MIDDLE MANAGEMENT 28 / Canadian Government Executive // SPRING 2024 ing performance. Setting targets can promote siloed operations and discourage cooperation across a variety of contexts. Agencies may turn inward when helping others does not contribute to achieving their own targets. New Zealand has a large number of singlepurpose agencies that have historically found it difficult to collaborate. The aftereffects of the 2008 global economic crisis constrained government’s drive to find ways to make public services more effective without greater spending. Public servants were pushed to creatively overcome persistent cross-agency challenges. In 2012, ministers chose ten crosscutting problems that were important to New Zealanders and set challenging five-year targets. Agency heads were held collectively responsible for achieving interagency performance targets. The new system, described in the media as the most significant change to public service delivery in 20 years, was called “The 10 Results”. STRENGTHEN ACCOUNTABILITY BY JOHN WILKINS WHAT YOU MEASURE AFFECTS WHAT YOU DO. IF YOU DON’T MEASURE THE RIGHT THING, YOU DON’T DO THE RIGHT THING. — JOSEPH STIGLITZ For decades, the “blame game” characterized relations between central oversight functions and ministries, departments, and agencies working in earnest to serve citizens. Both marshalled evidence cherry picked from audits, evaluations, and experts to claim higher ground. Stakeholders reserved judgment on the efficacy of good intentions depicted in idealized arguments of accountability. But what are the implications of accountability in today’s dynamic, complex operating contexts? Learning organizations collaborate across institutions, sectors, and boundaries to contribute to a holistic vision of the “innovation nation”. Pierre Trudeau’s Just Society was, in part, grounded in action learning and accountability for results. Outcomes are the North Star of evidenceinformed policy making. Evidence helps make sense of different policy options, trade-offs, impacts, timescales, and uncertainties. A modern public service engages with politicians, citizens, stakeholders, and knowledge communities to co-create effective solutions. The extent to which organizations learn from incremental progress towards desired ends needs to be understood. If governing bodies want real accountability, lessons learned must be imparted in accountability stories. Otherwise, learning remains a passenger in a vehicle driven by blame. The advent of autonomous vehicles may free space to reconcile learning and blame. New Zealand’s interagency performance targets Governments often segment work into smaller administrative units, each with a narrower, more manageable focus. Crossboundary problems challenge agencies to work together while continuously improvFOR RESULTS
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