TOPIC 3.7: Collaboration, Delivery and the Innovation Imperative

Collaborative network governance demands the incorporation of vast numbers of different actors into the policy-making process. Contractual relationships, by their very nature, demand huge information resources in order to deal with the accountability, supervisory, information asymmetry and technical requirements inherent in the complex webs that are established within and between agencies and communities. A broad way to conceive the relevance of e-government to the network delivery landscape is to conceptualise the links that can be achieved amongst these parties.

Partnerships are not the only implication to flow from network delivery approaches. Another imperative is the continuous demand for innovation and leadership which relies on better information sharing and requires structured approaches to the collection, re-use and sharing of data and information.

Within agencies, across the whole-of-government and cross-sector information sharing is crucial to:

• deal with emergencies – the need to pull together all available information about a specific issue such as responding to the Covid-19 pandemic or a natural disaster (cyclone, fire or flood),
• integrate information holdings – the need to inform policy development and foster effective policy outcomes by acquiring, integrating and analysing available information across government agencies
• integrate service delivery – the need to provide services across agencies in a seamless way
• manage areas of shared responsibility.

Electronic service delivery is now an established practice in most areas of the public sector. Government portals are used to provide single entry point access to government services to encourage usage ease and co-ordinated delivery, while experiments with online democracy (deliberative polling) initiatives are seeking to reinvigorate public participation in government and facilitate new ways of forging direct, personalised community contact and consultation.

Conclusion

Module 3 has covered ways to implement strength-based approaches, including Appreciative Inquiry, to collaborate with stakeholders. Innovative whole-of-government approaches to managing service delivery have been considered including integrated service delivery, place management, program linkages, case management and inter-departmental committees.

The challenges and opportunities of combining the communicative power of Appreciative Inquiry with the computational power of Artificial Intelligence present new opportunities for innovative and collaborative public management. AIxAI= Power!

The module has offered a mix of conceptual and practical frameworks, methods and tools. In your role as a manager, you may wish to select the most relevant ideas and practices for collaboration and apply them in your workplace.

As we move to more contested and contestable ways of delivering government services or enabling the delivery of government services, you will find the collaborative tools of Appreciative Inquiry and targeted interventions like place management and integrated service delivery becoming core to the business of networked government.

In the next topic, Policy Communities, we will consider the hot topic of policy development and the importance of government articulating policy positions in response to community needs for ‘public value’. The key concepts of participation and accountability in the policy development process will be explored.