When Change Happens

Those who know me, know I have been through a huge amount of change in my life. Sometimes it was something I chose, other times it was chosen for me. I’ve been completely broke a couple of times – once ending up living in my friend’s driveway in a caravan. I’ve lost everything in a house fire. I have been through a marriage breakup, become a single Mum and walked away from a salaried job to work and live on the road.

For me, change is a constant – I have reset myself so many times that it hardly features any more. Right now, I’m sitting pretty, a good job, a nice house, money to spend on overseas trips. This is a place I have never been before, and while it is nice, it could change at any moment. But I’ll be fine.

A few days ago, I wrote a few paragraphs on change for a friend of mine. She’s going through some fundamental change and is right in the middle of that hardest patch – when you feel like you have been kicked in the stomach and head simultaneously, everything that gave you stability in your life has moved and you feel totally alone. I kind of like the message, so thought I’d share them a little more widely.

When change is happening, sometimes the hardest thing to cope with is that sense of loss – of hopes, dreams, status… At times like these you have to be brutal in your stocktake of who you are and where you are. Once you know who you are, and have a realistic understanding of your strengths, weaknesses and supports, you can start to move forward.

What is your position right now? Is this position sustainable? Can you build your way from here or do you need to make some more, final changes first. It may feel like stepping down and losing a lot of things you have worked hard for, but you have to let go of that feeling.

Reset yourself, your plans, hopes and dreams. Focus on what is good – your family, friends and skills – then brush off your wings. You may fly at a lower altitude for a little while, but once you are steady again, you will achieve so much more than you previously dreamed.

Changing the world

 

New Zealand is in trouble. There is a growing gap between the wealthy and the poor, generations who have never worked and alcohol, drugs and violence being a way of life for some. There is a sense of entitlement from some, that ‘the government’ should fund their lifestyle. This has been a problem that has steadily grown over the last forty years. Successive governments have implemented initiatives designed to address the problem – some focusing on youth, some on families and some on communities. But the problem has continued to grow. Should we condemn these people? Put more of them in prison? Cut benefits if they don’t go out and get jobs? Force the truants back to school? What has happened to these people that they don’t feel a part of society, that they are excluded, unable to contribute productively to the New Zealand community? We could.  But I’m not convinced that this will address the real problems. And none of the solutions above addresses the real problems. We don’t need more punishment. We need transformational change.

Is it possible with our current public management system, to implement transformational change?

The late 1980s saw major change in government, from a hierarchical, process driven, job for life public service to ‘new public management’ – specification of inputs, outputs and outcomes, measurement, accountability taken to new levels, responsibility for departments given to chief executives who hold five-year contracts. The aim is to be more prudent with public money. Agency theory was a driving force for the changes in the 1980s, with its strong economic base, requirement for specification above all else and central problem of correcting information asymmetry. Relationships were defined in terms of the power relationship, which was always unequal. The results have included a fragmentation of services, over specification and onerous reporting requirements. Working together in partnership – with other agencies, with non-government organisations or even with clients – is the exception rather than the rule.

The approaches based on agency theory has not improved the lives of many of our most vulnerable citizens. Often, the kind of services that will assist people to transform their lives are not those that can be easily measured or counted. Transforming lives means working with people on their aspirations, developing new behaviours, new skills, new ways. Progress cannot be measured by counting the number of appointments kept.

What can change? Government agencies could work together better, could work with non-government organisations in a more productive way, could work with clients in a different way. Why, if we have a major problem in New Zealand society, don’t we? Many evaluation studies and other research have told us that the reason, for example, children fall through the cracks is that government agencies do not work together.

I think there is something about the fundamental principles of the system that form the barriers. Something about agency theory, which rewards individual results and does not reward working together. However much departments are told to – and know they should – work together, the current public management system is set up in a way that actively discourages it.

I’m now winding into my second year of a doctorate. At the end of this year, I will have a proposal for research. I want to figure out whether there is a better way, whether there are approaches – and system changes that could start to address these fundamental issues facing New Zealand society.

I’m ok, personally. I earn enough to keep myself rather nicely, and so does the vast majority of my family. However, I do not want to live in a country where all people cannot reach their potential. I do not want to see a vast gap between the haves and the have-nots. It is not acceptable to me that the family in which you are born dictates the station you will reach in life. The only way I can see to contribute is to do the research and to live my life in a way that is true to my values. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to work on changing what little bit of the world I can.