Helping Government Learn states that, in order to achieve value for money in public services, departments need to learn from success and failure. It examines how departments can become better at learning and outlines the characteristics of organisations that are successful at learning.
Although this report focuses on central government departments, it contains many useful messages for other public sector organisations; for example, in highlighting some key ways to shift organisational cultures towards learning:
- Make staff feel it is safe to speak up about failure and new ideas, for example, by having discussions about specific problem projects.
- Give staff sufficient time to learn and reflect on the way they carry out their work and how it could be done better.
- Encourage the sharing of knowledge within the organisation and discourage knowledge hoarding by teams.
- Reward the generation of new ideas and an inquiring approach, as well as the successful completion of projects.
- Encourage face to face collaboration through networks and through training in team skills.
- Institutionalise the systematic reflection on performance after projects, even if it means delaying moving on to the next project for a while.
- Make sure that learning from consultants is captured before they end their contact with the organisation, and include knowledge transfer in the terms of the contract.
- Acknowledge that work processes are constantly evolving, and that small improvements and constant experimentation are to be expected.
- In communicating the value of learning activity to staff, use language that is most likely to appeal to those involved.
