Opinion: Meetings, noise, and better public service decisions

10/02/2025

He Pōneketanga, column published in BusinessDesk on 10 February 2025.

In this column I respond to the Public Service Commissioner’s letter to chief executives asking public servants to hold better meetings. I argue that the number of meetings matters less than the quality of the decisions that come out of them, and that the real problem is system noise, particularly in the political authorising environment. I suggest using algorithms wisely to take some of that noise out of routine decisions, and protecting the teachers, nurses, caseworkers and others on the frontline from being drawn into head office processes.

Read the column: https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/opinion/meetings-noise-and-better-public-service-decisions

Reference
Te Kawa, D. (2025, February 10). Meetings, noise, and better public service decisions. BusinessDesk. https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/opinion/meetings-noise-and-better-public-service-decisions

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