Imagine arriving at good decisions, delivering responsive services, achieving on-target results – and having our stakeholders’ support every step of the way.
By Kris Cummings & Suhanya Ketheeswaran
Public value management can help us solve persistent problems that are vexing for both public and non-profit organizations. These challenges might look something like this:
- having great service know-how, but not the support to put it into action
- seeming to miss the mark with results, even after having gathered input upfront
- feeling stakeholder relationships turn tepid as their engagement begins to stall
No one wants to see support for their organization fall away. It’s the kind of thing that undercuts the mission and disempowers everyone involved. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Using a public value management approach can help.
In this article, we’ll share our reflections on 4 primary questions:
- What is public value management (PVM)?
- How do you implement PVM?
- What does stakeholder engagement add to PVM?
- When does PVM not work?
What is public value management (PVM)?
PVM is a framework for managing and delivering services in the public and non-profit sectors. It provides organizations with a method for delivering value, based upon the voices of their organizational stakeholders.
With PVM, “value” is whatever the public (i.e. our stakeholders) agrees is in the common good. Whether that’s a service, a project, a new direction, a set of results, or benefits – stakeholders ultimately agree on what’s important and in their common interest, even if they might not use it themselves.
Wherever this common good intersects with the organization’s mission is where we’ll find our greatest opportunity to deliver impact, deepen stakeholder relationships, and build support.
How do you implement PVM?
If there’s a defining feature of a PVM approach, it’s pulling stakeholder input and involvement up to the table, alongside other key factors. To implement PVM, organizations:
- Regularly ask stakeholders what value the organization (and its mission) can deliver. This helps to deepen relationships, it engages stakeholders in influencing decisions, and it builds essential insight for the organization.
- Manage the organization’s capacity to put what’s been heard into action. This ensures efficient, effective implementation, within the means available.
- Deliver the services, results, and experiences stakeholders are prioritizing. This creates actual value that stakeholders have prioritized.
PVM takes all three of these points in tandem – rather than one at a time. In effect, it’s like balancing the corners of a triangle. We’re fairly used to thinking about service delivery and organizational capacity on an ongoing basis. In PVM, we add engagement to the mix.
What does stakeholder engagement add to PVM?
Our brains tend to see the management of stakeholder input, organizational capacity, and value/service delivery as a linear process. And this process often begins with us consulting our stakeholders. We seek their input, we pore over the data, and we incorporate as much as we can into our strategies and services. The constraints we face, the ideas we have to forego, the hiccups along the way – these become our burdens to bear.
For many reasons, despite best intentions, engagement at a single point in time can sow the seeds for disappointment, distrust, and disapproval. This is because stakeholders’ needs continue to evolve between the time of an initial consultation and the time an organization is able to implement something.
People are also constantly assessing and adjusting what they consider to be public value based on how they experience a service or program. On the organizational side, circumstances could change and we may no longer have the resources to deliver what’s required. And as environments shift, what reasonably made sense three months ago might no longer be appropriate.
Returning to stakeholders only after the work is done – with a report, an impact story, or an evaluation – is too late. Our stakeholders have long since formed opinions about those services and experiences. If too much time elapses between consultation and implementation, questions about transparency and judgment start to emerge. The same thing can happen if there is too large a gap between what stakeholders requested and what ended up being possible. And with this come perceptions of inefficiency, power imbalances, and opaque systems.
A PVM approach engages stakeholders throughout the process:
Engaging stakeholders throughout the process means bringing them in when planning, when implementing and adjusting, and also when evaluating. It means benefiting from their insights and experiences in real-time so we can adjust course as needed. It means sharing our strategy development, our capacities, and our constraints with them. And most important of all, it means sharing decision-making powers. This invites our stakeholders to become allies – not just consumers – in our efforts to deliver public value.
The rub – when does PVM not work?
PVM isn’t appropriate for every situation. When faced with a fire in the building, we’re going to rely on the expertise of our local fire service. It isn’t something we’re going to poll our stakeholders on.
PVM also isn’t something most organizations can – or should – adopt wholesale from the start. It’s the kind of thing we might trial in one department or in a couple of services within that department. It’s like building a new muscle. We’ll want to start at a scale that feels reasonable, and give some thought to how we might scale up quickly as we learn.
PVM helps us build enduring relationships with stakeholders
When we invite stakeholders to engage in all aspects of public value creation, they become more involved, feel a stake in the organization’s success, and increase their support and loyalty. Conversely, stakeholders become customers when we insist on keeping them outside the organization or process. Not surprisingly, they end up doing what customers do best. They tell us what they want, and demand an explanation when their desires aren’t met. Worse yet, they might easily find a better alternative and forget about us altogether.
When we engage stakeholders in decision-making, they become our partners. We gain access to their powers of deliberation. We receive the benefit of their consideration and compassion. We arrive at good, sustainable decisions. And we deliver and adapt services with confidence – because our community has our back.
From conception to delivery to sense-making, the creation of public value is a team sport. The sooner we bring our stakeholders onside, and inside, the greater the impact we make on our mission.
Get in touch with DO/ABLE!
Wondering if a public value management approach is a good fit for your organization? Let’s set up a call to chat! We can talk through any questions you might have, share what we’ve learned from helping other organizations implement PVM, and help you determine next steps. Click here to contact DO/ABLE today!
