Thursday 23 February 2017

A review of If We Can Put a Man on the Moon - Essential? Yes. Definitive? No.

If We Can Put a Man on the Moon…Getting Big Things Done in Government, by William D. Eggers and John O’Leary is described as “the essential guide to making our government work better”. While I would recommend this book to anyone working in the public sector who aspires to more than just passing the days and earning a good pension, this book falls short of providing the solution. To be fair, the authors never claimed the book would provide the solution; in fact, early on they say that it wouldn’t provide any easy answers.  What this book does do quite well is identify some common obstacles to getting things done in government. If we can be aware of these traps, we can take steps to avoid them. This is a key first step to improving the effectiveness of government.

The book identifies and examines seven obstacles to getting big things done in government, using case studies, humour, analogies and pop-culture references, which make the book less like a text book and more like a casual read – important if you want to appeal to a wide array of readers. The authors take us through the process of getting big things done, which looks a lot like the policy cycle most public policy students are familiar with. They then examine the obstacles that undermine big initiatives throughout these stages of the cycle.

The Tolstoy trap is essentially confirmation bias, where policy makers and implementers only look at the evidence that confirms their view of the world and ignore inconvenient voices. The design-free design trap is where policies are not subjected to a rigorous design process. We often see the ill-effects of this in the implementation stage. The Stargate is the moment when a policy passes from the design phase to the implementation phase, and the trap here is that policy ideas can be distorted for various reasons and what is left to implement is unworkable.

The overconfidence trap speaks for itself. People fail to take the chance of failure seriously, and don’t manage risk or expectations. The Sisyphus trap, which refers to a king in Greek mythology who was punished by the Gods by being made to roll a boulder uphill, time and time again as it rolled down, refers to the failure to account for the human element in designing and implementing policy. The complacency trap is the failure to critically review and re-evaluate programs and policies. And the final trap is the silo trap which permeates the whole cycle – government departments and agencies operate in silos and this is a major obstacle to getting big things done.

The authors provide some guiding principles and tools to try to avoid these traps. Each chapter has a handy summary at the end, which will be useful to refer back to from time to time as readers progress through their careers.

The book was generally well written, easy to read, and captivating. The use of case studies really helped put the theories into perspective and really helps a reader understand the pitfalls and to identify them in their own organization. The authors explain economic principles and other important concepts in laymens terms, important for readers without a background in those areas.

On the other hand, I found there was quite a bit of repetition, and some case studies were just too long and I found myself skimming them. This book relies heavily on systems thinking and I found myself wondering if the authors drank the Toyota Kool-Aid. While it does make sense to me, I am left wondering if they missed something; if the authors themselves fell into the Tolstoy trap and the overconfidence trap. I would encourage readers to keep an open mind to other theories of government failure. This book may be essential, but it is not definitive.

Despite the criticisms, this is the type of book a policy maker or implementer should have on their shelf, and refer back to occasionally. It is an important book for anyone who wants to be more than a cog in the wheel of government; who wants to be successful in getting big things done. 

4 comments:

  1. Rayelle, I was looking forward to reading your review because the book was on the JSGS recommended reading list. After reading your review, I can see why, because it sounds like it is a good introduction for new policy students to the common traps that governments face when trying to get things done. Your review has rekindled my interest in reading it, although I appreciate the heads up, and I may do a little skimming too.

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  2. Rayelle,

    I’m curious about your impression of the authors on “Toyota Kool-Aid” – was their systems thinking approach just too circular and/or do you feel there’s a more useful way to think about assessing government failure? Or perhaps you had different expectations going into the book, hoping the authors would propose something towards an insightful solution?



    I definitely feel you laid out the core contents of the book well - I’m convinced to put this book on my reading list. And personally, I could make a whole essay on the complacency trap!

    Hope you were able to enjoy the book even just a little bit!
    - Helaine

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    1. Toyota is all about systems thinking, and I feel like the authors maybe put too much emphasis on this as a potential solution to some or all of these traps. They really push it in this book. While I am all about systems and processes, I feel that, in placing so much emphasis on this, they could be missing other potential solutions. Readers should at least keep this in mind. Systems and processes are good, but have their limitations. I don't have a different answer, I just caution people to not put all their eggs in one basket. Or, at least make sure that basket is really strong.

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  3. Really enjoyed reading this truly excellent book review. Everything was there. Well done!

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