The Reinventor's Fieldbook: Tools for Transforming Your Government

by David Osborne and Peter Plastrik

Book Overview

Presenting more than 70 tools, The Reinventor's Fieldbook includes hundreds of practical "lessons learned," "do's and don'ts," "steps to take," and "pitfalls to avoid" in public management and governance. Based on dozens of case studies from five countries, it covers the waterfront of high-performance public organizations, including: customer choice and customer service standards, performance measurement, and performance budgeting; employee empowerment...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787943320
• ISBN13: 9780787943325
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 704 Pages
• Weight: 2.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 8.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

One Of A Kind

For most people government means bureaucracy. Not anymore. The Reinventor's Fieldbook lays out a new organization that will grab your imagination and focus it on performance. The book describes "how to" build a high performance government organization. It is filled with tools, stories, and references from all over the world. The hard research has been done for you.Frankly I didn't think you could compile this much information and make it manageable. But the extraordinary research provided in the Reinventor's Fieldbook is presented in an easy to use format. Tools and methods are tied to issues of governing. The Reinventor's Fieldbook is one of a kind. It is the "how to" guide for delivering high performance government service.

What reinvention is REALLY like

"The Reinventor's Fieldbook" is a great resource for anyone trying to reinvent/reform/transform/reengineer a government organization. It tells human stories that illustrate how your counterparts have tried, stumbled, and succeeded, at least partially.It makes vivid the issues of serving customers, winning compliance, and changing culture. I felt like I had lived through Osborne's and Plastrik's stories.

Be forewarned!

I'm not objective because David Osborne is one of my business partners. Yet, I'm confident almost anyone who is serious about making government work better will find this reference book worth ten times its price. Osborne and Plastrik are giving us an amazing compendium of the knowledge and experience of thousands of reinventors. It is beautifully organized and cross referenced so that you can find everything from helpful little tips to comprehensive strategies. You name the problem, and the Fieldbook will give you multiple approaches to solving the problem.Reinvention is inherently exploratory. Explorers need good maps. The Reinventor's Fieldbook is the best map available.

It Works! It Works!

I was one of the tens of thousands of public servants inspired by David Osborne and Ted Gabler's 1992 "Reinventing Government" book. I set out back then to apply and build on their original 10 principles of reinvention. The going was tough and I stubbed my toes occasionally, but I learned some amazing things about how these principles did work and how they inspire phenomenal changes when put to use.The great thing about Osborne and Pete Plastrik's new book, "The Reinventor's Fieldbook," is that it provides what the 1992 book was missing -- practical experiences in making reinvention real. It's a great reference for all beginning and experienced reinventors and helps avoid the pitfalls that practitioners want to avoid if they can. Most practitioners want to be on the "leading edge," not the "bleeding edge." This fieldbook puts in one place what works, what to watch out for, and inspiration to try new things.In my experience, I've had hundreds of visitors who want to reinvent their governments ask, "how did you do what you did?" Now, I can not only tell them my experience, but point them to "The Reinventor's Fieldbook" knowing that with it in their hands, they've got the best grounding you can get in practical know-how for reinventing in the public sector.

CONCISE AND PRACTICAL

As a government administrator, THE REINVENTOR'S FIELDBOOK, provides me with concise, practical and useful ideas, concepts and lessons for improving service, burning the red tape and serving our citizens better. Packed with real world examples, Osborne and Plastrik have written a book that is useful for both quick reference and studied review. The description of what works, and, more importantly, what doesn't work, helps the reader navigate the minefield of politics, personality and bureaucracy. Colleague's successes and failures are explained in a way that is immediately understandable and applicable to the real world of government today.THE REINVENTOR'S FIELDBOOK is a map for change and improvement and a guide for prospering in an era of administrative and service revolution!