A Collision Between ‘Doing Things Right’ and ‘Doing the Right Thing’ : Public agencies: Rigid management styles breed scandalous disasters.

A critical problem is coming into public view in the debate between the state and the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services over the welfare of children in foster care: Traditional public service management practices are inadequate to meet the demands of a changing society.

County services are run largely by hierarchies of omnipotent, authoritarian managers whose self-protective instincts take precedence over their clients’ welfare. The driving concern is “doing things the right way,” which is usually defined by someone further up the hierarchy. If your boss does not provide a solution to a problem, and you are unwilling to risk “doing things the wrong way,” you do nothing.

Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus in their book, “Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge,” conclude that the manager’s role has now shifted from the rule-bound “doing things the right way” to the value-driven “doing the right thing.” Two sets of skills are required to make the shift--the visionary skills of leadership to determine the course of action and the catalytic and implementation skills of management to make things happen and get things done. My own practice as an organization and management consultant in both public and private sectors confirms the wisdom of their findings. Although some few public service managers are changing their approaches, most are still looking upward for direction and permission instead of inward for leadership and risk-taking.

The crisis in public sector leadership should be of great concern to us all. To continue with my example: When the state Department of Social Welfare expressed concern about 132 deaths of children in foster care here, the county’s response emphasized that “only 11 of those were the result of physical abuse.” There was no suggestion of how to correct the situation. When the state found improprieties after confiscating the Department of Children’s Services investigatory files, the county responded, “Nothing is radically wrong.” Such stonewalling is bound to erode public trust in the county’s ability to manage systems designed to protect children.

To date, neither the social work profession nor social workers in the Department of Children’s Services have gone public with their concerns. When the people in a position to act choose instead to wait for directives from above, something is terribly wrong.