Results Based Strategies & Plans in NZ’s Public Sector

1. Results Based Strategies & Plans in NZ’s Public Sector Relevance to ADB & yourselves? Not about a road map Not about poverty reduction (in your setting) 0845

2. Sector Results: Why Bother? REDUCING POVERTY (EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT) EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT

3. Evolution of Governance NZ: 1980s ? 1990s ? Now

4. Advice to Leaders & Managers • Leaders must create demand • Staff must support their work • Evidence trumps opinion every time (Risk: culture trumps evidence) • Focus: ‘big’ strategies / interventns • Prioritise, & be pragmatic • Set yourself a challenge • Organise information & analytic outputs to support ‘big’ decisions & reshape ‘road map’ over time

5. Why Bother with Strategy? • Strategy matters • Some strategies matter more than others • Strategy is the starting point for deriving appropriate action (not the ‘sum of current actions’) • Poor structure & evidence base caused us to review strategy design as part of MfR • Priorities should be evidence based, not discipline based (so beware of some economists!)

6. Background to NZ’s Strategy Primer • Many strategies – priority & links unclear • Poorly specified outcomes, results • Based on uncertain needs & demand • Lacked specificity on actions, timing & cost • Limited monitoring of results • Few groups with clear mandate to learn from experience & redraft the strategy

7. Strategy Design & Review • Focus on big, tractable issues that dominate the area • Target significant change for the poor (evidence of major need(s); measurable results; tangible goals) • Use evidence to justify the big interventions (e.g. of need, impact and cost-effectiveness) • Be clear about what must happen, & when. Plans that: • Show how major results will be demonstrated • Specify delivery and performance measurement outputs • How major constraints and risks will be managed • Lay out clear governance, assessment & feedback processes to adjust the plan (Further information on each area is on the rear page of the ‘Strategy Primer’)

8. Proving Strategies & Major Interventions Work

9. Reduce Social Cost of Death & Serious Injury from Road Accidents Ends: Improve Roads (e.g. engineering) Improve Driving (licences & enforcement) Improve Vehicle Mix (standards & testing) Means: Major Inter- ventions: Dangerous corners Intersections Road surfaces Ease of overtaking Speed control Breath testing Young drivers Use of seat belts Import standards Yearly test standards Spot checks, helmets, etc Incentives (e.g. taxes) Analysis: “Show aggregate results”; “Follow the money”

10. Funding Major Interventions • Pre-conditions of funding: • Address needs that remain relevant (what, where, who?) • Ends (outcomes, goals) & means (outputs, coverage) map to #1 • Systems to validate performance vs. clear specification • Ongoing funding: • Efficient (& cost-effective) • Meet quantity & quality standards • Reach & positively influence groups with needs • Reduce needs (improve outcomes) used to justify funding MfDR thus provides ‘funding tests’ & learning opportunities

11. Basket of measures linking services to user expectations

12. Major Strategies & InterventionsPolicy … Design … Planning for Feedback … then Action Plan(where do we want to go?) Measures(how will we know whenwe get there?) Report(did we reach our goal?) Do(to implement the plan) The Policy Management Cycle: After Heather Daynard, Prospect Management Enterprises Inc, Canada

13. Crucial Roles of Senior Managers & Aspirants (2) • Provide & promote leadership • Demonstrate performance by simplest means • Assess & promote staff based on MfDR contributions & competencies • Delegate, in return for accountability for delivery • Eliminate activities with weaker value-add • Establish ‘systems’ required to support MfDR

14. Making Space for MfDR R E S O U R C E S “Accountability, in return for Freedom to Manage”

15. Leadership Roles Crucial(1) • Ensure strategies, CSPs, portfolios, sector plans, etc clarify what needs (outcomes) are targeted for whom, how & why. Ensure strategies, plans, reports & other products work from outcomes (ends) to actions (means). • Deliver monitoring systems as well as outputs. Summarise key results in time to support leadership decisions on strategy, priorities, output, etc • Adapt strategies & plans in response to new information • Focus judgements on contributions to poverty reduction

16. Inducing Change Key Principles & Learnings in Main-streaming MfDR 3.00 pm

17. Organisation & CultureAccentuating the Positive • Accept responsibility for achieving outcomes • Renew intellectual capacity & agency creativity • Integrated set of initiatives – backed by evidence (add new initiatives to build on momentum / gains) • Analytical rigour / honesty, not mgmt. paraphernalia • Reduce real complexity to ‘workable dimensions’ • Active risk-taking, not passive risk avoidance • Build sector-wide knowledge, people, teams After Tony Bliss, LTSA (NZ) & World Bank

18. Roles of Senior ManagementAccentuating the Positive • Strong leadership - Ambitious vision & targets • Manage outcome-output links within limits of performance. System change to surpass limits (Shifting leadership, system, production & measurement frontiers) • Fund portfolio of investment & near-term outputs • Back evidence, esp. vs. conventional wisdom • Manage productive multi-agency partnerships, coordinated at senior levels (often CEO to CEO) Tony Bliss, World Bank

19. Directors Powerful & Influential • LT & MTS • Policies, subsidiary strategies • Cross country comparisons & priority setting • CSPs, priority setting & monitoring • Sector direction & strategy • Delivering & monitoring portfolios & projects • Appointment, assessment & promotion • Allocative decision-making (planning & budgeting) • Project design, approval, management & review • Roles, delegation, accountability vs. freedom to manage • Incentives (rewards, risks, punishments) • Nimble, flexible, responsible, accountable

20. Making Waves (Influencing Actions)

21. Will MfDR Go Away? No. It will evolve. WHY? Your Mission Your Managers Your Shareholders 10:00 am

22. Self Assessing Our Progress in MfDR A tool to help organisations consider their progress in results-based management and identify their capability development objectives

23. Goals for an MDB Tool [1] Boards, leaders and managers will be better able to identify: • where and how well we are managing, and embedding & practising results-based management at lower levels • what needs to be done to gain further progress in MfDR • what our development priorities are [2] Communicate expectations to our staff

24. The Tool (1) • Self-assessment: not accountability mechanism • Results subjective: not comparable across units • Designed to be flexible, adaptable & applicable at agency, department, division, unit levels • Use iteratively to gauge progress & set goals • KISS: Cannot be all encompassing (e.g. change management not covered in NZ version)

25. Likely Structure • Simple introduction • Focus on a small number of questions on key dimensions of performance (MfDR) • Keep questions simple, short, generic • Describe stages of development (scale) • Overview (pulling the self-assessment together)

26. Tool for the ADB • Must cover key aspects of MfDR … • Directors have helped us identify priorities for the ADB, and added new messages • Feedback will be used to build MDB tool • Will evolve on the basis of later feedback from directors & other senior managers • Learn from others

27. Assessment Components(NZ Tool) • Clarity about ends & means (strategy & plan) • Capability required (planning, delivery, learning) • Assessing progress in implementation Big Question for the ADB & MDBs: What bits of the model must be protected, & how must it be adapted. You will be asked for your opinions shortly …