design. Leadership is also about how to think big and act small. About thinking on the long term but to do what is needed every day. So it is about een nice vision for the next five years for your own community and at the same time about worrying about mrs Janssen who had to wait 30 minutes longer at the counter than was promised in your servicecharter, or why the content of your website was not accurate. Leadership is about making eachother compliments and critisising
Eagerness to do theings right, eagerness to explore and seek for new challenges, new ways, te ge open for the new ideas of other people
But also willing to learn from failures and successes, to invest in knowledge and training, modest selfreflection, dare to take risks
Dare to take risks with the belief that the one that prospers is you, hard work, blood sweat and tears