![]() Ok, so its a bit of a stretch, but I'm feeling pretty happy about making progress. I remember when I was was studying undergrad psychology thinking that its so much easier to do the work, than worry about doing the work. I think I've been comforting myself with that thought for a while now, but its not really relevant here. I have been doing the work, but extended, solo research work, I'm learning, is very different than coursework. It has taken a L O N G time for me to understand which question to ask, who to ask, how and when. I had a solid idea when I started but it was an unrealistic question about a world that doesn't exist. I found this out when I went to ask this question of real people, doing real things. Someone said that the world is so much more complex than we realise. This has been true for my research as well. I thought that I could go ask a simple set of questions and abracadabra, come up with a useful (genius!) insight. Um, no. I was comforting myself with delusions of simplicity. I'm not psychotic. I don't think. Methodology anthologyMethodology 1: FAIL! Interview people in the government and non-gov system involved in delivering social programs, to build a system dynamics model (qualitative causal loop) of how decisions are made, then compare that with how Toyota makes business decisions (using the Toyota Production System). Methodology 2: FAIL! Conduct Action Research while implementing Outcomes Based Contracting in a large government organisation that buys social services. Methodology 3: FAIL! Conduct Action Research while implementing a new program that uses formal quality management to improve process and outcome in a large government organisation that buys social services. Methodology 4:
What do you reckon? is there some hope that this one will get up? I've spoken to that government department about this and they were a bit nervous about any claim I might make that the CAUSE of better or worse client outcomes was better or worse quality management. Their specific worry was that I would claim cause when so many factors might be responsible for different outcomes ... like different program designs and so on. I'm aware of this limitation and propose to control that by controlling my claim. That is, I intend only to claim correlations (if they exist) between better quality control and better client outcomes. I'd welcome your comments here. Go on ... ETHICS!![]() Yep, also completed and submitted my ethics application in the last few months. Dear Baby Jesus! That was a bit taxing. But in the end, a very interesting and worthwhile exercise. The main value of the thing for me (aside from the obvious benefit to the other people who will be involved with the research) is that I had to plan out all of the data gathering stage so that I could submit the ethics application! That was pretty challenging because I had to think through every question and every logistical detail in advance. The good part is that I now have a plan of attack. As I write, I'm waiting on a response from the university Human Research Ethics Committee. Dr J tells me that getting through on the first go is rare, and that I'll probably have to address some minor amendment requests, at least. And so I wait ... but as usual, with a completely unreasonable and unfounded amount of confidence!
0 Comments
![]() I did that. I was hoping to do then use this PhD research as an Action Research (AR) project to record implementation of OBC across that department. I even got some great preliminary advice from AR Amigo Par Excellence, Dr Tim Haslett. Then my job got restructured and I had to leave. COME ON! + what the service does (like outputs or outcomes) + how it does it + how it reports back to government on what it did ... and similar stuff. I wrote it. I made all the 'what the service does' stuff about collecting info from workers about their problems and ideas (in QMS speak thats voice of the process data) and helping the services it coordinated to continuously improve. I made all the 'how it reports back' stuff about providing process and outcome data. No data targets. No performance based payments - these would make it too hard for a fledgeling like this to stay viable. I just made it necessary for them to collect data about what they did, and what the outcome of that was for clients, and report it back to us quarterly. In return, they got paid enough to keep doing it. My Program Guideline was approved, I ran the tender, and awarded the contract to a progressive and enthusiastic NGO. This would be a great step towards government working with an NGO to collect process and outcome quality information and use it to continuously improve services for clients. Imagine, clients of DV services, victims and perpetrators, getting a service that really met their needs and helped them to move on to more harmonious relationships and productive lives?! I was pretty excited. And once again, I was hoping to get formal permission through my government department, and the NGO, to record what happened as we tried to implement this quality managed service .... Then two things happened: I got offered a great job that I couldn't say no to, and the department I'd been working for told the new contractor not to report the data. I'll make no further comment about that one ... All this put quite a damper on my enthusiasm for a while. I started to think about turning my attention to more practical things, like renovating houses. So I did. I bought an old house in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney and had a great time nailing and fixing and painting. Check out my photos ... ![]() I also talked to a lot of people to sob and complain about my research hardships. I received some solid slaps and revised my research approach in line with great advice I got from, among others, Professor Kenny Lawson, who said; Lee, you have to add value when you propose to go snooping around in someone else's business. I'm paraphrasing. ![]() So I decided to stop being so damned prescriptive and to focus more on finding out what was going on in the social grant funding system from the perspective of the people running it. My pretty damned awesome PhD Supervisor, Prof Julien Pollack gave me more solid and practical advice (Project managers are like this) which put me back on track to re-write my methodology and get my sh*t together for an ethics application... but more on that in next post, because this is getting w a y too long! I'll try to update before two more years pass. Why you may ask? Why update? Well, I ask myself. Obviously. For two years running.
I woke up at 4am on 4 October and couldn't swallow so I went to Bankstown Hospital & asked them to have a look. Turns out I had tonsillitis so they gave me 500ml of penicillin. That worked pretty well for my tonsils ... but made me break out in an angry puffy red rash that ended up covering my entire body, except for my elbows. It was quite interesting in a way. I mean, it was actually quite serious so I was pretty stressed at the time, but also quite interesting. I now know that allergic drug reactions often start in the creases of your body, like behind the knees, in your armpits and even in your eyelid creases, then spread out from there. I'd rather not know that.
It was pretty disappointing to have to cancel my talk and all that other stuff but despite feeling determined to press on with the schedule, the allergy just got the better of me. I suppose that sometimes we are made to acknowledge that we are not the only forces in our lives. Getting sick and cancelling a heap of commitments isn't exactly a great resume item, but it happened and there was little I could do about it. I've never actually been that sick. It was quite humbling. Its also given me a little bit of insight and empathy for people who have to suffer long term illnesses. I've posted it up here just to acknowledge that its great to plan, but life doesn't always run to schedule. Anyway, I'm almost fully recovered now so I'm getting back on track with research and a heap of other things, including submitting my latest PhD proposal draft to uni in preparation for the annual progress review which I'll be attending later this week. Will be great to get that done. My proposal has changed significantly since the one I posted up here from the start of 2017 - If you're interested you can check it out on the Work page. Happy November, Lee. ![]() G'day and welcome to my diary. I'm keeping this as a record for myself; so I can better understand my own thought processes, habits and biases, but also for people who are interested in doing research and people who are interested in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of government. 'Government' is a pretty broad thing to try and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of. So in order for my brain to avoid some kind of information overload meltdown and also to research something specific enough to fit into a PhD, I'm focussing on how government manages the quality of the social services it buys every year. For example, the New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services in Australia spent roughly $1.7b last year buying services that are meant to protect and nurture families. But it has no reliable way of telling whether all that money actually bought that outcome. This strikes me and maybe you, as a big problem that needs looking at. For more info on my research check out my PhD Research Proposal. That link takes you to the original research proposal I submitted to gain entry to a PhD Research degree at the University of Sydney, but I've already revised it pretty significantly, and I'm still only in my first year of three! So, for anyone interested in doing research, I note that this 'research proposal' thing is pretty damned slippery. They (uni people) make you do it because; 1. its a waste of everyone's time if you go out and research something that people already know lots about. 2. you have to have a decent plan about how you are going to do something like 'contribute to human knowledge' or you'll just end up wandering all over the place and never finish (among other problems that come from no-planning) So the research proposal beast is a good thing ... its just hard to squash all your questions into just one small box! Anyway, I'm still working on the re-draft and I will post it up here when I'm finished. That will be before November 2017 - which is the month that my uni formally confirms my progress, so it has to be ready by then. The main revisions I'm working on include examples of the implementation of formal quality management systems in various governments around the world. I'm also trying to bolster my methodology section. This needs work if my ultimate findings are to be considered reliable and useful in understanding how things really work in government now. By 'things' I mean, how government controls quality. If you're still reading, thanks! I'll post progress on here about once a month, or more often if anything interesting happens. Have a ripper, Lee. |
AuthorHi I'm Lee, my research is about how to apply quality management systems to government; my focus is contracted social services. It's a strange and wonderful journey. ArchivesCategories |