Power unmasked
The BBC's Yes, Minister and the ABC's The Hollowmen are good for laughs, but if you want to understand how government really works, Paul ‘t Hart is the guy to go to.
The need for endless lobbying and tedious form-filling can provoke cynicism and resentment from those dealing with governments from the outside. Yet it's little understood that even the most senior bureaucrat is both a leader and a servant, squeezed between political demands and the needs of stakeholders, says the ANU professor of political science.
Patience, precision timing and careful framing of proposals to suit the political climate are keys to success, he says. "Quite often you see people going into government with proposals that reflect what they want to say, rather than their estimate of what government is in the process of doing, and how what they want to do fits into that".
Success in dealing with government involves "a constant intelligence operation, to know what is hot, what are the slogans of the day, what are the pre-occupations of the current minister and how they can tailor their message or plans" to the political moment, says Professor ‘t Hart.
Professor ‘t Hart's one and a half day seminars in Melbourne (October) and Sydney (November) aim to build empathy by holding a mirror to each of the three sectors - not-for-profit, government and corporate - to help each better understand the constraints on behaviour in the others, so they can collaborate more creatively and productively. For more information and to register, click here.
