Edgecentric, or How to Govern and Thrive in Dynamic and Uncertain Times

Iby Martin Stewart-Weeks

t is instructive in these unpredictable times to consider the answer to a simple question: Is

government part of the solution or part of the problem?

For some, the answer is easy. Governments around the world intervene to save the banking

and insurance systems, bail out car makers, cut taxes, and pump cash into the pockets of

consumers to refloat the imploding retail and housing sectors. So the answer is pretty straightforward.

Not only is government part of the solution, there are few alternatives in sight.

But the predictable answer may be misleading. While we are busy rediscovering the virtues

of public action, the assumptions on which those virtues rely are shifting. Mesmerized

by the comfortable swing of the pendulum between less government and more government,

we havent noticed that this time the pendulum is swinging to a new and unfamiliar

positiondifferent government.

The answer to the simple question at the beginning might be more complicated than we

thought, more along these lines: Yes, government will be part of the solution, but only as

long as it is prepared to change its approach and behavior, in some cases quite profoundly. If it

doesnt accept that challenge, it will indeed become part of the problem or at least increasingly

irrelevant to the search for effective responses to the problems were trying to fix.

Edgecentricity

One idea weve been pondering

is the notion of a new model of governing,

complete with redesigned institutions

and practices, which we call

edgecentric. The world most certainly

does not need another silly word to

add to the groaning lexicon of obscure

management-speak, so what

does edgecentric mean and why might

it be a helpful description of an idea

that is especially well-suited to these

dramatic and unpredictable times?

The word is an attempt to capture

a powerful concept based on

a simple idea. Governments around

the world, as they look for ways to

respond more effectively to a set

of unprecedented economic, social,

and environmental challenges,

should start from an uncompromising

commitment to change the relationship

between the center and

the edge. The former is where governments

make laws, design policy

and programs, and determine funding,

and the latter is where people

live and want to exercise a level of

control over their own lives, where

communities flourish or flounder,

and where innovation and invention

thrive.

Traditionally, governing has been

a process obsessed with keeping power

and authority tightly controlled by

a small number of people and institutions

at the center. The problem,

though, is that everything about the

emerging context in which governments

operate suggests that the key

to success will be the ability to escape

that addiction.

If we are going to find solutions

to the complex tangle of problems

were trying to fix and, at the same

time, restore a level of confidence

in the governance arrangements we

seek to hold properly accountable,

we need to motivate a much more

robust and profound shift of power,

resources, and authority from the

center to the edge. Neither is necessarily

preeminent; each is important

and has a role to play.

In that sense, edgecentricity is an

idea, and a set of instincts and behaviors,

which can help governments

thrive in these dynamic and uncertain

times. The center will always matter

in some circumstances and for some

outcomes, but it has to wield its power

and authority in different ways, in

a new accommodation with the edge,

which is where more and more of the

things that matter will emanateinnovation,

empowerment, social capital,

and economic resilience.

Need to Accelerate Change

A year ago, many governments

around the world were experiencing

varying degrees of anxiety and fatigue

in pursuit of decades of reform,

but the global financial crisis seems

to have swept away all talk of the

public sectors capability and need

for reform. The pressure for urgent

actionany actionhas brought the

public sector back to center stage as

chief orchestrator of global financial

salvation. One consequence is

that the demand for quick action

has edged out the important focus

on change and underlying reform to

the systems, processes, and structures

of the public sector. Its as if weve

agreed we can either fix the current

crisis or go on reforming government

and the public sector, but we

cant do both at once.

The difficulty with that position

is that it risks missing a set of opportunities

(the importance of which,

ironically, the severity of the current

economic difficulties exaggerate) for

major systemic reform to the public

sector and new policy responses.

These are likely to prove more useful,

in the medium to longer term,

in building resilience into the very

economic and social structures we

are trying to rebuild.

The political and policy conundrum

facing many governments is

that the difficulties they face seem to

forgive the need for systemic reforms

to the machinery and culture of the

public sector, yet successful responses

to those very same difficulties will

only be sustained by exactly the opposite:

a deliberate commitment to

not only continue the reforms, but to

accelerate them.

The new U.S. administration offers

some hope that it understands

the peculiar opportunity that circumstances

have conspired to offer

to rediscover the power and potential

of public action and a strong, resilient

public realm and, at the same time,

to remake its animating assumptions

and practices.