Our Tarot Treasury

Danyl McLaughlin attended last week's gaming session at Treasury; he reports on it at The Spinoff.

It is at least as bad as I'd thought. The event I mean. Danyl's reporting is excellent.

Fiona Ross is a thought leader in the public service; an articulate and engaging public speaker. She stands at the front of the room: a seminar space on the third floor of Treasury. The 30 people in the audience fall silent. She begins. “We all know we live in a DEVUCA world.”

Everyone nods thoughtfully. Except me. I raise my hand. “We live in a what?”

Ross looks at me and blinks. “DEVUCA.”

I try to imitate the sound, unsuccessfully. Someone at my table explains the acronym in a low voice. “It stands for diverse, ambiguous, volatile, uncertain …”

“I think complexity is in there,” another person suggests. There is some disagreement. No one is quite sure exactly what kind of diverse complex ambiguous world we occupy.

“Google it,” Ross advises.

“I will. How do you spell …?”

“And in a DEVUCA world we all need to be more empathic and inclusive. That’s why Heartwork is so exciting.”

Maybe at the next event they'll all wear flower pots on their heads in celebration of a DEVO world.

Among the more depressing aspects of Treasury's degeneration is that, for many on the left, it still defines the right hand side of an Overton window. If Treasury pronounces something, only madness can lie beyond that to the right.

Treasury looks deceptively normal, like an ordinary government department. It is not. Treasury is the most powerful organisation in the public service. In parliament the seats in the House occupied by government MPs are known as “the Treasury benches”. To control Treasury is to control the country.

Treasury is located at the bottom of the Terrace, opposite the Beehive. The building is handsome, spacious, filled with air and light. But in the minds of progressive intellectuals and left-wing activists Treasury casts a black and terrible shadow over the history of modern New Zealand.

But Treasury isn't that anymore. It's something else.

That was all a long time ago, and today’s Treasury is working hard to return New Zealand to a pre-neoliberal, prelapsarian state. Next month the government will release its first “Wellbeing Budget”’ It uses the Treasury’s Living Standards Framework, a world leading concept which, Ross informs us, the department has been working on for 18 years. Instead of focusing purely on economic capital the public service, led by Treasury, will seek to grow the country’s human, social and environmental capital. But also still the financial capital. “We’re definitely not saying economics and finance isn’t important.” After the session is over I ask Ross, “How does any of that connect to this game? Are there any metrics to show Heartwork leads to those outcomes?”

“We’re still building the evidence base for that.”

The Heartwork game is separate from the Wellbeing budget but related to the concept of wellbeing, the company’s other co-founder, Clare Rousseau, a former Treasury analyst tells me. Heartwork incorporates the ideas of Marshall Rosenberg, a psychologist and conflict negotiator who advocated non-violent communication, and combines his teachings with Te Whare Tapa Whā, the “four cornerstone” model of Māori mental health, along with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; the Stanford Social Review’s model of the Dawn of System Leadership; Mindfulness; Gamification and “Theory of U”, a change-management theory from the 1970s filled with Heideggerian jargon about presencing and co-sensing.

I didn't attend last week's session. I wouldn't have liked it, and I'm rather sure I wouldn't have been welcome.

There is a disturbance in the psychological safe space of the Heartwork learning journey, and it is mostly the fault of Eric Crampton, chief economist at the New Zealand Initiative, a champion of the neoliberal reforms and a critic of the new wellbeing focused Treasury. The experiment with Heartwork came to Crampton’s attention last week. He blogged about it, and this led to a Newshub story in which National leader Simon Bridges attacked the card game as “bizarre and actually wrong”, while Jacinda Ardern quickly explained that Heartwork was “nothing she or any of her ministers had anything to do with”. It’s the reason we’re warned at the beginning of the session not to take photographs or any recordings or share any of the personal stories that emerge during the event.

My column on the mess at Treasury is now online at NBR ($)

Danyl goes through how you play the game. Except it isn't really a game. Games will usually involve other players. The Heartwork game is just, well, playing with yourself. So whatever questions you have about the game - you can go there to read how it goes.

I have a few other questions though.

Did Treasury hire Heartwork to provide this session? If it did, what is probity like when contracting for this kind of thing with a former consultant reported to be friends with folks in ELT? Is the registration fee a partial recouping of the costs of the card decks for Treasury, or is it Heartwork’s charge for the session? Does Treasury’s Guidance for Setting Charges in the Public Sector apply?

If Treasury didn’t hire Heartwork for the session, and instead it’s been through other arrangements, what’s policy at Treasury around hosting commercial outfits like Heartwork for these kinds of sessions – do they charge rent on the space? If a different company wanted to run a similar event at Treasury for their own proprietary teamwork program marketing thing [there are oodles of consultants in this general space], what would be the process around approving that?

It wouldn’t be hard to imagine Dale Carnegie being happy to provide sessions with similar objectives/outcomes, for example. And it would totally make sense for Treasury to send staff for training for this stuff on an as-needed basis. But the nut of it here is if Carnegie’s local trainers [or other equivalent] asked Treasury if they could provide a $35/head session at Treasury with Treasury and others invited, on what basis could they decline them when they’ve allowed Heartwork? Carnegie at least is reputable. What if the Scientologists wanted to provide e-readings?

Howling at the Treasury moon

I like the headline that The National Business Review put on this week's column. It isn't online yet; I've a few snippets below:

Big organisations get up to a lot of stuff that looks pretty silly from the outside – and even from the inside. Corporate retreats with ridiculous team-building exercises. Awkward social functions. Corporate family picnics when you would all rather prefer to be out with your own friends.

Anybody who has ever worked in a big organisation knows this. Even smaller organisations sometimes get into this game. It is hell for the more analytically minded and introverted among us, and doubly so for analytically minded, introverted economists, but such exercises seem to serve a functional purpose. It is easier to work with people if you know them better. And it is important to know people outside your own smaller team because others might know things you need to know.

Last week, Treasury caught critique, and even some ridicule, for hosting an event with Heartwork scheduled for 17 April.

On the face of it, the event did look risible. The event teaser, after all, initially invited readers to “Imagine surprising Aotearoa with a strain of compassion so delightful that it re-wires our collective consciousness!” After featuring on the evening news and in a question to the Prime Minister in Parliament, the Heartwork event’s invitation has been toned down just a little.

In any case, it is definitely not your father’s Treasury. But perhaps your woke nephew’s Treasury.

...

But is a failure to consult sun and moon feelings really at the root of Treasury’s problems?

After going through the declining capabilities in economics at Treasury, often canvassed here, I hit some of the implications:

All of that would make for a very difficult workplace environment with a change in government. Rapid changes in policy priorities and direction require staff with the training and expertise to shift quickly into new areas. Where Treasury has not been able to keep up with an outflow of economic expertise, a greater burden would fall on those analysts able to handle the work. Rebuilding capability in Treasury’s core work would reduce pressure on staff, improve outcomes in external surveys, and help Treasury in its role as advisor to government.

But there seems to be a schism within Treasury.

Some have taken the government’s wellbeing agenda to heart, and put it within an economic framework of a kind. Others seem to have taken the wellbeing agenda to mean rigour is passé, quantification is bad, and advice should be based on holistic views that lack an underlying economic framework. In that view, little economic expertise is needed in policy analysis beyond that which can be provided in a few days of training sessions on-the-job.

George Mason University Professor of Economics Peter Boettke likes to say economics puts parameters on our utopias. Putting the different measures of wellbeing into a consistent cost-benefit framework reminds us that we live in a world of trade-offs. Resources put to the pursuit of one wellbeing objective are generally resources not put toward the pursuit of another. Getting rigorous assessments of the effects of policy is needed if the government’s wellbeing agenda is to be taken seriously.

All that then brings us back to the Heartwork card game. Big organisations like Treasury will have this kind of thing. But even if it helps staff to better understand themselves and each other, it is far from addressing the underlying problem at Treasury. Worse, it feeds into a sense of wellbeing as woo at Treasury. Even worse, can you imagine being one of the relatively few remaining economists at Treasury and being asked to play a game about your sun and moon feelings?

A Treasury that addresses symptoms of the underlying problem with sun and moon games rather than by strengthening its capabilities may not be a Treasury that can do its necessary part in improving the quality of government services under the wellbeing agenda. It is remarkable that two senior Treasury managers have made the wellbeing game a priority.

Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf’s tenure as Chief Executive ends mid-year. While no announcements have yet been made about his successor, it is critically important that a strong appointment be made. Treasury needs to be able to rebuild its core capabilities and needs a Chief Executive who takes that work seriously. But it is hard to throw a stone in Wellington without hitting someone who will tell you it is not in the interest of the State Services Commissioner to provide a strong appointment.

I very much hope Minister Grant Robertson will be watching this appointment process closely and ensuring that the candidate can provide him the kind of Treasury he needs. It is important. We may all yet wind up with moon feelings otherwise.

If all of that's too depressing, here's some Ozzy Osbourne to help. 

Bark at the moon.

Update: here's an ungated link; here's a gated link.

A compassionate Treasury

Your regular reminder that Treasury today is rather different from the Treasury of the 80s and 90s.

I'm going to copy and paste rather more of this than I usually would, just in case the thing gets deleted.

There's a $35 registration fee for this event at Treasury.

I have no clue whether the money goes to the folks running the session or what; I suspect it covers a cost of the deck of cards provided. But they recommend that attendees buy a deck of their cards in advance as practice as well, so attendees would wind up with double the compassion. It's wonderful how Treasury is helping to promote a small business by hosting it and encouraging folks to buy its products.

Minister Jones would approve, if Heartwork were based in the Provinces.

Here's the pitch. Treasury is Love.

Imagine surprising Aotearoa with a strain of compassion so delightful that it re-wires our collective consciousness!

COME TO THIS SOCIAL LAB TO CONNECT AND CREATE TOGETHER.

---

Heartwork

+ Fiona Ross - The Treasury Chief Operating Officer

+ David Dougherty - The Treasury Manager Strategy and Performance

+ 24 curious and creative people at The Treasury

have been experimenting in the social lab.

We’ve created a "compassion starter culture" - a network of people who want to create a more compassionate culture in Aotearoa, starting where we are - in our workplaces.
We’ve been playing and rapidly prototyping with the Heartwork Wellbeing Card Game* - now available publicly.
We know that the intention for what we want to create has a huge power.
We don’t have all the answers. And we can't do this mahi alone.

So we’d like to invite you into this social lab.

So we can grow an even more beautiful, and more resilient strain together.
We'll share what we’re learning while we’re still metabolising.

Come along to:

• Hear from Fiona Ross about what she’s been learning from her experiments with the Heartwork cards in her work as Chief Operating Officer of the Treasury.
  
• Meet the Heartwork team and understand the potential they see for people to be 1) meeting their own needs 2) meeting each others' needs and 3) creating more delightful outcomes together with Aotearoa.
  
• Learn at least three powerful ways you can use the Heartwork cards to cultivate a 'win-win-win' culture for Aotearoa, your teams and yourself.
  
• Play the card game and share stories with other people who care deeply about people.
  
• Connect with other people who want to cultivate compassion throughout Aotearoa.
  
• Contribute ideas and co-create with us as we consider how to take this kaupapa forward together.
  

Watch our video about the card game here.

"The cards are a really good way to recognise what you need to do to end up with positive outcomes. After using them I felt more complete, certain of what [the other person's] feelings and needs were, and was able to come up with different strategies to find solutions for negative feelings I was having." - Penny

"Before having [a] chat I used the cards to check in on what I wanted to feel and not feel, and what I wanted them to feel and not feel. This really helped me identify my needs and what I wanted out of the conversations- which then helped me put together a really quick plan. And it took 5 mins tops. So I went in more prepared emotionally as well as intellectually; and being more intentional is a work-on for me.

As a result I feel the conversation went well and I am more confident in my decision and the reasons for it..." - Sam

*win-win-win: good for you, good for others in your organisation, and good for society as a whole.

FAQS: (contact us if you have other questions that aren't answered here)

It sounds like this event is targeted to people who work in government. Can I attend if I don't work in the public service?

Yep - if this invitation speaks to you, you're more than welcome to attend.

Can I take home my Heartwork cards on the night?

Yep. We recommend ordering your cards through our website now, and we'll give you a pack to take home on the night.

I can't make it until 5.30pm. Can I arrive late?

No can do sorry. The Treasury security system means that you will need to arrive promptly at 4.45pm to be able to get into the building.

I, for one, love that this is a priority both for Operations and for Strategy and Performance at Treasury, as indicated by the attendance and presumed endorsement of the Chief Operating Officer and the Manager for Strategy and Performance.

Just imagine how better Treasury would have been prepared for the currency crisis after Muldoon lost election if they had thought to consult both their sun feelings and their moon feelings. I don't know how New Zealand came through it without that. But we will be far better prepared for the next crisis. Treasury may have few remaining economists, but every single person who remains there will care deeply.

And surely that matters more than anything else.

Update: Here's Newshub's take on it, with reporting by Tova O'Brien. The Prime Minister doesn't know what moon feelings are; Treasury refused to answer questions about it.