The Formula for Impact: The young public servant's guide to doing well while doing good

The everyday hero

This book is about making you an everyday hero, so let’s start by meeting one; a humble man called Sean, who makes my corner of the world better every day.

Sean is a supervisor in the civil engineering department at my local Council. He’s been there for 35 years and every year he takes the lead in training some of the ginger beers – the young engineering recruits, fresh out of university. Sean knows all there is to know about what he does, and he loves teaching the ginger beers how to actually get sh*t done, not just stand around waiting for orders.

I was fortunate enough to meet Sean by chance one morning while I was out walking. He’d been driving through my neighbourhood and had noticed that one of the street signs was off kilter, so he’d stopped to fix it. He didn’t have to, but he saw an opportunity to make things better, so he did.

We got to talking, and I told Sean about a few problems with the intersection. He listened deeply, studying the whole area. He asked me questions that showed he was really putting himself in my shoes, trying to understand how locals used the space and what challenges they faced. I was delighted – it was so great to be listened to!

Since that day, I’ve kept in touch with Sean. In fact, he reviewed this book, as did his ginger beers.

And who better? Sean epitomises why I’m writing this book, and the ginger beers are who I’m writing it for.

You’re a ginger beer – new to the public service, new to adulthood. The world you’re stepping out into will be yours for a very long time to come. Some parts are thriving, and some parts are struggling. Whether your job is to maintain the good bits or fix the bad bits, with the right guidance, you can make a genuine difference.

Not everyone is as lucky as the ginger beers who have Sean to show them the ropes. So it’s my hope that this book will be your Sean.

Smallpox was the scourge of generations from as far back as 1500 BC. The estimated death toll for the 20th century alone is up to 300 million people. That’s far more than both world wars combined.

But in 1980 smallpox became the first disease in human history to be eradicated from the planet.

We went from this…¹

…to this!²

And the public sector made it happen.

The world is full of gaps between what’s good for everyone and what actually happens. Every gap represents avoidable human suffering.

We all recognise huge gaps – poverty, hunger, war. There are (relatively) small gaps, too – cracked roads, hard-to-navigate grant programs, outdated curriculums. Times when things aren’t safe, aren’t reliable or aren’t fair.

You wouldn’t be reading this book if you didn’t want to close the gaps around you. I see you, and I have good news for you – the public sector is the perfect place to close gaps.

That’s because public sector agencies exist to do exactly that – through the work of millions of public servants like you, governments around the world close gaps every day. Do you consider yourself a public servant? If you work in an office, for a Department, probably yes. But if you’re a teacher, a Council worker or an ambo, you may not, and that’s okay. In this book, I’m going to use the term in its broadest sense, to refer to anyone who works for any level of government, in any capacity.

Of course, not every day can be a cure smallpox day, but there are millions of less dramatic examples of how public servants close gaps every day – even in the room you’re in right now.

For example, the ceiling light operates within voltage limits instead of showering you with sparks. The flooring can be walked on for years without you worrying about falling through it. Your lunch is safe to eat. The clock on the wall states a time we all agree on. All those things have been made safe, reliable and fair, thanks to the public sector.

Public service isn’t for everyone, but if you think you’ve got the right stuff, this book will teach you how to close the gaps that matter to you.

WHAT’S IN THIS PART?

This book is divided into five parts, which contain lots of short chapters. Each part focuses on one element of the Formula for Impact.

I’m starting this book by talking about the public sector, because I’m making the assumption that you’re where you are intentionally, so therefore it’s your first P – the right Place (for you).

The ideas in this Part form the foundation of why the public sector exists, no matter which level, which jurisdiction, which portfolio, and so it stands to reason that if you don’t know this stuff, you’re liable to make worse decisions.

These ideas won’t just make you a better bureaucrat. They should make you burst with pride at what you do, and fill you with excitement for what you’ll be capable of.

This book is intended to be politically neutral. But there are two underpinning assumptions, so let’s put them out there.

First, the benefits of having publicly beneficial services delivered in some centrally organised manner usually outweigh the costs of providing them.

Second, that in the absence of better alternatives, that centrally organised manner equates to public servants working for public sector agencies. That’s you.

So with that said, in Chapter 1 we’ll explore why the public service reaches so far into peoples’ lives, and why certain things should be left to government, and other things left to the private sector. Then in Chapter 2, I’ll help you work out whether you do service delivery or regulation (trick question – you do both) and what that means.

In Chapter 3, we’ll get our first taste of power by examining where power comes from. Then I’ll slaughter our first sacred cow in Chapter 4 by explaining why there is no customer.

In Chapter 5, I’ll teach you the principles that will become your guiding light. And in Chapter 6, I’ll challenge an idea that’s probably framed your thinking until now – it’s definitely framed much of the world’s thinking – then replace it with a model of the world that better reflects reality.

By the end of the first six short chapters of this book, you’ll feel proud to be a public servant, clear on why what you do really matters, and ready to make wiser decisions immediately.

1

Why every civilisation creates governments

The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.

Thomas Jefferson, US President 1801–1809

Empty pots make the most noise.

English proverb

Why has nobody come up with a subscription model for national defence? So many people argue about how much defence we should have, what type, when, where. Why not just let individuals choose what kind of defence they want, then pay a subscription, like we do for Netflix? We could do the same with street lighting. And police. And tax!

The reasons why such services aren’t provided on an individual, choose-your-own-adventure basis show us exactly why government exists and why agencies like yours are so important for solving big problems.

THE PUBLIC GOOD

We humans, bless us, can be short-sighted and irrational creatures. Have you heard of the tragedy of the commons? It refers to the phenomenon where something that’s everyone’s ironically tends to get protected by no-one.

It’s why Easter Island has no trees – back in the day, the locals cut them all down to make boats, not realising that one day, there would be no more trees.

Thankfully, over time we humans have developed the means to overcome the tragedy of the commons. We created entities to manage our commons on behalf of us all.

Those entities are called governments. Also known as the public sector.

This then is the first critical lesson you need to know. It’s so fundamental that I’m going to call it The Golden Rule: The public sector exists to provide necessary public goods.¹

Let’s unpack that, in reverse. If you flick to the glossary in the back of this book, here’s what you’ll find under public good:

A good or service that benefits society as a whole, which is made available to all members of a society (sometimes with conditions). Due to their non-excludable, non-rivalrous nature, access to public goods is typically administered by governments and paid for via taxation.

Clear as mud?

Here’s the no-frills version. Public good means the commons. It’s all the stuff that’s in everyone’s interests for us to have access to, whether we individually use it or not. Public goods are the unsexy things that make us a civilised society.

Examples include youth mental health wards, stable currency, stormwater management, mineral deposits and even esoteric ideas like freedom of speech. All the stuff that most of us, as citizens, don’t think twice about (til it fails).

Now because you’re more than just a citizen, because you’re also doing this stuff for a living, let’s dig deeper into that definition.

First, public goods are what economists call non-excludable – anyone who’s eligible can access them.

Second, they’re non-rivalrous. This means use by one person doesn’t stop them also being used by another person.

Gibberish? Let me try again.

Think about the last night you walked home down your street; the streetlights were on, yeah? You got the benefit of that lighting, even if you haven’t paid your taxes, right? The lights don’t turn on for some people and off for others. That’s non-excludable.

Now, if I also walked down the same street, even though you were using the light, I could still use it too. And we’re not going to run out of light no matter how many people are on that street. That’s non-rivalrous. This ubiquitous public good is an example of the thousands of invisible services governments offer society every day that few people even recognise (until they’re not there).²

The same goes for air traffic control, clean air and all the other stuff the public service administers.

Contrast that to something the private sector provides. Like Netflix. It’s non-rivalrous, in that you watching Netflix doesn’t stop me watching it (unless I’m mooching your login). But it is excludable – without a subscription, you have no right to it.

Things that are intrinsically non-excludable and non-rivalrous are really difficult for the private sector to provide, because there’s no way for them to monetise access to it. It’s the reason record labels hate torrenting!

But it’s not like the government is providing torrenting services either. So how do governments decide which non-excludable, non-rivalrous goods and services to provide to their citizens, and which ones to leave to the private sector to deliver?

That’s where the necessary bit of the definition comes in.

WHAT IS NEED?

There’s an old public service saying that every law is written in blood. This saying points to the hard truth that government bureaucracy tends to spring up after something terrible happens, as a way to prevent it from happening again. This is why countries tend to collect more laws over time – they’re learning through experience.

Stripped back, all public service agencies are giant risk management machines. They are there to prevent or respond to risks as diverse as workplace injuries, pandemics, illiteracy, tax avoidance, deforestation or unemployment. They’re there to make the good version happen (returning from work safely, being healthy, etc) and soften the blow when the bad version sometimes happens anyway.

There’s a common thread to all the risks that governments tend to care most about. They represent risks to the stability of our society. Thus we can reframe The Golden Rule slightly to read: The purpose of every public service agency is to deliver what their jurisdiction needs in order to thrive.

The purpose of the public service is NOT to provide what individual citizens want.

Of course, many government services do satisfy individual wants – for instance, when my son recently got sick, I definitely wanted the care we got in our local emergency department.

But government services’ purpose is not determined by individual user satisfaction; the hospital we attended was there because it’s in the collective interest of society as a whole for every citizen’s illnesses to be quickly and expertly attended to. The cost to society of illness and lost productivity far outweighs the cost of providing medical care, so governments provide medical care.

This same equation applies to pretty much all government programs. Unromantic, but true. Think about it – the cost to society of providing a police force is cheaper than the cost of unchecked crime. The cost of providing welfare is cheaper than the cost of intergenerational poverty. The cost of administering electrical safety standards is cheaper than the cost of dead citizens, housefires, electric shocks and melted equipment.

Now when I talk about costs, I don’t just mean economic costs. I’m also referring to societal costs – loss of human health, happiness, opportunity, peace – as well as environmental costs – pollution, resource depletion, declining ecosystem health. This trifecta of costs is referred to as the triple bottom line, and we’ll discuss that in more detail in Chapter 6.

Luckily for us citizens, jurisdictions benefit from lots of things that benefit individuals too – educated workforces, road safety rules, invasive species management, television rating systems, and the thousands of other services delivered by agencies like yours. So as the bureaucracies around us deliver all of these jurisdictional benefits, citizens benefit, too. Which is as it should be, given it’s citizen taxes which pay for those services.

But never forget, the reason public services are doing these wonderful things for individual citizens is because it’s what the jurisdiction needs to thrive.

WHAT IS WANT?

If the role of the public service is to provide what societies need, then who provides what individuals want? Here’s a clue – another term for what individuals want is private good.

Well here in Australia (and in most of the world) the answer is – the private sector, in the form of private companies. Private companies deliver individual wants (to customers) to secure individual benefits (to owners). In other words, they’re designed to make money for their owners by pleasing customers. In fact, in many jurisdictions, a company’s loyalty to its owners (including shareholders) is required by law.

This division of labour between public and private can and usually does work well. The market has the strong incentive, through profit, to deliver consumers what they want, such as a new iPhone, international air flight or MAFS.

And the stuff that can’t effectively be delivered through the market (because it’s non-excludable and non-rivalrous) but which is still really important for a smoothly running society? That gets delivered by public sector agencies like yours, with incentives that encourage you to deliver the public good (we’ll get more specific on those incentives in Chapter 5 when we discuss public sector principles).

BUT WHAT ABOUT PRIVATISATION?

Privatisation – the practice of selling or leasing out government functions to be provided instead by the private sector – has swept through many jurisdictions around the world in the last 30 years. Australia included.

Privatisation is extremely common in utilities provision – electricity, telephone, water – and in higher education. It’s increasingly common in healthcare and transportation, too. Recently in my home state of Victoria, we’ve even seen contracts that effectively privatise the ports and the land titles