Public service agility: Unleashing innovation
July 25, 2019
In brief
In brief
- When public service organisations become agile, it enables new ways of working across policy, regulatory and service delivery.
- Agility protects government from disruption, but few organisations are investing in agile practices.1
- When asked why their organisation has not used agile methods, 43 percent of public service respondents said they were reluctant to change.2
- Public service organisations that infuse agility across structure, technology and people will be positioned to respond to constant change.
Liquid expectations, an ageing population and shrinking workforce, and digital disruption. Singapore’s public service organisations are facing increasing pressure to evolve to keep pace with key forces of change that will impact the future ways of working. To support the Public Sector Transformation (PST) effort to strengthen service delivery and citizen engagement in a volatile world, agility must become their new strategic imperative.
Singapore Government: It’s time for public service agility
Becoming an “agile“ organisation is a term heard frequently within management circles today. And while forward thinkers know it’s the only way to navigate the accelerating pace of change in the public sector, the implications are not as easy to appreciate. Becoming agile enables new ways of working within the digital economy across the core functions of government: policy, regulatory and service delivery.
The future requires a dynamic, adaptive and responsive organisation that is equipped to address the convergence of demographic, socioeconomic and political change. At the same time, government must be able to harness opportunities brought by technology-driven disruptions such as artificial intelligence (AI) and strengthen national resiliency against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
Agile organisations are able to pivot to a citizen-centric culture that responds to citizen needs the moment they arise. They are also able to deliver dynamic regulatory and compliance frameworks, while balancing fiscal constraints to ensure efficient management and accountability of public funds.
Becoming agile enables new ways of working within the digital economy across the core functions of government: policy, regulatory and service delivery.
Meeting the new imperative
Business and technology innovations have disrupted work, businesses, industries and our entire society. Public service organisations are not immune to the state of constant change in today’s world. In fact, government is becoming a platform for orchestrating public-private connections and delivering next-generation public services.
Change is the only certainty and agility is the first line of defence. However, only 14 percent of public service organisations surveyed have more than 60 percent of their funding model focused on agile practices.3 An agile organisation that continually evolves to support innovative service delivery is essential for success. Agility at all levels reduces complexity and increases responsiveness, allowing government to meet the needs of citizens and businesses that they serve.
From bold vision to execution
To thrive in an age of disruption, Singapore’s public service organisations must embrace agility as a key organisational capability to shape the path forward for transformation. Doing so would allow them to reap tangible benefits of PST and progress towards a digital government. This requires having well-defined transformation plans in place that facilitate new ways of working and incorporate key technology advancements and the impact on the workforce.
Accenture has helped global and local public safety and border agencies clarify and align their organisation capability and workforce strategies to support agility. This includes developing an understanding of the implications of technology changes to the future of work and its impact on the workforce. In addition, it is essential to redefine services to handle increasingly complex operations while enhancing security.
We also helped a healthcare organisation prepare its workforce for new ways of working, driven by intelligent automation and an increased focus on patient care. This included assessing the possibilities of moving the workforce to address demand for value-added skills to support new models of patient care. Using a data-driven approach to understand and reshape the workforce, Accenture provided AI-based insights to help the client identify opportunities and value potential for automation, adaptive workforce and skills required for the future.
The anatomy of agility
Singapore public service organisations can infuse agility across the entire organisation:
The backbone: Structure.
Agile organisations take a holistic approach to managing the entire body of the government agency—the people, processes and technology.
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By shaping the organisation with a fast and stable approach in mind, it will be poised for dynamic, adaptive services that meet citizen demands and stakeholder needs, speed up decision making processes and allow innovation to thrive.
The muscle: Technology.
Among public service organisations using agile methods for IT, 82 percent saw greater flexibility, while 81 percent saw improved quality.4
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The core systems within many public service organisations lack the business agility needed to respond quickly to changes, such as new government policies, and respond quickly to citizens’ everchanging needs. New technologies and platforms will allow government agencies to make data-driven decisions, improve operations, drive innovation, and enable personalised and customised interactions.
The intellect: People.
Public service organisations that have adaptive workforce models offer new opportunities.
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For instance, self-organising teams centre on customer outcomes—not functions. Siloed, hierarchical structures dissolve. Teams are flexible enough to quickly disassemble and reassemble to take on the next task. And rather than focusing on rewarding tenure and volume of output, agile organisations reward innovation and quality of outcomes. Agile organisations also invest in new talent with new skills, such as analytics, data science and cyber security—27 percent are hiring new talent with agile skills.5
The heart: Citizens.
There is only one boss in the agile public service organisation—the citizen.
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And he or she can render an entire department irrelevant simply by choosing not to comply. Providing flexible and adaptable experiences to citizens will deliver tangible benefits to government such as increased trust and transparency, greater compliance, less fraud, improved data quality/accuracy and cost reduction.
Accelerating agility
It is time to be fearless rather than hesitant because the potential benefits of agility for government are exponential. There is no single path to follow to become an agile public service organisation. But there are many ways to get started. Take the leap and unleash your agency’s innovation transformation.
1 Accenture Public Service Agile Research, 2018
2 Ibid
3 Ibid
4 Ibid
5 Ibid
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