System Stewardship: Three themes from our final Reimagining Government webinar of 2021
System stewardship is emerging as a key aspect of the next era for government. Described as “a new way of working that allows governments and their agents to effectively influence and steward systems from which outcomes emerge,” system stewardship is seen as being critical to contemporary public service. But what does it mean and look like in practice?
In the fourth and final instalment of the 2021 Reimagining Government series, ANZSOG and CPI hosted an interactive webinar exploring the concept of system stewardship, and how to encourage more of it within and across government agencies, so that our systems work to serve everyone.
The panel was facilitated by Sally Washington, ANZSOG Executive Director, Aotearoa-New Zealand, ANZSOG and included Toby Lowe, Visiting Professor in Public Management at the Centre for Public Impact; Lynn Mumford, Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships, Mayday Trust; Kym Peake, Partner, EY Port Jackson Partners, and former Secretary, Victorian Department of Health and Human Services; and Lil Anderson, Chief Executive of Te Arawhiti — the Office for Māori Crown Relations.
System stewardship requires a focus on relationships
While definitions of system stewardship differed slightly between panellists, there was agreement that system stewards are people-focused — working in less transactional, more relational ways.
Toby defined systems as “a set of relationships combined to make things happen… made up of actors, people, organizations, and factors” — a set of relationships that have a particular purpose. Helping people create outcomes in their lives, with reference to these relationships, is the essence of system stewardship.
Speaking to government more specifically, Kym saw system stewards as being “responsible for the care for and long term quality, sustainability and outcomes of a service system.” However, she acknowledged stewardship is still “all about people” — setting up the architecture, relationships and enabling conditions so that all actors in the system are in a position to “continuously adapt and achieve good outcomes together.”
Lil discussed her role as a designated systems leader in New Zealand Aotearoa. While this role is defined in the Public Service Act (2020), Lil adopted her own definition: “We have a Māori word called Kaitiakitanga, which translates literally to ‘guardianship’. I’ve taken my role as a system leader of the Māori-Crown relationship in its widest sense, as guardian of that relationship… I have a role to care for and protect it.”
Working at Mayday Trust, an organisation in the UK working with people going through tough times, Lynn sees system stewardship as something “that really happens at the grassroots”. Mayday Trust’s Person-led, Transitional and Strength-based Response (PTS) coaches work with people who might be experiencing homelessness, coming out of prison or leaving the care system, and “ultimately steward the unique set of relationships and factors that are meaningful to the individual that’s going through tough times” — making sure they were providing the right support at the right time for each individual.
Psychological and structural barriers are preventing a transition to system stewardship
While panelists agreed that system stewardship is critical in ensuring human flourishing, they acknowledged the significant barriers in place that must be overcome.
Kym acknowledged certain structural constraints of government — including vertical silos and budgets, as being key barriers. She explained that under the current paradigm, accountability was conceptualised from the top-down, and used for “fault-finding”, instead of learning. To move towards system stewardship, she argued that government had to “reimagine accountability to be about learning systems, so that even if there are siloed pools of funding, you could connect them up in creative ways”. Similarly, she proposed that government could overcome this barrier by thinking about place and cohort, which would “enable [one] to think more creatively and flexibly about the combination of resources that are going to make a difference.”
Lil pointed to mindsets within people — including a fear of the unknown — as being the biggest barrier. “It comes from the control we have always had on things, and the fear of letting that go.” Because people are often unsure of whether giving up power and experimenting will truly work, there is a strong desire not to take on any risk or experimentation. This is problematic, given constant experimentation is needed to learn in complex environments.
Key enablers of system stewardship: constant curiosity and building trusting relationships
Pointing to a number of examples, our panellists identified curiosity and trust as being key enablers of system stewardship.
Lynn described Mayday Trust’s journey over the years, starting from scratch and taking a blank piece of paper to everything, “to understand how to better deliver innovative outcomes to those experiencing disadvantage. Curiosity and experimentation emerged as key values in the organisation, allowing for a learning environment, and permission space to say, ‘let’s just see what’s emerging.’”
Our panellists also highlighted that when working in complexity, curiosity also meant considering a broad range of evidence — taking into account local context and storytelling in order to adapt and respond appropriately. Toby argued for a shift to “evidence-informed practice, rather than evidence-based policy,” in order for us to expand our understanding of what evidence includes.
Building trust was another key enabler, critical for Mayday Trust’s coaches. “Coaches meet people where they want to meet in communities, and engagements are genuinely led by that person.” This helps to disrupt standard power dynamics, and create a “co-produced interaction” between coaches and the people they work with, that acknowledges the complexity in people’s lives, and within systems.
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System stewardship provides an important framing to work in complexity — it reminds us that while we can’t control complex outcomes, by attending to the relationships and factors in complex systems, we can constantly adapt and learn in order to enable human flourishing.
While there are significant barriers in place that can stall this kind of work, we can move towards system stewardship by creating environments for learning, being curious, and shifting power to ensure trusting relationships.
It feels like an opportune time to be having this conversation — the pandemic has revealed to us the interconnectedness and downstream effects of government interventions and global events — shedding light on how government is part of a complex ecosystem.
Speaking about lessons learned from the pandemic, Lil was hopeful about the future: “[COVID] has broken down silos, and showed us what our communities are really capable of. A lot of those communities are Indigenous-led, and we’ve seen their ability to be resilient, their ability to be ahead of us, and teach government leaders that we actually can devolve power and decision making — and it’s starting to happen.”
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The Australian and New Zealand School of Government and the Centre for Public Impact’s Reimagining Government series will return in 2022. You can explore content hubs with curated resources for all of our 2021 webinars (including a hub for system stewardship), and our learning community via our webinar microsite.
