Practical Innovation in Government

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The Problems with Management-Driven Improvement in Government

We did not expect to find that the most successful transformations of government operations in our study would be characterized by front-line–driven improvement. Like so many others who have worked with continuous improvement (CI) in the public-sector, we were unwittingly working under two assumptions, both wrong. First, radical performance improvement in government must be driven by high-level leadership, whether elected or administrative. Second, the same approaches used in the business world will work in government too. But government is not a business, and what works for CI in the private sector does not always work as well in the public sector. We were surprised when we figured ...