Strategy Management in the Government and Public Sectors

The public sector’s role and its classical paradigm of slow movement is changing. This fast-paced change requires a specialized look at the meaning of strategy management in this key sector. Compared to private sector organizations, the public sector has a tremendously complex network of stakeholders, partners, and customers with varying expectations. Beyond that, each public sector entity needs to understand its role in achieving higher purpose goals that meet the competitive ambition of the jurisdiction in which it operates.

In this course, we will discuss the importance of competitiveness as a nation. We will also deep dive into the elements of the strategy pyramid in the public sector looking at setting a national vision, cascading this vision to entities, putting the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure success, deciding on public policy, and collaborating with partners to execute the strategy through initiatives.

Course Methodology

The course reviews best practices in strategy management from different nations around the globe. We will look at national and entity level examples from the UAE, Singapore, the UK, the US, and other nations. The main strategy management framework used is the balanced scorecard which is tailored for this sector. Participants will practice each element of the strategy management process through real life case studies and engaging activities.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Describe the overall public sector structure and the need for competitiveness to achieve national prosperity and growth.
• Translate stakeholder ambition and needs into a strategic plan to achieve an entity’s mandate.
• Employ the public policy development process effectively to achieve the strategic plan.
• Design and manage strategic initiatives and cross-entity collaboration mechanisms to effectively execute strategies.
• Utilize a practical performance management system to develop and sustain a performance culture.

Target Audience

All managers and professionals who are involved in influencing, formulating, or supporting the planning and strategy of their government or semi government entity, department, or corporation. The course is also beneficial to those who are responsible for linking, measuring, and improving the performance of the organization, including sector and department managers, strategy or performance management professionals, balanced scorecard managers, and research analysts.

Target Competencies

• Strategic thinking and planning
• Service innovation
• Performance management
• Partnerships development
• Policy making
• Leadership skills
• Critical thinking
• Public sector competitiveness skills

Course Outlines

• Ambition and role of the public sector
  • Benefits of strategic management in the public sector
  • Illustrating types of institutions in the public sector
  • Strategy management framework in the public sector
  • Public sector strategy definitions
  • Cascading the national vision to entity level
  • Examples of national visions of nations
  • Defining strategic themes linked to citizens’ needs.
  • Role of government in achieving themes
  • Determining underlying national outcomes and KPIs
  • Using international indices in target setting
  • Measuring a nation's ability in building a competitive environment
  • Becoming competitive as a nation: Porter’s model
• Strategic planning in the public sector
  • Building a strategy map tailored to the public sector.
  • Answering the 3 questions of the strategic planning process
  • Using SWOT analysis
  • Fundamentals of PEDESTL framework
  • Determining stakeholders and customers: building a stakeholder map
  • Cascading national outcomes and KPIs into sectors
  • Developing vision and mission statements
  • Developing strategic objectives and KPIs using the balanced scorecard model
• Public policy development
  • Understanding public policy and its uses
  • Linking public policy to strategic planning
  • Phases of public policy development
  • Determining root causes of a policy problem
  • Defining types of policies
  • Developing policy options
  • Criteria to consider when assessing policy options.
• Managing strategic initiatives and partnerships
  • Building initiative charters
  • Assessing the impact of initiatives
  • Understanding partners’ roles and cause and effect relationships
  • Determining accountabilities
  • Designing delivery agreements between different stakeholders
  • Ensuring cross-entity collaboration
• Designing the Performance Management System (PMS)
  • PMS purpose and guiding principles
  • Selecting, validating, and documenting KPIs and targets
  • Collecting, measuring, and documenting results
  • Analyzing performance and root causes
  • Reporting performance
  • Conducting operational and strategy review meetings collaboratively
  • Utilizing performance improvement plans