Government service delivery: UAE Government Accelerators, 2016 to 2017

Governments are rarely short of plans. What they lack is a way to move from the plan to the street inside a timeframe the public can feel. The UAE Prime Minister's Office set out to close that gap through its Government Accelerators, running 100-Day Challenges with support from the Rapid Results Institute. Two of the results speak directly to service delivery, and both turned on the same idea: hand a frontline team a hard goal and the authority to reach it, then get out of its way.

Road deaths were the first. A team drawn mainly from police officers across several emirates took on the five most dangerous roads in the country. Over 100 days, fatalities on those roads fell by 63%, 27 fewer people killed than in the same period the year before. Twenty-seven is not a statistic to the families it belongs to. It is the difference the sprint made, measured in people still alive at the end of it.

The second was a waiting list. The Ministry of Education faced a backlog of Emirati children with no public kindergarten place. A team cleared the entire waitlist of 435 children into public kindergartens in 50 days, half the time a 100-Day Challenge allows.

What both teams shared was a way of working rather than a new budget. Each elected its own leader, set its own 100-day goal, and worked across departmental lines that would normally slow it down. The leaders who commissioned the challenges moved into the background, holding the space for their teams and mentoring rather than directing, which is the same reversal of roles a Challenge Strategist practises in the End GBVF challenges. It is the method that travels, not the sector.

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Thought starter reflection questions

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:
  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
  • How would you characterise the level of trust among participants in the meeting? To what extent did this shift as the meeting progressed? To what do you attribute this shift, if indeed it happened?

Thought starter...

Reflection Questions 

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:

  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
These are 100-Day Challenge Mentors. 

They did some work before you received the Challenge Note. This included:

  • Writing the Challenge Note, and making sure that the leaders of all the organisations represented on the team are comfortable with it – and committed to supporting the work of the team
  • Helping the leaders of these organisation recruit you and your colleagues to the team
  • Gathering some baseline data and other information that will help you and your teammates set your 100-Day goal and develop your plan.
  • Making sure all the preparations are made for a successful Lift-Off workshop, when you and your teammates will meet and get your 100-Day Challenge started. This includes venue, facilitation support, food, swags, comms, travel arrangements and whatever else is needed.

 

Mentors will participate in all or part of the Lift-Off Workshop, mostly at the start to provide context and answer questions, and at the end to give you and your teammates feedback about the goal and plan you develop.

During the 100 days following the Lift-Off Workshop, here’s what the Mentors will do:  

  • They will check in every two weeks with the team leaders to see how the team is doing and what support they and the team need.
  • They will keep other organisational leaders informed and engaged during the 100 days, and pull them in to help as needed.
  • They will participate in the last part of the Refuelling Workshop, halfway through the 100 days, to see what additional support the team needs, and to begin to plan with the team for sustainability and scale-up.
  • They will work with the team at the Sustainability Workshop to finalise recommendations on sustaining the results and building on the work of the team.