Luxon’s obsession has officials reconsidering ‘deliverology’

Friday, 22 March 2024

The Beehive might soon be seized by “deliverology” as Christopher Luxon’s obsession with performance targets takes hold.

A political strategy developed in United Kingdom by British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, the prior Labour government dipped its toes into “deliverology” in 2020 when it created an “Implementation Unit” to routinely evaluate key policy programmes.

The National Party criticised the creation of the unit as proof Labour was failing to deliver, but now officials at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) have considered deliverology anew.

At the same time the National-coalition Government is slashing public service jobs to cut costs or “wasteful spending”, and clamping down on the “conga-line of consultants”, a set of London-based deliverology consultants have briefed DPMC on possibly creating a new, albeit small, organisation.

A fully furnished Delivery Unit, like that created by Blair, appears to be among options for creating a “culture” of delivery and managing possibly more than 100 public service targets that Luxon has yet to announce.

However, neither Luxon nor DPMC will confirm this as work continues on how officials will support the prime minister’s priorities.

Luxon, who describes himself as “obsessed with getting stuff done”, has brought a corporate chief executive management style to the Ninth Floor and is promising to produce quarterly targets for the Government and its public servants.

He has previously told The Post that, even with big reform programmes the Government embarks on, “you still have to chunk it down and actually execute components on it”.

This obsession appears to have come as no surprise to officials at the DPMC, the prime minister’s agency that sits atop the public service. Luxon hammered Labour about a “failure to deliver” on the campaign trail and talked up his ability to execute policy.

Seeking ways to “build a culture of, and focus on, delivery”, DPMC officials sought a briefing from consultant firm Delivery Associates about creating a “delivery unit” in November, two weeks before Luxon’s National-coalition Government was sworn in.

London-based Delivery Associates was founded by the chief architect of Blair’s own “Prime Minister’s Deliver Unit”, Sir Michael Barber, and claims to have exported the political methodology to some 50 countries.

While the current Implementation Unit sits within DPMC, its work is more limited than a fully realised delivery unit, which would track a greater array of policy programmes across government on more regular basis.

Barber, writing for the consultant firm McKinsey, has described a delivery unit as not a project-management office but an “extension of senior leadership” that is staffed by “top talent” who track agencies’ performance against “ambitious but realistic” targets.

Monthly “notes” on performance are produced, quarterly “stocktakes” are held with the prime minister, and every six months “delivery reports” are produced.

Emails revealed under the Official Information Act show a DPMC staffer telling the consultant firm: “We would like to understand its applicability in the Westminster system and in advanced democracies.”

“We are aware of the Asian and Middle Eastern models but there are aspects of their political systems that are distinct and we’d like to understand how the model works in political systems similar to our own.”

Of particular interest was how a delivery unit would work with a prime minister’s office, as the Government “wants a central function to also track their 100+ targets”. The “cadence, style and approach” of a prime minister’s “stocktake” meetings with other ministers was also part of the session.

Attending the 90 minute virtual meeting were DPMC chief executive Rebecca Kitteridge, Implementation Unit director Stephen Crombie, the deputy chief executive of policy Janine Smith, and at least five other officials whose names were redacted.

The Post asked both DPMC and Luxon’s office whether a delivery unit was being considered further, but neither answered questions about the work directly.

Crombie, the head of the Implementation Unit, said in a statement the meeting with Delivery Associates was part of “soundings” taken by DPMC “as part of ensuring it supported the incoming prime minister and the incoming Government’s priorities”.

“The conversations in November were about better understanding different options to build a culture of, and focus on, delivery,” he said.

“A range of options are being looked at to improve support of the Government’s priorities - and DPMC is in the process of developing them for final consideration and decisions.”

A spokesperson for Luxon said the prime minister was working with DPMC “on how it can best support his and the Government’s priorities”.

“This is still being worked through so at this stage we have no update to share.”

In December, days after being sworn into office, Luxon began receiving a series of briefing papers titled “strengthening the Government’s delivery focus”, “establishing targets to drive delivery”, and “developing priorities and targets”.

His office has declined to provide these briefings under the Official Information Act to “maintain the confidentiality of advice tendered by or to ministers and officials”.

The creation of a delivery unit or a similar organisation to help execute its policies would not be out of the question for a National-coalition Government that has insisted the Government must be smaller.

Already it has created a new ministry, the Ministry of Regulation, to scrutinise regulations in certain sectors and recommend so-called red tape to be slashed.

The prior Labour government sought out Delivery Associates for advice when it created the Implementation Unit in 2020.

The unit, which had five staff and two Treasury staffers that work with it, was tasked every half-year by Finance Minister Grant Robertson with completing a series of reports on government work considered to be at risk or performing poorly.

Assignments given to the unit included the establishment of Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People, the efforts to improve attendance at schools, and Pharmac’s implementation of a review.

The unit has cost about $8 million in the years it has operated. An independent review of the unit in February 2023 found it was “achieving its purpose and adding value to the public sector”, according to a Cabinet paper.