Quick question; is there a canon (or recommendations) you're aware of for getting up to speed on civil service excellence? Have read some about Northcote Trevelyan, Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, Dominic Cummings, and the like, but have been stumped trying to find the sort of case studies that show off these systems in practice. If you could point me in the right direction, would be greatly appreciated.
Hi there. The public sector obviously has an enormous scope and breadth of activities, so there's no single resource that I can point to. Is there a particular area you're interested in?
As I've alluded to above, much of best practice at the moment is in the private sector. I think Claire Hughes Johnson's 'Scaling People' is the best manual for daily, weekly, quarterly management. On the strategic leadership side, look to Amazon honestly. 'The Bezos Blueprint' by Carmine Gallo for strategic comms. 'How Big Things Get Done' by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner is a good starting point for project management, with plenty of case studies.
Meanwhile, I know Cummings has recommended Alanbrooke's War Diaries and Groves' 'Now It Can Be Told' - these are excellent studies into the daily challenges of a public 'executive' atop a huge bureaucracy trying to deliver enormous projects while managing/taking direction from politicians, etc.
Again, let me know if there are particular policy areas you're interested in, and I might be able to recommend something. I have written about some of the world-leading work Taiwan's public sector is doing, particularly in healthcare, metro design, and digital monitoring/automation. My Taiwan round-up (with an index to the other essays) is here:
Quick question; is there a canon (or recommendations) you're aware of for getting up to speed on civil service excellence? Have read some about Northcote Trevelyan, Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, Dominic Cummings, and the like, but have been stumped trying to find the sort of case studies that show off these systems in practice. If you could point me in the right direction, would be greatly appreciated.
Hi there. The public sector obviously has an enormous scope and breadth of activities, so there's no single resource that I can point to. Is there a particular area you're interested in?
As I've alluded to above, much of best practice at the moment is in the private sector. I think Claire Hughes Johnson's 'Scaling People' is the best manual for daily, weekly, quarterly management. On the strategic leadership side, look to Amazon honestly. 'The Bezos Blueprint' by Carmine Gallo for strategic comms. 'How Big Things Get Done' by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner is a good starting point for project management, with plenty of case studies.
Meanwhile, I know Cummings has recommended Alanbrooke's War Diaries and Groves' 'Now It Can Be Told' - these are excellent studies into the daily challenges of a public 'executive' atop a huge bureaucracy trying to deliver enormous projects while managing/taking direction from politicians, etc.
Again, let me know if there are particular policy areas you're interested in, and I might be able to recommend something. I have written about some of the world-leading work Taiwan's public sector is doing, particularly in healthcare, metro design, and digital monitoring/automation. My Taiwan round-up (with an index to the other essays) is here:
https://alethios.substack.com/p/unexplored-unsaid