New Synthesis: !What Next?!!!"

Andrew Graham"School of Police Studies"

Queens University"

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www.queensu.ca/sps/

My Purpose"

•  To look at the New Synthesis as one step in a larger process"

•  To assess what legacy gifts it offers"•  To suggest some challenges it lays down"•  To ask some questions of you about the leadership

challenges we all face "

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What Stikes me as Signficant?"

•  Healthy recognition that we have moved well beyond NPM thinking "

•  Recognition of the real complexity and layering of public policy issues"

•  Pushes the boundaries of both policy and implementation beyond traditional fields "

•  Challenges some of the current mantra around accountability"

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What Stikes me as Signficant?"

•  New players and new media"•  Tremendous challenge to traditional skill set

demanded both of those in government and those engaged with government"

•  Suggests a whole new way of thinking about how to teach public administration"

•  Suggests a whole new research agenda"

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We have moved on………"

•  NS makes it clear that we now live in a world of multiple players in policy and delivery"

•  Concept of no one right way"•  No longer public or private but public and private"•  Need to say what public administration is, not what

it is not"

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G g

Complexity and Layering of Public Policy"

•  Butterfly effect more and more prevalent"•  Emergence of double-looped learning – having

impact both on process and core objectives"•  Common agreement on shared social values can no

longer be assumed as society changes so rapidly"•  Role of government as guardian, facilitator and

enabler"•  Less throwing of money and more leveraging"

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Boundaries of both policy and implementation beyond traditional fields !"

•  Diffusion of state power"•  Notion of implementation by improvisation and

stealth"•  Double-looped learning as a means of

organizational and delivery design"•  Need to rethink current hidebound notions of risk

and risk sharing."•  Switching information roles – citizens know more"•  Blog your way along"

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Challenges some of the current mantra around accountability and performance measurement !"

•  Pursuit of short-term measurements especially of the annualized sort"

•  Points to a movement from performance management as a basis of public discourse to democratic performance governance"

•  Mashing up of accountabilities"•  Getting real about a focus on societal results versus

agency performance"

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New players and new media!"

•  NS suggests a broadening of the list of those legitimately engaged."

•  How does that square with centralizing drift in many Westminster governments?"

•  Ambiguity about social media will leave public sector in the dust."

•  Democratization of policy analysis"•  Blogging and texting around state control"

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Skill sets !"

•  Analytical skills shift from the great synthesis to the effective identification and harvesting of variation "

•  From knowledge worker to informed relationship worker"

•  Talking to strangers"•  Constructive conspirators"•  Adaptation and continuity – distributed policy

means someone has to hold the core together "•  Leadership "

–  Off the white horse"

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Skill sets !"

–  Creating a sense of urgency and responsibility"–  Rewarding agility"–  Bringing the organization back to its core"

•  Managing complexity and disruptive change"•  Risk management – looking for trouble and the

ability to read weak signals "•  Systems thinking "•  Innovative practice – fostering, guiding and

protecting organizational entrepreneurship"

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New way of thinking about how and what to teach public administration!"

•  Is the traditional policy analysis core still relevant - a tentative yes?"

•  Can we teach in silos – policy, admin, specialized issues?"

•  Policy process a higher priority"•  Great awareness of core values "

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New way of thinking about how and what to teach public administration!"

•  Leadership and ethics"•  Comparative public administration – new globalism"•  Managing complexity and disruptive change"•  Escaping the traditional MPA model and seeking

out a meta-MPA through partnerships, internationalization and increasingly agile program offerings"

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New Research Agenda!"

•  Sharing practice and experience – innovation everywhere – who is harvesting it?"

•  Adaptive capacity: what do we really know about that?"

•  Understanding the policy development cycle"•  Keys to resilience. "•  Experience of network governance."•  The attribution boogeyman"•  Great focus on action research"•  More case studies"

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The Core Contribution of the New Synthesis Project"

•  Evocative"•  Integrative"•  Global"•  Gives language and framework to what you are

already seeing and thinking"•  Creates a positive vision of public administration in

the future"

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“The complex issues of the 21st century call for a new paradigm in governance—one that is networked, innovative, exploratory and resilient in the way it confronts the challenges of our time. “ – Peter Ho, Head of the Public Service, Singapore

What does it mean to your discussion of leadership?"

•  Do you have the right set of models in your head about leadership, policy, implementation and accountability? What has to change? "

•  If you take the role of public sector leads to be to explore, conserve, exploit and adapt rather than traditional notions of plan, organize, direct and control, what are the requisite skills needed?"

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What does it mean to your discussion of leadership?"

•  What are the traits of a resilient organization that a leader has to engender?"

•  How do you square the notions of stewardship and continuity with change, resilience and adaptability as leadership requisites?"

•  How do you create and sustain an organizational culture that values both continuity and contingency?"

•  How do you build a risk framework that rewards foresight and optimizes opportunity?"

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Andrew Graham !School of Policy Studies!

Queen’s University"

Andrew.Graham@queensu.ca"http://post.queensu.ca/~grahama "

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