Total Enterprise Reinvention for Human Services

This year, we're thinking a lot about?Total Enterprise Reinvention. It's a concept – a way of being that leverages technology in new ways and positions organizations with a deliberate strategy for change. It has important implications for the public sector as we navigate a world of extended?crises, struggle to attract and retain a workforce, and transition to ever more modern technology. It poses an interesting opportunity to consider what it would take for government to pivot from its current struggle to get work done to a modern set of operations?that meet the ever-changing needs of the day.

Let's take an example: human services. At Accenture, we've spent decades leaning into human services across the globe. We have helped governments improve?the way they determine eligibility for programs and increased the efficiency with which they distribute resources. This work is at the heart of everything we believe at Accenture: we help governments serve citizens.

We know these programs help, and that's important. We are also prepared to admit that we have not yet leveraged the impact we've dreamt about. We know that?for people who rely on human services, we have to succeed, and we have to do it faster.

To do that, we're acting with the intention to move our frontier.

Usually, our frontier is set on process improvements: how can we distribute resources, jobs, or aid more efficiently? We want to move that frontier — push?it out and reorient operations to outcomes for people.?

An outcome is simply a claim on a future picture, like "economic equality across the globe." When we name the outcome we want to achieve, we can reverse?engineer – work backwards -- from that future to the place we are standing now. Then, we can ask ourselves this question: What are the first steps we would take to move in that direction?

Posing it in this way – outcomes as opposed to processing problems – will leverage new ways of thinking.

For instance, instead of just asking if we are processing unemployment applications fast enough, what if we asked a different question: What would it take?for every person who has a gap in employment to get the support they need to stay afloat in between jobs?

Instead of just asking if we are distributing food subsidies efficiently, what if we asked another question: What would it take for every person to put?a roof over their heads and have enough food on their tables?

Instead of just asking if we were distributing medical insurance efficiently, how about: What would it take for people to be healthy?

Instead of just asking if we had enough foster parents, how about: What would it take for every child to have a safe and permanent family they can call?their own?

Moreover, what if we moved outside the siloes of these programs and recognized that all these people actually live in the same household? And they are struggling?to manage the array of process improvements we have put in place that are designed to solve their problems?

The real question we would be asking then is this: What would it mean all of us were doing, if all of these results came true?

This kind of repositioning is what pushes our frontier out – not so far that we cannot see and understand, but not so close that we are satisfied with process?improvements alone. With this kind of reset, we can bring the frontier we imagine right to our doorstep.

By holding ourselves accountable to reorienting operations toward outcomes – well, we may still need a safety net, but far fewer people would fall into?it.

And that is?Total Enterprise Reinvention.

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