Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

The plethora of approaches to encouraging, capturing and implementing innovation in thepublic sector and the desire for instant results and high quality execution keeps the debateabout change and modernisation hidden. Critically, a desire for change will not in and ofitself bring about change– fundamental to sustainable change is engagement of the ACTPSand its leadership.Much public sector innovation occurs away from the media, politicians and academics,largely because people need the freedom and space to innovate out of the sight of expectanteyes. 371 The desire for constant improvement, innovation and modernisation has resulted in aculture throughout the Public Sector (here and elsewhere):…whereby an idea springs to mind and instantaneously policy makers must respondwith an instant remedy which must work like magic within a period just long enoughfor the press to remember it. For instance:• failing schools are given “super-heads”;• action zones are located in disadvantaged neighbourhoods;• staff are given tick-box “check-lists” of what to do;• blaming individuals for “age-old” practices and disasters does not lead to improvedpractices but rather a denial of the realities and relationships that need to change. 372A common theme during the Review was a genuine and powerful desire to be innovative andimprove how the ACTPS works, but the risk aversion, entrenched cultures and norms ofbehaviour made working this way very difficult. Traditional hierarchical public servicegovernance arrangements and structures can stifle innovation and encourage insular siloedthinking if those structures are not grounded in a collaborative and adaptive culture.Officials advocated an innovation framework within the ACTPS, but were of the view that aone-size fits all innovation model would fail. They called for an urgent and transformationalapproach to dealing with the issues that face the city state government.The prevailing view was that open and collaborative problem solving would assist inestablishing innovation as core business (‘the way things are done around here’). Innovationshould be rewarded, recognised and cultivated by the ACTPS’s senior leadership.ConclusionThe Review recommends embedding innovation as a core value within the ACTPS prioritysetting framework and tasking the Strategic Board with leading an enterprise challenge. TheACTPS enterprise challenge would support the Government’s broader fiscal strategy and theoverall ACTPS reform program.Practically, the Review recommends adoption of innovation enablers. The enablers are aseries of initiatives designed to create a whole of service innovation framework and develop371Maddock, S. (2002) p.18.372 Maddock, S. (2002) p.14.Capability, Capacity and Effectiveness: 278