Presentation - “Challenges for CoG in Latvia: A Story of Change”, Martins Krievins, Public Management Consultant, Former Director of the State Chancellery of the Republic of Latvia, International Expert for SIGMA, Regional conference on the functioning of centres of government in the Western Balkans, 22-23 June 2017, Danilovgrad, Montenegro.

1. © OECD
AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
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Challenges for Centres of
Government in Latvia:
A Story of Change
Martins Krievins
Public Management Consultant
Former Director of the State Chancellery of the Republic of Latvia
Danilovgrad, Montenegro
22 June 2017

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A normal day in the CoG...
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
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Are there ideal conditions for CoG?
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http://edgeeffects.net/starwars/
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Starting point: CoG in Latvia
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Brief overview of functions
Latvia Estonia
Preparation of Government meetings ✔ ✔
Government communications / ✔
HR management in public administration / /
Public administration reform ✔ -
Strategic planning - (CCC) ✔
Risk management / Foresight - (CCC) /
Preparation of Government Program /
Annual Plan
- (CCC) ✔
Policy analysis / ✔
Policy co-ordination - (CCC) ✔
Regulatory quality oversight / /
Relationship with international organisations - -
Relationship with Parliament / ✔
✔ - full responsibility / - partial responsibility - no responsibility
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Starting point
• People:
- 134 staff
- Loyalty issues
- Motivation problems
- Turnover around
15%
• Functions:
- Government “post
office”
- Lack of responsibility for
policy co-ordination
- Expectations for reform
• External
factors:
- Shaking political situation
- Stagnation within public
administration
- Low trust in government and
public administration in
general
• Key tasks:
- Implement centralised
recruitment of senior civil
servants
- Develop new PAR
proposal to respond to
public criticism
- Solve remuneration policy
in public administration
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
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Energetic start...
(c) Ieva Čīka, LETA
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When you face the issues in reality they tend to be
bigger than from outside. Especially in terms of
people. And then you are left with hard choices
and decisions which no-one else will make – just
you. And the support group is quite limited...
http://chconsultinggroup.com/2016/01/what-to-do-what-to-dooo/
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Quote from the PAST
“Nothing is so difficult working at,
nothing is so hazardous to lead,
nothing is as risky as trying to
implement a new order of things.
If you change things you will have
eager opponents in all those who
were successful with the old order –
and just half-hearted supporters in
those, who just will have a chance to
be successful with the new.”
Nicollo Machiavelli The Prince, 1469
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiav
elli
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There are many books and articles on change management written by Prof. Kotter that you can find and read. Most of
the steps are applicable both for the public and private sectors, alike.
Change in 8 steps: KOTTER
https://www.delphix.com/blog/delphix-culture/8-steps-successful-change-management
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Sense of urgency
http://fresnostate.edu/studentaffairs/health/psychological/lets-talk.html
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Inside the organisation
• Talk with the Prime Minister and
Private Office
• Talk with existing management
team
• Talk with staff members
Outside the organisation
• Talk with the Ministers
• Talk with the State Secretaries
of Ministries
• Talk with key NGO’s and the
opinion leaders
• Talk with the journalists
• Talk with international
organisations (EU, OECD, WB,
IMF, embassies)

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Form a coalition
• Full support from the Prime
Minister and Private Office
• Cautious support from a few of
the management team
members and staff members
• Interest from a couple of the
State Secretaries and
Members of the Parliament
• Cautious interest from the
media and opinion leadershttp://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
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Develop vision for change
Management Audit Report with proposed
changes finalised within 3 months
Report proposed change in structure,
number of staff (-10%) and functions:
✚International Arbitration
✚Major Projects Oversight
✚Strategic Communication
Suggested merging with the Cross Sectoral
Co-ordination Centre to bring back policy
co-ordination and planning functions to
full capacity
Becoming an example for other public
institutions thus proving that positive
change can lead to improvements
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Communicate vision
• Provide explanation of proposed
changes and benefits that they
will bring to organisation and
staff
• Honestly acknowledge the
losses and downsides of change
• Make sure to communicate both
collectively and individually.
Identify resistance silos and
think on how to overcome these
• Harmonise the communication
with the Boss and speak in one
language with him/her
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Just when you think everything is
getting on the right track...
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You get a new government and a
new Prime Minister ...
© LETA
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Empower people
Building teams across the most
important tasks
Providing the necessary resources and
most importantly – your time
Investing in development of people
through learning and seeing other
countries
Regularly checking on progress and
providing feedback
Publicly praising success http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
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19. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
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Generate short term wins
• Reducing staff by 10%
• Using all savings to increase
salaries for remaining staff
• Streamlining structure and
getting rid of unnecessary
“historic” tasks
• Getting positive praise from the
Prime Minister and the media
• Building belief that change is
possible and can be positive
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
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Consolidate gains
• Internal
• Strategy of the State
Chancellery 2017-2019
based on 3E
• Personnel Development
Strategy
• Communications Strategy
• External
• Public Administration
Reform Plan 2017-2019
based on 3E
https://accountsiq.com/multi-company-consolidation-ensuring-efficiency-
accuracy-and-timeliness/
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Anchor change in culture
“Culture eats strategy
for breakfast”
Peter Drucker
• Changing culture requires a lot of
time and effort
• The new principles need to be clearly
defined and followed
• The manager has to lead by example
to staff by following the principles
• Dilemma on how to motivate staff if
politicians eat your principles for
dinner?
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Conclusions
What did we achieve?
• Partially improved structure to better
align it for functions
• Started creating team spirit with a clear
vision on where we want to be in 2020
• Added a couple of new functions thus
strengthening the role and getting away
from “post office” label
• Prepared a whole-of-government reform
proposal based on ideas gained from
Chancellery reform
What we did not achieve?
• Merge of all support units into one big
administrative department
• Breaking down of walls between
departments to indirectly encourage
mutual co-operation
• Failed in persuading Prime Minister to
merge the Cross-Sectoral Co-ordination
Cente with the Chancellery
• Did not see it being adopted yet, because
of other reforms gaining more importance
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What GREAT CEO’s do
differently?
① Deciding with speed
and conviction
② Engaging for impact
③ Adapting proactively
④ Delivering reliably
https://hbr.org/archive-toc/BR1703 22

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Key lessons
• Keep analysing how your organisation can become better by (a)
asking your staff and “clients”; (b) looking at similar
organisations abroad; (c) reading the latest OECD studies
• Make sure you build your team as soon as you can, as you will
need to have a lot of support during the introduction of change
(also to tell you true but unpleasant things about your ideas)
• Invest in relationship building with all different target audiences
as communication nowadays counts for 75% of success
• Choose your battles wisely as you cannot win them all,
especially when your boss does not share your approach 
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Best of success!
• Keep digging – this should
probably be one of the key
mottos for each civil servant
in any country. Despite how
demotivating the situation
can be at times – one should
always keep a positive
attitude and try to build up
ideas for improvement.
Sometimes it takes longer
than you would like to, but
the more you try, the more
you learn and more you
achieve. And there is always
possibility to talk to your
counterparts from other
countries that face the same
problems...