Collectively prioritized targets, cascading collaboration, focusing on progress over time rather than transaction costs and promoting transparency can benefit government engagement and public trust, according to a new report.

A case study on cross-agency collaboration in New Zealand looks at the approach, framework and results of the initiative and offers practical insights that could be helpful to the United States government as it moves forward.

The IBM Center for The Business of Government report — authored by Rodney Scott of the University of New South Wales and Ross Boyd of the State Services Commission of New Zealand — surveys the 2012 system the New Zealand government instituted to overcome the challenges of collaboration between single-purpose agencies.

Agency ministers chose 10 crosscutting problems and set five-year targets for each, with progress reportedly publicly every six months.

Selecting a small number of publicly supported and agency-prioritized problems increased the feeling of involvement and relative consequence of failure, making senior leaders and public servants more committed to success. The public reporting, meanwhile, sent a positive message of program permanence.    

All agencies were required to submit action plans for activity in the first six months of the program, and a system of "blind" collective responsibility held a small group of leaders responsible for group achievements.

Measurements of successful action found that commitment declined as group size increased, so core groups of two to three agencies worked to engineer means to reach target goals before bringing in secretariat groups. 

Reporting trend data showing progress over time, described relative to the baseline rather than the target, created feelings of positivity rather than failure, and taking the time at the end of each six-month reporting period to highlight how small changes made a difference to citizens motivated public servants.

Overall, creating collective responsibility to improve specific, intermediate outcomes helped address persistent crosscutting problems.

The entire report, with breakdowns of each change the New Zealand government targeted, can be viewed on the Center for the Business of Government website. 

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