[Music]
I’d like everyone in the audience to
close their eyes take a deep breath and
relax and think about the word
government okay you can open your eyes
my guess is you didn’t get a warm and
fuzzy feeling we’re living in a time of
unprecedented and dangerous mistrust
between Americans and their government
this is a serious problem for everyone
and truly throughout our country I’m
gonna explain how we got here and how we
start to regain that trust but first a
little bit more about the problem
according to a 2017 survey from the Pew
Research Foundation only 20% of
Americans trust the government in
Washington to do what is right most of
the time and 74% believe elected
officials put their own personal
interests ahead of the country’s when
you ask people about their state and
local governments you get better numbers
but they’re still not great according to
a Gallup study last fall only six in ten
Americans say state government has the
capacity to handle their problems and
just slightly less seven in ten trust
local governments these numbers may be
better than Washington’s but they tell
us that too many people are disengaged
disillusioned
disgusted or disinterested in the
decisions that affect all of their lives
anytime you see a trend line like this
you hope it’s about costs or taxes
otherwise you have a big problem
and it wasn’t always this way the
presidents of the 50s and the 60s fanned
the flames of my own personal love of
public service as they did for so many
people when President Eisenhower and
President Kennedy were in office with
them the best and the brightest often
joined them and the country felt that
service and joining government was a
calling where you could do the most good
for the greatest number of people so I
did everything I could to follow that
calling
I majored in political science and
economics I went to graduate school in
Washington DC I went into government
service as a White House intern and then
I joined the New York City Budget Office
I was inspired to follow this path even
if it meant making a fraction of the
salary I could have made in the private
sector like my friend who went to one of
Madison Avenue’s premiere advertising
agencies so while I was out crunching
numbers and working on tough issues she
was writing jingles for Hawaiian Punch
so you could imagine what it was like
for me to go with her to a party when
people talked about their jobs they
wanted to hear about her odd jingles in
her fancy office on Madison Avenue and
they thought what I did wasn’t
prestigious because of this sure
I advise fruit but with 10% fruit juicy
taste taste now my timing wasn’t the
best my friend was working on Madison
Avenue during the Golden Age of
advertising and while public trust in
government peaked in the Kennedy era
which is what inspired me by the time I
arrived that trust was beginning to fall
national Watergate scandal and at the
local level for me in New York City New
York was facing bankruptcy
after years of fiscal mismanagement
here’s one of the most famous newspaper
front pages in New York City history
which sums up how everyone from our
federal government to our neighbors down
the street had lost faith in the city’s
ability to function and that brings us
back to today where 20% of the people
who trust government in Washington to do
what is right all the time I think there
are two main reasons why we are in the
place we are and the good news is we can
do something about both first there’s a
huge flaw in the system where we operate
basically as a monopoly without
competition no one has the incentive to
be innovative and responsive that means
the government often doesn’t think of
itself as a service provider the way
many businesses do and we need to think
more this way now government doesn’t
have the funding and the flexibility of
the private sector either we can’t get
an angel investor an IPO to finance a
promising new service but that’s a
different talk for a different time
second people aren’t interacting with
their government or the way they used to
Harvard professor Robert Putnam tracks
some discouraging numbers in how we
interrelate and
last 25 years Americans have seen a 58
percent drop in people attending
meetings a 43 percent drop in family
dinners and a 35 percent drop and simply
having friends over we increasingly
spend more time with our screens first
TV then smartphones instead of being
with each other and this matters because
engaged communities provide the feedback
the government can use to do its job
well and that cycle of lost trust and
discouragement is continuing to spiral
let’s look at the first issue and I
think back to my Madison Avenue friend
for a second she wouldn’t be writing
those jingles any more businesses have
adapted to continue to meet customer
demands and advertising now tries to
reach people at a more personalized
level that allows for instantaneous
feedback from its customers
my friend would be doing a social media
strategy letting Hawaiian Punch reach a
target audience who could then get the
attention of the company’s senior
leaders the ad industry has changed
however government hasn’t adapted in the
same pace this is true across our
economy customer ratings are embedded
and almost every purchase that we make
online and the expectation for immediate
customer service continues to grow and
rightfully so now I know what you’re
thinking when it comes to government
service but it’s not that the people who
work in government don’t care in fact
it’s just the opposite they are highly
mission oriented data from the Journal
of Public Administration and research
theory shows that government workers are
especially drawn to the mission of the
organizations that they work for even
more so than their colleagues in the
private sector so how do we get
government better connected to its
customers much is the business
has done after 40 years of working in
both the public and the private sectors
I found the only way that you can do
this is by changing the culture of the
organization by making a deeper
connection to the employee sense of
purpose and the people that they serve
you need clear goals to prioritize
improving customer service but this must
come with the right tools the right
training to allow people to achieve
those goals too often government leaders
set lofty goals maybe to get reelected
but don’t do the hard work in the
background to make those things actually
happen as a lieutenant governor in
Colorado I office also serve as the
state’s chief operating officer a role
that’s common in the business world but
not so much in government and I spend a
lot of my time on the work that’s in the
background it isn’t glamorous but it
helps our departments better understand
how to serve our customers this starts
out by clearly communicating that
customer service is central to who we
are what we are and what we do let me
tell you about our specific efforts
we’ve established a program of Governors
fellows to recruit private sector
leaders into key government roles which
helps us bring the best in customer
oriented thinking into government our
fellow spend their time learning what
it’s like to be in government and then
work directly with the governor with me
and our senior team on developing
solutions to the challenges of running
our state our goal is to create a
nonpartisan pipeline of leaders and our
initial results are encouraging
one fellow has joined our state as an
executive director of one of our largest
cabinet agencies the Department of
Revenue and another has joined one of
our numerous boards and commissions
those people are managing or overseeing
billions of dollars that are critical to
our state
we’ve also helped our existing employees
by providing training and lean process
improvement practices the same practices
that Toyota used to lower costs and
improve the safety and performance of
their vehicles we’ve trained over 3,000
employees andreen is transforming our
work for example it used to take 114
days for a pharmacist to get licensed to
practice we’re now down to 18 we’ve
established an academy that trains our
top leaders on how to create and
implement a high quality strategic plan
with a focus on our customers our people
have appreciated the help our last three
Academy classes have given the program a
95% plus Net Promoter Score we’re
embracing data and analytics to attract
our work and to stay accountable to
actual quantitative goals as in the
business world our Colorado governor’s
dashboard lays out a priorities and
we’re delivering on them for our
customers and we’re pushing the
boundaries of our regular work thinking
outside the box by putting more
government services online leveraging
the latest research in behavioral
economics and launching a customer
service initiative to help some of our
biggest programs become more customer
friendly we just recently had our
one-millionth license renewed online
through a simple online form I’m proud
of everything that we do to connect
people and re-establish trust between
Colorado’s and their government and this
brings me back to the second challenge
where we see people disengaging from
their communities and feeling more
disconnected from government and that’s
where all of you come in there are
countless ways you can get more involved
in your community or in your government
and each one of you will help heal the
trust gap just a little and also provide
one more chance for government to get
feedback from you
and then serve you better here are some
ideas join the PTA pick a cause donate
money volunteer support a ballot
initiative fill out your customer
feedback form at the Department of Motor
Vehicles or government office we really
read these send the letter to your
elected official about something you
liked or a problem you saw spend a few
years actually working in government and
picking up new skills basically stop
thinking that government politics and
civil service is simply something you
watch on TV or complain to your neighbor
about adopt this rule if you care enough
to tell your friend how something should
be done better than care enough to take
constructive action it might only take
10 minutes of your time let’s try this
one more time close your eyes think
about what you can do you can open them
think about what it would mean to help
solve a problem whether it is big or
small now that solution can improve the
lives of many people people you don’t
even know that can happen each one of
you have the power to make that
difference thank you very much
[Music]
I’d like everyone in the audience to
close their eyes take a deep breath and
relax and think about the word
government okay you can open your eyes
my guess is you didn’t get a warm and
fuzzy feeling we’re living in a time of
unprecedented and dangerous mistrust
between Americans and their government
this is a serious problem for everyone
and truly throughout our country I’m
gonna explain how we got here and how we
start to regain that trust but first a
little bit more about the problem
according to a 2017 survey from the Pew
Research Foundation only 20% of
Americans trust the government in
Washington to do what is right most of
the time and 74% believe elected
officials put their own personal
interests ahead of the country’s when
you ask people about their state and
local governments you get better numbers
but they’re still not great according to
a Gallup study last fall only six in ten
Americans say state government has the
capacity to handle their problems and
just slightly less seven in ten trust
local governments these numbers may be
better than Washington’s but they tell
us that too many people are disengaged
disillusioned
disgusted or disinterested in the
decisions that affect all of their lives
anytime you see a trend line like this
you hope it’s about costs or taxes
otherwise you have a big problem
and it wasn’t always this way the
presidents of the 50s and the 60s fanned
the flames of my own personal love of
public service as they did for so many
people when President Eisenhower and
President Kennedy were in office with
them the best and the brightest often
joined them and the country felt that
service and joining government was a
calling where you could do the most good
for the greatest number of people so I
did everything I could to follow that
calling
I majored in political science and
economics I went to graduate school in
Washington DC I went into government
service as a White House intern and then
I joined the New York City Budget Office
I was inspired to follow this path even
if it meant making a fraction of the
salary I could have made in the private
sector like my friend who went to one of
Madison Avenue’s premiere advertising
agencies so while I was out crunching
numbers and working on tough issues she
was writing jingles for Hawaiian Punch
so you could imagine what it was like
for me to go with her to a party when
people talked about their jobs they
wanted to hear about her odd jingles in
her fancy office on Madison Avenue and
they thought what I did wasn’t
prestigious because of this sure
I advise fruit but with 10% fruit juicy
taste taste now my timing wasn’t the
best my friend was working on Madison
Avenue during the Golden Age of
advertising and while public trust in
government peaked in the Kennedy era
which is what inspired me by the time I
arrived that trust was beginning to fall
national Watergate scandal and at the
local level for me in New York City New
York was facing bankruptcy
after years of fiscal mismanagement
here’s one of the most famous newspaper
front pages in New York City history
which sums up how everyone from our
federal government to our neighbors down
the street had lost faith in the city’s
ability to function and that brings us
back to today where 20% of the people
who trust government in Washington to do
what is right all the time I think there
are two main reasons why we are in the
place we are and the good news is we can
do something about both first there’s a
huge flaw in the system where we operate
basically as a monopoly without
competition no one has the incentive to
be innovative and responsive that means
the government often doesn’t think of
itself as a service provider the way
many businesses do and we need to think
more this way now government doesn’t
have the funding and the flexibility of
the private sector either we can’t get
an angel investor an IPO to finance a
promising new service but that’s a
different talk for a different time
second people aren’t interacting with
their government or the way they used to
Harvard professor Robert Putnam tracks
some discouraging numbers in how we
interrelate and
last 25 years Americans have seen a 58
percent drop in people attending
meetings a 43 percent drop in family
dinners and a 35 percent drop and simply
having friends over we increasingly
spend more time with our screens first
TV then smartphones instead of being
with each other and this matters because
engaged communities provide the feedback
the government can use to do its job
well and that cycle of lost trust and
discouragement is continuing to spiral
let’s look at the first issue and I
think back to my Madison Avenue friend
for a second she wouldn’t be writing
those jingles any more businesses have
adapted to continue to meet customer
demands and advertising now tries to
reach people at a more personalized
level that allows for instantaneous
feedback from its customers
my friend would be doing a social media
strategy letting Hawaiian Punch reach a
target audience who could then get the
attention of the company’s senior
leaders the ad industry has changed
however government hasn’t adapted in the
same pace this is true across our
economy customer ratings are embedded
and almost every purchase that we make
online and the expectation for immediate
customer service continues to grow and
rightfully so now I know what you’re
thinking when it comes to government
service but it’s not that the people who
work in government don’t care in fact
it’s just the opposite they are highly
mission oriented data from the Journal
of Public Administration and research
theory shows that government workers are
especially drawn to the mission of the
organizations that they work for even
more so than their colleagues in the
private sector so how do we get
government better connected to its
customers much is the business
has done after 40 years of working in
both the public and the private sectors
I found the only way that you can do
this is by changing the culture of the
organization by making a deeper
connection to the employee sense of
purpose and the people that they serve
you need clear goals to prioritize
improving customer service but this must
come with the right tools the right
training to allow people to achieve
those goals too often government leaders
set lofty goals maybe to get reelected
but don’t do the hard work in the
background to make those things actually
happen as a lieutenant governor in
Colorado I office also serve as the
state’s chief operating officer a role
that’s common in the business world but
not so much in government and I spend a
lot of my time on the work that’s in the
background it isn’t glamorous but it
helps our departments better understand
how to serve our customers this starts
out by clearly communicating that
customer service is central to who we
are what we are and what we do let me
tell you about our specific efforts
we’ve established a program of Governors
fellows to recruit private sector
leaders into key government roles which
helps us bring the best in customer
oriented thinking into government our
fellow spend their time learning what
it’s like to be in government and then
work directly with the governor with me
and our senior team on developing
solutions to the challenges of running
our state our goal is to create a
nonpartisan pipeline of leaders and our
initial results are encouraging
one fellow has joined our state as an
executive director of one of our largest
cabinet agencies the Department of
Revenue and another has joined one of
our numerous boards and commissions
those people are managing or overseeing
billions of dollars that are critical to
our state
we’ve also helped our existing employees
by providing training and lean process
improvement practices the same practices
that Toyota used to lower costs and
improve the safety and performance of
their vehicles we’ve trained over 3,000
employees andreen is transforming our
work for example it used to take 114
days for a pharmacist to get licensed to
practice we’re now down to 18 we’ve
established an academy that trains our
top leaders on how to create and
implement a high quality strategic plan
with a focus on our customers our people
have appreciated the help our last three
Academy classes have given the program a
95% plus Net Promoter Score we’re
embracing data and analytics to attract
our work and to stay accountable to
actual quantitative goals as in the
business world our Colorado governor’s
dashboard lays out a priorities and
we’re delivering on them for our
customers and we’re pushing the
boundaries of our regular work thinking
outside the box by putting more
government services online leveraging
the latest research in behavioral
economics and launching a customer
service initiative to help some of our
biggest programs become more customer
friendly we just recently had our
one-millionth license renewed online
through a simple online form I’m proud
of everything that we do to connect
people and re-establish trust between
Colorado’s and their government and this
brings me back to the second challenge
where we see people disengaging from
their communities and feeling more
disconnected from government and that’s
where all of you come in there are
countless ways you can get more involved
in your community or in your government
and each one of you will help heal the
trust gap just a little and also provide
one more chance for government to get
feedback from you
and then serve you better here are some
ideas join the PTA pick a cause donate
money volunteer support a ballot
initiative fill out your customer
feedback form at the Department of Motor
Vehicles or government office we really
read these send the letter to your
elected official about something you
liked or a problem you saw spend a few
years actually working in government and
picking up new skills basically stop
thinking that government politics and
civil service is simply something you
watch on TV or complain to your neighbor
about adopt this rule if you care enough
to tell your friend how something should
be done better than care enough to take
constructive action it might only take
10 minutes of your time let’s try this
one more time close your eyes think
about what you can do you can open them
think about what it would mean to help
solve a problem whether it is big or
small now that solution can improve the
lives of many people people you don’t
even know that can happen each one of
you have the power to make that
difference thank you very much
[Music]
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