Engaging GovernmentUnderstanding and communicating with bureaucracies

My ‘theoretical orientation’

• Bureaucracies aren’t necessarily bad or wrong• Neither government nor private sector is without

faults• Some really smart and highly qualified people work

in bureaucracies – MBAs, MPAs, PhDs, MDs, RNs, MScs, PharmDs and more

• Most of the characteristics and behaviours attributed to government bureaucracies are replicated in large private sector entities

• Likely that this is simply how humans shape their relationships in large structures

The nature of bureaucracy

Bureaucracies are complex!

Bewildering array of job titles• Director General (acting)• Assistant Deputy Minister• Team Lead – Inter-ministry Coordination• Manager – Organizational Effectiveness• Senior Analyst, Performance and Accountability• Planning and Development Officer III

Often job function, reporting relationships andresponsibilities are obscure (to the outsider)

Complexity is deep

The political dimension• Added layer of complexity• Elected officials are the ‘CEOs’ of ministries and departments• Accompanied by advisors and consultants of various age and maturity

– Chief of staff– Special assistants

• Management elite reports to them• Political staff may reach into the bureaucracy at any level and directly

engage

Political imperatives

• Bureaucracies (and bureaucrats) are often permanent – politicians can be fired every 4 years

• Politics is a highly structured competition, governed by normative rules (e.g. parliamentary procedure)

• Bureaucratic and political interests and goals are seldom perfectly aligned– Ultimately the job of a politician

is to get re-elected• Bureaucracies must serve

politicians– Officially they are

representatives of the people– Unofficially the bureaucracy is

the tool that will enable re-election

Political cycle

Risk averse

Democratic political systems typically have 4-5 year cycles

Risk tolerant

election

Policy development

Policy initiation Consolidation

Issues management

Re-election mode

Common features

• Starkly defined roles and job functions– Often unions of various types

• Impersonality of relationships– Formal processes for communicating in and

between units• Hierarchy

I. Workers (division between field and central offices)

II.Line managementIII.Management elites

• Enshrined rules and procedures

Bureaucracies can be siloed

• Between ministries

• Inside ministries

• Responsibilities clearly defined

• Distaste for blurred lines

• Interest in other silos is limited

Some characteristics

• Very busy places – Parkinson’s Law ‘work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion’

• Self-sustaining entities• Inertia is a factor – things like to keep on doing what they are

already doing• Permanence – few bureaucracies go out of business; they

may be renamed, reshaped• Tacit purpose is to preserve (and often grow) the organization• Stability seeking – equilibrium is good• Tension between

– Management – keeping the system running– Leadership – effecting change, introducing innovation

What sort of person works here?

Bureaucratic ‘personality’

• Willingness to comply with superior’s wishes

• Confidence in expert judgement• Preference for impersonal

relationships• Desire for security provided by

standardized roles and processes• Identification with the organization

– belief that bureaucracy is the most effective form of administration

• Often risk averse

Relationships within the bureaucracy

Compliance and positive attitudes upward

Competitiveness horizontally

Exercise of power downward

Peers

Superiors

Subordinates

Telling your story

The public angle• Public sector bureaucracies are designed to serve the public interest –

they see themselves as stewards• Is there a ‘fit’?

– Is what you are saying appropriate – is the ‘ask’ relevant to government interests?– Does it align with avowed and implicit policy, responsibilities?

• How does your story fit the public interest as it is told?• How does it paint your organization – corporate partner, handout

recipient, part of the problem?• Is the language you are using public-minded?• Example: your company needs $10 million in government support for a

research project• Is this:

a) Government handing taxpayer $ to a for-profit multinational?

b) Government creating opportunities for science and strengthening R&D infrastructure?

Sandwich method

++

Interest-based preface Core messaging Common interests again

Embed your points in a discussion that highlights common interests and acknowledges government imperatives

Simplicity

• Work on your elevator pitch – this is the backbone of the story you will tell

• Add detail as your audience shows a need for it• Essential pieces of the pitch are:

– Answer to the ‘so what’ question– Benefits as well as solutions to existing problems

• Example:– Red Rain Biotech is building a centre of excellence in immunology… and needs

a $10 million contribution to do it– So what – helps build R&D capacity and strengthen the biotechnology hub

already in place; fits with existing university-based research; patient benefit– Benefits – this will create 20 new positions in the life sciences, help attract new

talent, create the infrastructure for further research to come– Fixes problems – our biotechnology hub needs more R&D, otherwise it will be

seen as an ‘also-ran’ venture, losing out to bigger centres

Be useful

• Bureaucrats are busy people• They are developing complex initiatives of their own or trying to

operationalize ideas coming from the political sphere• There is limited time to figure out how your idea or ask is going to

work• Be simple in your overview – this will work by doing X and Y…• Create a policy solution of your own – presented in their language• Make whatever you are asking for is a turn-key solution with limited

or no burden on government – don’t make them work to do something for your benefit

The win

• Figure out how to position your ask as a win for the public

• Help bureaucrats sell your concept to political authorities

• Help political decision-makers sell the idea to the public (and protect themselves from criticism)

• If necessary build a coalition of external stakeholders who support your position – they can engage bureaucracies

A word on silos

• Bureaucrats are measured by their successes in their particular area of responsibility – your proposal should help them show themselves as successful

• Telling them how they could do something to benefit some other part of government will not likely be received well

• Examples:– Asking a drug program to list your product because it would reduce spending

in hospitals for a specific surgical intervention is going to be a hard sell– Showing how a drug program could list an anti-psychotic drug that would

reduce the burden schizophrenics place on the corrections system would also be a hard sell

• Respect the silos

Paul McIvor

416.516.7095

416.906.1276 C

mcivor@RosettaPR.com

179 Fern Avenue

Toronto, ON, Canada

M6R 1K2

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