Perhaps it is the fact that our government is so corrupt and beholden to corporate money that makes young people feel alienated from government. Appreciate your blog entry!
Great piece. There are many important roles for nonprofits in our society. But perhaps the most important is our role advocating for government to play its proper role.
Powerful message Paul. We should, even in our own little capacity as individual to fill in the gap and take responsibilities at community level. Very inspiring article!
Thank you for writing such an insightful piece. Public Works and Frameworks Institute did some research and offer practical advice for how to talk about government in ways that engage individuals and shape/re-shape their perceptions. This link offers a very useful Powerpoint presentation and they have other resources. An important next step is to deliver practical framing and messaging tools to organizations who want to participate in shifting perceptions and norms, so they can spring from reading into action: http://www.publicworks.org/issues/government/
Paul - Thank you for sharing this thoughtful piece. It is extremely important to remember that the best way to evoke sustainable, effective change is through policy. As you mention, we must partner with government to achieve this level of change. However, even with strong representation and good intention, many policies are flawed by design due to compromise and special interests. With this in mind, government and the not-for-profit sector partner to bridge the opportunity gap between the intended results behind government policies and its actual execution and implementation. But who is telling this story? How do those not familiar with policy-making or the key role of the not-for-profit sector understand this complex relationship? It’s time for a government re-brand! We need to re-shape how we think about its role and responsibilities. It’s already effective in many ways…we may just need a healthy reminder.
Paul, the upshot of your essay - your concern about whether and how civic stakeholders can assert their ultimate ownership of government, and the role of nonprofits in that process - is both urgent and important.
However, if thinking in terms of “customers” helps ensure that government agencies stay focused on their relationships with the people whom they are meant to serve (whether directly or indirectly), I submit: so much the better.
While government with a capital G may be indispensable, any given agency function is only as indispensable as its capacity to contribute meaningfully to the advancement of the common good for which government is established. Indeed, I worry more about agencies that cannot meaningfully explain whom they serve and how they respond to customer needs. Frustrating transactions involving such agencies all too often are the beginning and end of dysfunctional relationships between the people and their government.
On the other hand, many government departments and agencies, especially local ones, have made great strides in effectiveness by asking, repeatedly, “who is our customer?” and “how can we be more responsive to our customers’ needs?” Such agencies frequently are relational, rather than transactional, in their approach to their customer-stakeholders - and these are the very agencies (to take up Julie’s point about design) that are attending to user experience and service design in order to stay focused on the impact of their work on the people who matter most.
As a former Los Angeles City Councilmembe, my staff and I attempted a “customer service” initiative. It was pushed to the back burner for reasons beyond my control, and never implemented. The idea was based on the concept that government is a service, not a process. Not everyone working in government understands that!
Although I would like to see the ideas set forth widely discussed, I’m not sure it will happen.
The Ronald Reagans and Grover Norquists of the world have captured our reflexes so we don’t understand government, don’t want to understand it or our relationship to it, want to interact with it only when we need it or are angry with its perceived failures. We certainly don’t want to get exercised enough about it to vote!
Yes, absolutely there is dignity in public service as practiced by the many and there is calumny in how some take advantage and game that same system from the inside and out. Thank you for appealing to our higher angels, and to promote through our erstwhile engagement a newfound faith in the enduring role of democratic government and her agencies. I like your ‘ownership’ model. After all, we are all investors and invested in our government like it or not. Let’s make it good.
COMMENTS
BY Rev.Jim Conn
ON January 23, 2015 03:36 PM
Thank you for reminding us of these verities.
BY Julie Levine
ON January 23, 2015 05:11 PM
Perhaps it is the fact that our government is so corrupt and beholden to corporate money that makes young people feel alienated from government. Appreciate your blog entry!
BY Aaron Dorfman
ON January 24, 2015 01:16 PM
Great piece. There are many important roles for nonprofits in our society. But perhaps the most important is our role advocating for government to play its proper role.
BY Nelson
ON January 24, 2015 04:39 PM
Powerful message Paul. We should, even in our own little capacity as individual to fill in the gap and take responsibilities at community level. Very inspiring article!
BY Marlo Nash
ON January 27, 2015 07:28 AM
Thank you for writing such an insightful piece. Public Works and Frameworks Institute did some research and offer practical advice for how to talk about government in ways that engage individuals and shape/re-shape their perceptions. This link offers a very useful Powerpoint presentation and they have other resources. An important next step is to deliver practical framing and messaging tools to organizations who want to participate in shifting perceptions and norms, so they can spring from reading into action: http://www.publicworks.org/issues/government/
BY Julie Munjack
ON January 27, 2015 03:54 PM
Paul - Thank you for sharing this thoughtful piece. It is extremely important to remember that the best way to evoke sustainable, effective change is through policy. As you mention, we must partner with government to achieve this level of change. However, even with strong representation and good intention, many policies are flawed by design due to compromise and special interests. With this in mind, government and the not-for-profit sector partner to bridge the opportunity gap between the intended results behind government policies and its actual execution and implementation. But who is telling this story? How do those not familiar with policy-making or the key role of the not-for-profit sector understand this complex relationship? It’s time for a government re-brand! We need to re-shape how we think about its role and responsibilities. It’s already effective in many ways…we may just need a healthy reminder.
BY Shawn Landres
ON January 28, 2015 12:26 AM
Paul, the upshot of your essay - your concern about whether and how civic stakeholders can assert their ultimate ownership of government, and the role of nonprofits in that process - is both urgent and important.
However, if thinking in terms of “customers” helps ensure that government agencies stay focused on their relationships with the people whom they are meant to serve (whether directly or indirectly), I submit: so much the better.
While government with a capital G may be indispensable, any given agency function is only as indispensable as its capacity to contribute meaningfully to the advancement of the common good for which government is established. Indeed, I worry more about agencies that cannot meaningfully explain whom they serve and how they respond to customer needs. Frustrating transactions involving such agencies all too often are the beginning and end of dysfunctional relationships between the people and their government.
On the other hand, many government departments and agencies, especially local ones, have made great strides in effectiveness by asking, repeatedly, “who is our customer?” and “how can we be more responsive to our customers’ needs?” Such agencies frequently are relational, rather than transactional, in their approach to their customer-stakeholders - and these are the very agencies (to take up Julie’s point about design) that are attending to user experience and service design in order to stay focused on the impact of their work on the people who matter most.
BY Joy Picus
ON February 4, 2015 11:06 PM
As a former Los Angeles City Councilmembe, my staff and I attempted a “customer service” initiative. It was pushed to the back burner for reasons beyond my control, and never implemented. The idea was based on the concept that government is a service, not a process. Not everyone working in government understands that!
Although I would like to see the ideas set forth widely discussed, I’m not sure it will happen.
The Ronald Reagans and Grover Norquists of the world have captured our reflexes so we don’t understand government, don’t want to understand it or our relationship to it, want to interact with it only when we need it or are angry with its perceived failures. We certainly don’t want to get exercised enough about it to vote!
BY Jeffrey Graham
ON July 3, 2015 04:09 PM
Yes, absolutely there is dignity in public service as practiced by the many and there is calumny in how some take advantage and game that same system from the inside and out. Thank you for appealing to our higher angels, and to promote through our erstwhile engagement a newfound faith in the enduring role of democratic government and her agencies. I like your ‘ownership’ model. After all, we are all investors and invested in our government like it or not. Let’s make it good.
BY STU
ON July 15, 2015 03:45 PM
The author could not be any more brainwashed.