Myth busting: seeking improvement through a new perspective.

• Author: Olsaker, Eva M.
• Position: We Don't Make Widgets: Overcoming the Myths That Keep Government from Radically Improving - Book review

We Don't Make Widgets: Overcoming the Myths That Keep Government from Radically Improving

By Ken Miller

Governing Books

2007; 124 pages; $24,95

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We Don't Make Widgets is geared toward middle and senior-level managers in state and local governments. Ken Miller's wits easy-to-read book offers a fresh look at how departments and organizations measure success. Miller shares many change management success stories and explains the myths that he believes are limiting improvement within the public sector: 1) We don't make widgets; 2) We don't have customers; and 3) We are not here to make a profit. Miller's mission is to dispel these myths and explain that governments actually do make widgets, they do have customers, and they are here to make a profit. His thesis is that government agencies can and should be managed in the same way as private organizations, meaning that they should strive for profitability, whether the profit be revenue or results. We Don't Make Widgets provides valuable how-to and how-not-to examples and arms managers with the mindset and tools needed to understand and overcome these myths.

Private-sector entities continuously search for improvement through innovation and efficiency, efforts which encourage citizens to insist that government agencies improve their efficiency as well. This translates into pressure on governments to cut costs, improve customer satisfaction, be less bureaucratic, work faster, and show results. Miller believes the public sector could respond to these demands better if the three limiting beliefs he identified were de-bunked. The myths prevent managers from realizing that their organizations are a collection of systems that must be refined in order to improve.

Miller's model for improving any organization is what he calls the "system of work," a theory that applies to all organizations, private and public. The model focuses on four main components: the factory;, the widget, the customers, and the outcomes. Miller colorfully explains the system of work, likening the process to the production of a car in an automotive factory;, and then comparing the same system of work to a child abuse investigation report. In the first example, the suppliers provide parts to the factory, which then produces the widget: the car. The car is then sold to the customers, who drive the outcome of profitability for the automotive factory. The government system-of-work example is a report produced by a...