Capacités Publiques

From January 2022 to December 2022, Capacités Publiques engaged 12 public organisations in a process that alternated between group working sessions and peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing to develop pilot schemes, and the testing, within each public body, of practical applications tailored to each participant’s organisation and local context. The programme was documented on a dedicated blog and in a final report, and a mirror group was set up to facilitate the dissemination of the results of the pilot schemes to all public sector stakeholders.

The programme was based on the principle of active participation by the partner organisations: two to three staff members from each organisation (sometimes more) took part in the group sessions and led the trials carried out within their organisations by involving colleagues from various departments.

The pandemic has led to numerous instances of staff carrying out actions that were sometimes essential to crisis management, without always having been given the authority to do so. Despite a consensus on the need to act and, with hindsight, on the positive impact of their involvement, there can be a significant lack of understanding between the ‘lone hero’ and their line managers. So how can we recognise and value this process of bottom-up innovation through a framework that encourages initiative and considers the (re)integration – of both initiatives and staff members – within the local authority?

The redeployment of staff has been a recurring feature of crisis management, taking various forms and involving different methods of implementation, but always with the same aim: to reallocate staff to essential services and immediate priorities. So how can we develop a new HR culture and a mobility policy based on valuing versatility, the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and solidarity between departments and between stakeholders within the same region?

The crisis has also given rise to professional practices that grant staff and managers greater autonomy: the duty to take the initiative, the freedom to adapt rules, a reduction in reporting ‘noise’, and the streamlining of approval processes… So how can we draw on the lessons of the crisis to develop a more horizontal approach to public management, one which, in particular, recognises that all managers play a key role as cogs in the machinery of public action, by increasing their capacity to act and reinforcing their professional identity?