Governing

I just read an article on a new, fresh idea in administration of city and state government.   Actually, a couple of ideas.

One is, don’t administer by emotion, administer by data.  Track what works, determine why it works, propagate it.

The other is, give people the freedom to determine how to meet goals, using their own initiative.  Don’t tell them how, tell them what.   And along the way, establish communications with other agencies, so that you can support each others goals.

Speaking of which: have goals.  Broad, overarching, multi-year, multi-agency goals.

I don’t know what’s worse – realizing that these people are hotted up for something that the private sector discovered more than a decade ago, or realizing that they’re hotted up for something that the private sector substantially gave up on, more than a decade ago.  Actually, to say gave up on is unfair, since many of the pieces are still out there, and I’m willing to bet that those which haven’t been overcome by the creeping algae of bureaucracy are still pumping along.  But the original, shiny, Big Idea Big Picture stuff that looked so good before they took off the wrapper and tried to make it work?  That, not so much.

People really want fast, straightforward solutions.  Government’s no different, I guess.