EURACTIV's Agenda

of all European Affairs Events, conferences, presentations and workshops.

Improving Public Sector Performance in the 21st Century

Date

27 Jun 2018 to 28 Jun 2018

Address

EIPA - European Institute of Public Administration
Onze Lieve Vrouweplein 22
6211 HE  Maastricht
Netherlands

Section

Innovation & Enterprise
Public Affairs

Event Location

Netherlands

Event Description

Do you design services to reflect what really matters about them for citizens?

Are you sure that your performance targets really show how well you are delivering services?

Does the way you manage services help you improve how they are delivered?

If these questions are hard to answer in your organisation, you are not alone!

In this seminar you will learn how to better design and manage public services based on leading edge approaches and address issues such as:

  • How far models such as Weberian bureaucracy, New Public Management, New Public Governance and Meta-Governance provide answers about how to manage public services;
  • How far organisational management or self-steering leads to better public services;
  • Whether Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should be results-based or learning-based;
  • How KPIs can be linked to service priorities;
  • How to design services to make them citizen-friendly.

In addressing these issues we will use four case studies to explain the paradigm shift that is required to move public service organisations into the 21st Century.

Two cases are manifestations of the “Toyota Production System” (also known as “Lean”) adapted to service organisations (using the “Vanguard” approach, which, like Toyota’s system, derives from the thinking of E.W. Deming, the father of modern quality management)

One is a case of Human-Centred Design (an approach pioneered by IDEO, one of the world’s largest innovation consultancies and used by public sector organisations such as MINDLAB in Denmark).

One is a case of the modern socio-technical systems approach to organisational design. All of these approaches have a great deal in common and can be seen as concrete ways to realise a flexible, networked organisation (agile, adaptive, customer focused etc.) as opposed to a bureaucratic one.

How will it help you?
By the end of the seminar you will be more effective in designing and managing services for citizens.

We will apply an intensive learning cycle to three key paradigm shifts for organisational design and management through a process of raising issue awareness, input of theory, discussion of cases followed by reflection on your own situation. The fourth paradigm shift concerns change management and will be addressed through input of theory and case studies.

We will also distribute pre-reading material to prepare you for the seminar and enhance what you gain from it.

Who will most benefit?
This two-day seminar is for public officials from EU Member States, candidate countries and the EU institutions and other multi-lateral institutions, as well as for auditors, consultants, and other stakeholders experienced in delivering public services and faced with challenges of public sector governance, accountability and performance.

Come and learn from our experts and from networking with your peers how to design and manage public services to ensure that they really work better for your citizens

The first step in becoming a truly high performance public service is to understand performance from the citizen’s perspective’
Benedict Wauters

Delivering high quality public services is about setting priorities – not just what to do but also where to take action for maximum impact
Michael Burnett