Leveling up: Government content

Let me start by saying I like my websites. Sure, there are always things I could tweak here or there, or it could be on a faster server, or it could be more SEO friendly. I’d love to host videos inline without jacking the server costs. But overall, I like my two froggy homes. ThePolyBlog for my personal stuff and PolyWogg for my more professional stuff. Or, to steal from someone else’s framing that I like, the first is for me and the second is for others.

That doesn’t mean, though, that I don’t take it seriously. There are almost 2M words on the two sites, and more than a few regular followers. Which is rare for a long-form personal blog. As I near retirement, I wanted to do an honest review of my content against what other people in similar or adjacent spheres were doing. Both to help me understand my positioning as well as potentially give me ideas for opportunities I’m not exploiting. Most of that review is done. Let’s see where I’m at.

Insight into government

I naively thought there might be more sites like mine out there blogging about government life, how government works, etc. Insider looks from a public administration mindset. Government 101 perhaps. Maybe not a lot in Canada, but around the world? Average people like, well, me? Surely there would be some in Australia, US, UK, maybe New Zealand.

In Canada, I quickly tripped over Michael Wernick’s “Governing Canada”, which I had already read. It’s a good find as I do admire some of his style and his ability to remain apolitical in his descriptions (which reviewers decry). Except it was a little too white bread treatment, even for my tastes.

Donald Savoie is a huge Canadian voice, with books, Policy Options essays, etc. They’re practically a whole genre unto themselves. And yet, they don’t land with me as strongly as they should. A little too theoretical, upbeat? Not enough grit perhaps? Not sure.

Sam Freedman’s stuff on Substack (Comment is Freed) and his book (Failed State). A little too British-specific to catch my attention, but quite popular. And long form (many posts > 3000 words!). Except it is far more political than I would want. Predictions on elections, analysis of races, analysis of political positions in various cases. Not my cup of tea, normally. Yawn.

Ian Dunt has Striking 13 on Substack, books and podcasts (oh my!). Finding him was like finding buried treasure. I’ve marked his book, How Westminster Works… and Why It Doesn’t, for later, although I’ve already skimmed a few chapters. I was super excited about the first bits, until I realized the general thread of “how it works” seems similar to some books written in the Maritimes in Canada — government is stupid because politicians are stupid and do stupid things. Not really my jam. I know why people believe that, I know why people like that line…I’m just not one of them. A little too angry a line for me. Maybe 10% will be useful for me to think about for future topics.

Martin Stanley is a little too Mandarin-ish by contrast. Amazing stuff, from the https://civilservant.org.uk/ website to the Substack. I’ve bookmarked his book, “How to be a Civil Servant” for later. Mostly as I want to see what he has to say about running policy teams. And he has the right tone — this is “how it works” with some analysis of limits and perks, but not angry. Definitely a tone I aspire to match.

I had not seen Jen Pahlka’s work before, or maybe I dismissed it as too US-centric, not sure. The name was familiar, but I had not specifically seen her “Recoding America” stuff before. Digital service delivery is mostly outside of my purview, but I’ll take a look.

David Eaves stuff for Canada is a bit more data-ish, even more than Pahlka, probably more than I’ll enjoy, but I’ll also take a gander.

And then I run out of options that I’m likely to emulate.

Future options

I know I want to write about skills, performance, Government 101, audits, HR and life as a manager. I already know my voice for most of those, and maybe about 10% of the above will help flesh out the 101 stuff and life as a manager. The rest? That’s mostly on me. And some books, of course. Lots of books. I was just hoping to find other writers fighting government monsters and gazing long enough into the abyss that the abyss has begun to start gazing back into them. A few abyss dwellers. And me. Alone in my pond. Typing away. 🙂 I assumed my voice was rare; I didn’t think my croaking was unique. Ribbit.

2 Comments

Internet Commenter

1 month ago

I have read Savoie once and found him repetitive and simplistic (“poets vs plumbers” was too pithy for its own sake). And his vantage point is too clearly that of an outsider. Vs if you can put your hands on “Keeping Deputy Ministers Accountable” by the late former Clerk Gordon Osbaldeston, you’ll likely enjoy it more. I still remember his astute points about management intentions fizzling out (e.g., an 80s-era attempt to put power back into Ministers’ hands that started strong but was diluted over the years it took to bring it forward).
But amidst all of those writers I find very few books and blogs that get at the craft of being an actual public servant. It’s far easier to find writings by former political staff than former, never mind current, lower level public servants. DMs and Clerks have a unique vantage point for sure, but tend to write at a macro level, when if anything I’d be very curious to hear them talk about their experience managing their office, experimenting with version control systems, fiddling with organizational structures, or finding moments of opportunity for rapid action. The only other blog than yours I’ve seen cover that kind of thing is “Federal Field Notes”, but alas its brilliant author doesn’t write often.
So your writings do address a useful niche: an insider’s view of the craft and ground-level realities of making the cogs of the machine whir. I quite liked your older post about the shifts from centralized to decentralized and back to centralized functions. I for one hope you still have a couple posts in reserve before you eventually shift to other topics.