In a globalised, digitised and networked world, what will public services look like and what kind of public service will we need?

Join Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU and the Public Service Research Group at UNSW for a panel discussion launching Reimagining the Future Public Service Workforce.

Drawing on contributions from leading academics and practitioners in Australia and the UK context, this book aims to re-imagine the public service workforce and the roles, competencies and skills required. The book explores how a re-imagined public service workforce might be designed, and the recruitment and development strategies required to realise it.

Co-hosted by Crawford School Director, Professor Helen Sullivan and Director of the Public Service Research Group, Associate Professor Helen Dickinson.

This panel discussion was presented at an event held on 6 November 2018

Should robots replace public servants?

If you want to improve public policy, just having the best proposal is not enough – you must circumvent the multitude of obstacles that the murky reality of politics presents. Even presidents and prime ministers do not get enough formal authority to control the myriad of practitioners, players, processes and policies involved in 21st century government.

This presentation by Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Associate Professor, The University of Auckland, argues that policy – and any other political goal - needs good political management. Political management is about how to cultivate and wield influence in a complex system of competing interests utilising leadership, organisational structures, strategic planning, political HR and reviewing. The ability to get the right people on the team, persuade others, utilise long-established rules and adapt different leadership approaches to suit the circumstances has significant impact on policy outcomes. Drawing on a synthesis of previously disconnected literature analysed through the lens of management concepts and illustrated with documents from political organisations, this seminar will present the 4 Ds of political management - Deliberating, Designing, Doing and Dancing. The model outlines the importance of getting information and reflecting, planning what to do, implementation and management, as well as the more tactical, artful and adaptative power sources and leadership approaches that are not always clearly defined or official.

The presentation notes how political management involves expected topics such as strategic planning and recruitment but their use in a political setting is not straightforward. It highlights how political management is more of a dance than a march, involving the unseen and the informal, and requiring artful and tactful leadership to draw on and extend diverse sources of power. Politicians and policymakers may learn this over time on the job, but more education is needed to ensure all players have political management skills at their disposal from the start.

Dr Jennifer Lees-Marshment is an Associate Professor at The University of Auckland and Visiting Fellow at Crawford school of Public Policy and in Canberra from Monday 30 September to the Friday 8 November. As the author/editor of 15 books, Jennifer is a world expert in political marketing with additional research interests in public input, leadership, and political management. She is editor of the book series Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management, the Routledge Handbook of Political Marketing (2012) and lead author of Political Marketing: principles and applications 3rd edition (Routledge 2019). See www.lees-marshment.org.

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