Why improvement is no longer enough
Meeting in Sydney on 8-11 August, the New South Wales Division of Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA), selected the theme ‘Management Innovation in the New Century’ for its annual conference.
LGMA President, Gerry Brus, explained why relying on management improvement is no longer adequate.
“Improvement is typically incremental,” she said. “It is usually small steps and attracts low to moderate risk. Innovation on the other hand means to build something new, scrapping old ways and methods and building new ones.”
With Local Government in Australia perceived by many from outside Australia as being world class, Gerry Brus posed the question, why then should a potentially high risk approach be now considered in light of this success? She believes this is required because the world is facing unprecedented challenges and uncertainties which in turn is creating a wave of paradoxes that are simultaneously global and local, collective and individual, unifying and disintegrating.
“This is being driven by the instant worldwide availability of low cost images, data and information,” Gerry Brus said. Through this technology, business and government agencies are amassing massive amounts of data about people and the environment.
“Yet Local Government in NSW still operates in a world where it knows a lot about the assets it is responsible for maintaining but relatively little about the people it serves or the environment it manages on their behalf.”
Gerry Brus believes that Local Government managers must improve their gathering of strategic data and then convert this into information that is useful in helping communities create their own future.
Keynote speaker, Sandy Hollway, discussed the highs and lows of managing the acclaimed 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He acknowledged the key role Local Governments around Australia played in achieving this success.
“Several things would not have happened,” he said. “These include the very successful Torch Relay, the numerous pre games training venues and community events generating enormous community spirit.”
He said that the Games proved that Australia can do anything if we all put our mind to it.
“We stunned the world with the overseas media unilaterally congratulatory,” Sandy Hollway said. “We set out with the goal to run a great Games but not ‘the best Games ever’ as stated by Juan Antonio Samaranch.”
Sandy Hollway outlined the following key management lessons from the Games.
