On Thursday, 22 October, the McGuinness Institute launched its Report 15: Improving Strategy Stewardship in the Public Service. This event saw public servants, academics and other interested parties come together to engage with speakers as they discussed the report and additional outputs, Working Paper 2015/04 and The GDS Index Update 2015: Tables.
Institute CEO Wendy McGuinness, author Madeleine Foreman presented the report and department strategy examples of best practice. Victoria Wray from the Department of Internal Affairs then discussed the developing plan for the GDS Profiles to become part of the New Zealand Government website. Guests were then invited to ask questions about content and ways forward.
This report brings together the findings of the Institute’s previous work on government department strategies (GDSs) and the current state of strategic management in the public service. It also includes analysis of 10 new GDSs published since 30 June 2014. It aims to set out the ways that strategy stewardship can be strengthened going forward.
The Working Paper 2015/04 provides a list of government department strategies published by New Zealand government departments between 1 July 1994 and 30 July 2015.
The purpose of the Institute’s research is to put a spotlight on GDSs. By doing so it aims to add value to a discussion on how New Zealand might create GDSs that are more effective at delivering outcomes, more cost-efficient at delivering value and more durable through increased transparency, engagement and fostering of public trust. The crux of the research question is the extent to which each GDS in operation contains the essential elements of a good strategy document. It seeks also to highlight existing strategies which are exemplars of good practice.
Below is a graph of the strategy documents averaged by department. The thick green line indicates the 12 new strategies are improving around element 3, 4 and 5 compared to the existing strategies.
To see The Government Department Strategies Index 2015 and the previous working papers in this programme, please visit The Government Department Strategies Index 2015 website and the StrategyNZ project page. The final report will be available for download on our website and for purchase through our online store.