John M. Kamensky
Abstract
This is a book review on Solving Public Problems written by Beth Simone Noveck (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021, 352 pgs.) Dr. Noveck is widely known as an evangelist for digital innovation. But in this book, she focuses on the need to develop a cadre of “public problem solvers” to fix government more broadly. She outlines four sets of skills they need to be successful and the steps that need to be taken to build the capacity to involve both public servants and citizens in tackling public challenges. Her book is a plan of action that is supplemented with exercises at the end of each chapter and a free on-line training course with video tutorials and worksheets.
1 INTRODUCTION
Beth Simone Noveck's latest book, Solving Public Problems: A Practical Guide to Fix Our Government and Change Our World, bills itself as “a practical guide for change agents” [p. 7]. It offers specific steps to successfully implement transformative initiatives, such as the Biden Administration's ambitious efforts to improve public trust in government by, for example, improving the customer experience for Americans at key points in their lives that involve government services such as having a child, applying for student or small business loans, or retiring [1]. The steps she details can also be applied by change agents – who she also dubs as “public problem solvers” – in states, localities, and other countries.
Dr. Noveck is a bonafide “pracademic” – someone who bridges the divide between practitioners and academics. She applies her extensive career experience to the topic [2]. She is widely known as an enthusiastic evangelist of digital innovation. She envisions a stronger democracy that empowers the public through open government and the use of digital technologies that enable citizens to share in making decisions that affect their lives. In the beginning of the Obama Administration, she was in a position as the federal government's first deputy chief technology officer to act on some elements of her vision. That experience helps inform what she did after leaving the federal government and why she has written this book.
This book offers a roadmap to implement her vision of creating new mindsets, not just skill sets, among civil servants at all levels of government. She draws on her experiences, the experiences of governments around the world, and other innovators from a wide array of professional disciplines. She envisions a cadre of public problem solvers who will lead a shift in the governance paradigm. To create this cadre, her book offers “a learnable set of tools that, when combined with subject matter expertise, make it possible to design interventions that improve people's lives” [p. 12]. She frames this roadmap in three parts: defining public problems more effectively, developing the skills to address the problems of tomorrow, and the steps needed to be taken to transform the way government works.
2 THE SKILL SETS NEEDED TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS OF TOMORROW
The core of the book outlines the skills needed by citizens and public servants – the public problem solvers – to address the problems of tomorrow. She organizes these necessary skills around four problem solving skill sets: (1) problem definition, (2) solution identification and design, (3) implementation, and (4) evaluation.
2.1 Skill Set 1: Ability to Clearly Define Problems
Effectively defining a public problem is a key prerequisite to problem solving, writes Noveck, and this must result in “a shared understanding of the problem using both human-centered design and data-analytical thinking” [p. 59].
She writes that defining problems is hard in a political environment because the incentive for politicians and public servants is to deliver solutions, not spend time defining a problem. She notes that defining a problem properly increases the chances that policy makers will develop a better solution. For example, she points to a case where policy makers improved student test scores in rural China by providing glasses, not more educational resources, because the problem was properly defined in advance of the intervention [p. 77].
Noveck describes a range of techniques for better problem definition, but notes that they need to be undertaken with the people who are affected, not just for them, and that this is the essence of participatory democracy. For example, she observes: “Design thinking enriches our problem-definition process by providing insight into how people actually experience a problem” [p. 95]. She also describes specific participatory problem-definition techniques such as the use of crowdsourcing, human-centered design, and wiki-based surveys. Each of these has roots in earlier digital government initiatives.
In some respects, the U.S. federal government has recently adopted her insight of the need for better problem solving by requiring federal agencies to develop “learning agendas” that better define policy problems. This new statutory requirement will be implemented for the first time across the federal government in 2022 [3].
2.2 Skill Set 2: Ability to Identify and Design Solutions
Once problem solvers have developed a shared definition of a problem, they need to develop “effective and workable solutions.” This can be done, according to Noveck, by using open innovation techniques such as crowdsourcing, cocreation, and collaboration. This is being done, for example, in Reykjavik, Iceland, where more than half the population has participated in proposing or voting on solutions to community issues using an online platform, Better Reykjavik [4].
Noveck notes that the biggest challenge for policymakers is that: “what makes sense for humans does not make sense for how government works” [p. 117]. She writes that “The adoption of data-driven practices reflects a relatively new way of working that seeks to collect, analyze, use, and share data” not just to comply with requirements but to use them to rapidly improve performance [p. 136].
Analyzing data can help policymakers understand past performance, such as the effectiveness of housing vouchers in reducing homelessness. However, larger quantities of real-time data drawn from multiple sources (also called “big data”) can help deliver more tailored interventions in the present, such as improving enrollment into feeding programs by reducing administrative burdens on recipients. Also, better access to existing administrative data across programs and departments can help predict potential future outcomes, such as when the New York City fire department created an algorithm to identify buildings with the highest fire risks and proactively encouraged installation of smoke detectors.
Another approach is for government to invite solutions from a broad public – once they've developed a well-defined problem statement. This is being done in the federal government via Open Innovation approaches, competitions, and awards via initiatives such as Challenges.gov, a one-stop website used by problem solvers across the federal government [5]. For example, NASA collaborates with existing crowdsourcing communities in the private sector, such as InnoCentive, to develop solutions to various scientific and computational challenges [p. 179].
2.3 Skills Set 3: Ability to Implement
Too often, policymakers stop at the defining and designing stage. Getting policy implemented is an essential element of success and often times no single program or agency can deliver results. This has been a theme among public administration scholars, such as Donald Kettl, for more than a decade (The Next Government of the United States, W. W. Norton Co., 2009). Noveck incorporates this insight into her arsenal of problem solving techniques by stressing the importance of creating partnerships, collaboration, and co-creation inside and outside government.
Noveck shares a checklist for a six-step process of partnering with a nuanced understanding of eight different kinds of partnerships based on different governance models [p. 271]. She describes various approaches to collaboration – shared group efforts – for example, the creation of content for Wikipedia or participatory budgeting by citizens in their local communities. There are similar community-based efforts to collect and map community data, such as parking spots and water fountains in public parks. She also describes the value of co-creation, using the example of a sustainability network developed in Lakewood, CO, that engages residents as problem solvers to improve the livability of their neighborhoods by increasing tree-canopy coverage, reducing waste streams, and conserving water [p. 181].
Noveck says that implementing solutions with partners can result in cost savings, improved service delivery, better expertise, working differently, and sharing data. She points to San Francisco's Civic Bridge, which is based on pro-bono contributions from tech-sector companies. In this example, tech-company volunteers and city workers reduced administrative barriers to program recipients by co-designing a new process for affordable housing applications [p. 263].
2.4 Skill Set 4: The Ability to Evaluate
The final stage in Dr. Noveck's public problem-solving framework is to determine what worked and what didn't. And scale what works.
She advocates experimentation – try and fail fast – but cautions to avoid “pilot-itis” – trying many proof-of-concept experiments but never crossing the threshold to scale anything to implementation. She contrasts advocates of fast experimentation, such as The GovLab that she directs, versus advocates for more formal, evidence-heavy randomized control trials. Randomized control trials are time-consuming and costly, but are seen as the gold standard. Fortunately, the results of these formal evaluations are increasingly being made more widely accessible via clearinghouses such as the Pew-MacArthur Results First Clearinghouse of effective social policy programs [6].
Noveck also observes that there is an evolution in available policy tools, expanding from the use of more traditional “vertical” tools – grants, regulations, contracts – to include “horizontal tools,” such as changes in processes and partnerships, use of behavioral science, use of open data, and self-regulation (where individuals change behavior with information, not regulation) [p. 220]. These newer horizontal tools are often digitally-based and have the potential to enhance consumer choice. For example, the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard website helps students and parents make more informed choices about college costs and value of the education [p. 221].
3 HOW TO PREPARE PEOPLE DIFFERENTLY, STARTING NOW
As noted earlier, Dr. Noveck sees an urgency in acting sooner rather than later because of the rising public distrust in public institutions. She writes that universities and governments need to begin to train public problem solvers at scale. And this training needs to not only develop individual skill sets but also institutional mind-sets. There are existing models. For example, Singapore's GovTech regularly engages academic experts and citizens when designing new or improved services and policies, and Australia's Innovation Exchange in its Department of Foreign Affairs “encourage the use of open innovation to source new solutions” [p. 309].
She found that to be effective in public problem solving, organizations need to embrace three values to support such mind-sets: agile, experimental, and open. Agile is less of a specific methodology than a way of thinking: try, fail, improve and try again. Experimental organizations offer a place to pilot projects quickly and experiment safely. An example of this is the United Nation's Global Pulse, an experimental unit that provides data-science expertise for tackling global Sustainable Development Goals [p. 312]. Open organizations are transparent in how they do their work and engage the public.
Deploying these values, however, requires a commitment to problem solving skill training. Examples include Canada's Digital Academy, the City of Denver, Colorado's PEAK Academy, and Argentina's LabGob [p. 326]. She found that skill development via coaching (learning by doing) seems to be more effective than via more traditional classroom-based training, since it requires working in teams to solve real-world problems across disciplinary silos and beyond governmental boundaries. She writes: “learning to solve well-structured problems [such as is done in more traditional training environments] leaves graduates poorly equipped to tackle open-ended, complex, real-world problems” [p. 343].
4 HOW DOES THIS BOOK FIT INTO A BROADER CONTEXT?
There have been a number of books over the past three decades that describe how government is broken and citizens have lost trust in its ability to deliver on promises. As does Noveck, they say there is an urgent need to fix how government works and they, too, offer solutions.
Like Noveck, they define problems facing government and the country, outline a set of principles, define broad solutions, and sometimes even detail a set of techniques and tools. The pioneer for this genre is David Osborne, co-author of the best seller “Reinventing Government” in 1992 [7] and co-author of a “how-to” fieldbook in 2000 [8]. In his first book, he and co-author Ted Gabler describe innovative behaviors they observed public managers practicing in federal agencies, states, and cities around the country. They organized these observed behaviors around ten market-based principles such as being mission-driven, results-oriented, customer-driven, decentralized, and competitive. In 2000, Osborne, along with Peter Plastrik, followed up with a “how to” fieldbook that describe specific strategies and techniques to create new behaviors linked to reinvention. Their fieldbook details concrete steps to take, such as creating clarity of purpose (interestingly, this is Noveck's number one step, as well!) and shifting control away from the top and center by empowering employees and the community (again, another theme in Noveck's book).
Another well-received public management author, William Eggers, published two books in 2004 that extended beyond Osborne's work, with more of an emphasis on the role of digital technology and the use of collaborative networks [9]. According to Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle, Eggers’ work focuses on the need to transform government ‘from a centralized behemoth into a responsive entity, offering the kind of personalized, flexible service we've come to expect from private firms” [10]. His target audience was practitioners in government, however he offered no “how to” guide.
In 2009, public administration scholar Donald Kettl created a compelling case to rethink public institutions and rely more on collaborative networks, and the evolution of networks of networks – by advocating for knowledge-driven organizations, the ability to handle non-routine problems, and the use of non-hierarchical solutions [11]. He notes that “many of the most important problems we face simply do not match the institutions we have created to govern them.” While more scholarly in approach, he also did not offer a “how to” guide.
And there have been other books, such as “Moneyball for Government” in 2016, that advocates fixing government by increasing the use of data and evidence in public decision making, along with the competencies needed to develop and analyze these data [12].
Dr. Noveck raises many of the same challenges and strategies in her book. But her focus is on developing a cadre of skilled professionals and citizenry with the competencies to deliver on those challenges. But what is different than the previous works mentioned, she goes a step further. She follows up the book with an open training framework comprised of web-based resources that provide the “how” to do it, which can be useful to practitioners, civil society, and academics. The open source web-based training modules – much like her book and the books mentioned above – are built on stories of actual cases where the principles she outlines are being put into practice in the U.S. and around the world.
A parallel in the world of public administration is another on-line open source resource, “Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age” which offers training on digital era skills [13]. This 2020 resource offers a collaboratively-developed syllabus by an international team of educators to develop competencies for digital era public service leaders. It focuses on topics such as being client-centric, working with multidisciplinary teams, the importance of continuously learning to improve outcomes, and understanding how to use data to inform decisions. Interestingly, these topics parallel those detailed in Noveck's book and her web-based training modules, but with a more academic audience in mind.
In addition to digital skill training, two of the contributors to the syllabus -- Amanda Clarke and Thomas Steinberg -- also developed a set of research questions designed to hone more specifically which skills and knowledge future public servants will need to be effective in the digital age. They propose to assess, for example, whether “orthodox” best practices such as agile methods and user research methods are actually effective, what are the preconditions for the successful application of best practices, and which training methods will most effectively advance digital transformation [14]. Interestingly, these relate to several research questions being raised by the federal government itself in its December 2021 draft “learning agenda” for improving federal employee digital and other competencies in the effective delivery of services to the public [15]. When taken together, practitioner- and academic-oriented, web-based open-source training resources -- such as those being offered by Dr. Noveck and others -- along with the development of research agendas will help further the development of digital and other competencies in public servants today and in the future.
5 MAKING IT MORE ACCESSIBLE
The book is written in a breezy, readable style that makes it accessible to practitioner readers. But there are a couple points readers need to keep in mind. First, Dr. Noveck succumbs to a common academic shortcoming – a tendency toward “concept overload.” This requires readers to work harder than necessary to follow the key points because they are periodically led down blind alleys. For example, early in the book [p. 13] she sets forth seven “learnable sets of tools” that I thought would be the organizational construct for the book. They are, sort of, but you would have to cross-walk them to the various chapters with different title headings. Then shortly thereafter, she describes five core skills of innovative people [p. 17]. But that wasn't part of the organizational construct either. Then she writes that “Each chapter describes a different skill and explains its value and how it works in practice,” which she does [p. 21]. There are seven chapters with seven skill sets (chapters 4–10). But then she says there are four stages of participatory problem solving [p. 59] which is also, sort of, the organizational construct for the book. However, the four stages are not intuitive to the reader since they are spread across six chapters (chapters 5–10). Offering a single construct and following it would have made the book easier to follow.
Second, she calls for wholesale systems change and the creation of “public entrepreneurs.” But in doing so, she is dismissive of potential audiences. She denigrates entrepreneurship and public administration expertise; calls the concept of new public management “elitist,” bad mouths the consulting profession, and is overtly politically partisan in tone [pp. 43, 45, 48]. In contrast, she promotes the need to build specialized skills in human-center design, data and analytics, field scanning, etc. – all of which require expertise that could be called “elitist.” She could have characterized her vision for “public problem solvers” in a more positive tone without alienating potential converts. After all, she notes “problem solving is not the skill of the lone leader” [p. 56].
6 CONCLUSION
Dr. Noveck's book draws on contributions from different professional disciplines and ties together a number of strands in the literature on the topic by various pracademics in recent years. As noted above, not only does she provide an overarching framework for what needs to be done but also provides an open source, digital how-to guide, with inspiring examples of where public problem solving is already happening. This website – www.solvingpublicproblems.org – allows you to download the book, use a “public problem-solving canvas” which is a set of structured questions to develop a plan of action around your organization's four stages of public problem solving, and/or take a free online course that is based on interviews with twenty-four “leading changemakers” from across America and around the world. The site claims the course can be completed in twelve hours. This open source how-to guide, like the book, will help make you a public problem solver!
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(auto-classified)Book Review: Solving Public Problems – A Practical Guide to Fix Our Government and Change Our World
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