Deep strategisation: the schlock of the new

Adopting a framework for policy action

I think this matters to the quality of our deliberation, but I can't prove it. But we get closer to more practical implications when we observe the way in which the new agenda is developed – not principally in terms of concrete actions that might be taken in any number of different situations with any number of different systems that governments influence, but rather in terms of new 'frameworks'.

What could be more flatteringly 'strategic' than a framework? It sounds like so much more intellectually sophisticated than a checklist or a list of 'hacks'. And yet, as I've documentedin the area of wellbeing, it's amazing how low the reward for effort can be in establishing such frameworks.

In some cases as with the Australian National Development Index or the Canadian Index of Wellbeing, the framework degenerates into complete incoherence. In other cases as with Australia's Treasury, the framework never really gets beyond talking points. It's seen in public speeches but not heard where the decisions are made – not seeping into the agency's thinking or choices in any serious way. More often, as in the case of New Zealand's wellbeing framework, many years go by with frameworks being developed before anything much happens, and when it does, achievements are fairly modest – though this is now getting a shot in the arm from a new government.

I went through this as recently as last week when contacted by an international NGO considering involving itself in wellbeing. They wanted to gain 'expertise' on wellbeing. Now there's some expertise that's important. There are plenty of niceties and things to become expert on and traps in which one finds oneself in a conceptual madhouse having tried to build a strategic framework for wellbeing. But the main task is getting on with things – identifying actions that optimise the cost-effectiveness of improving wellbeing, most particularly the most promising 'no-regrets' measures which deliver on existing objectives but also enhance wellbeing. But somehow the person doing the interviewing kept seeking the imprimatur of august organisations and 'expertise'. I dare say, she might end up developing a framework.

As I argued in the case of wellbeing, an alternative, far simpler process would be to do what we did with greenhouse gas abatement measures which is to identify 'no-regrets' measures which deliver on the new objective (greenhouse gas abatement, enhancing wellbeing or tackling inequality) without compromising other government objectives – most obviously economic efficiency. We can simply ask, as has been done on numerous occasions here at world Troppo Headquarters (Frameworks and Diagrams Division), what policy moves promote economic efficiency and equity simultaneously. That's likely to provide plenty of action for the short term while one works out more about the 'cost curve' one is facing and then starts to move up it.

And so, promoting 'inclusive growth' becomes a matter of adopting new "frameworks". Indeed the OECD report I've linked to is "A framework for policy action". It's not even a 'strategy' or less grandiosely still "Some ideas for inclusive growth". And there's much talk of things needing to be 'coherent' implying the strategic interconnection between aspects of policy when so much can be analysed and delivered without such 'coherence'.

And a lot is lost by packaging it all up as a framework or even a 'strategy'. A government or other body might want to have a strategy, but equity is relevant to a vast number of policy decisions taken every day. Putting things in this strategised context might promote the prospect of frameworks and strategies amongst the OECD's member countries and significant other VSPEs (Very Serious Persons and Entities).

Frameworks don't encourage the kind of improvisational thinking, the kind mutual adjustment between objectives that can lead to big and small 'hacks' that together can make a big impact. In addition to a 'cost curve' identifying the lowest hanging fruit, the OECD might produce a kind of 'how to' guide that could help keep people's minds on the implications of all those small policy design decisions. Making something deductible will favour those on high incomes, issuing a tax credit at a uniform rate provides an equal subsidy to all and capping that tax credit swings things against those at the top. 2

There are oodles of similar kinds of rules, but my own experience in government is that lots of people don't really think like this. (So it is that the left-of-centre ALP ushered in a system which now holds over trillion dollars of Australia's savings with a flat tax in which those with small, hard earned balances get their savings gobbled up by the best paid industry going round – the finance sector. All breathtakingly unfair, but you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. But I digress.) In any event, in the document, amidst the useful wonkish information, frameworks and diagnosis of existing trends etc, I couldn't see much of this kind of thing.

And as I've argued elsewhere 3, talking about over-enthusiasm for strategy sessions amongst senior management, the vast bulk of improvements we can made are modular. Much of this is also true of policy, though there are obvious connections and interactions – most obviously between taxes and transfers.

The strategic diagram

Anyway, I know you want to get on with it. Who doesn't like a strategic diagram? So here it is. It's got no hacks. But it has got three 'pillars'. And pillar three is to "build efficient, responsive governments", which reminds me that it leads on directly to the cure for all known diseases so getting this inclusive growth right has never been more important.