Our Ambition for the Treasury

Introduction from the Chief Executive

All of the Treasury's work aims to improve the living standards of New Zealanders through our three outcomes: ‘improved economic performance', ‘a higher performing State sector that supports our international competitiveness' and ‘a stable and sustainable macroeconomic environment'. To help realise this, the Treasury must be an organisation that actively leads the state sector and aspires for excellence. Our ambition is to lead by being:

• A Navigator – shaping debates and being looked to by the Government, public and private sectors, and the wider community to help New Zealand navigate through challenging times, creating and maximising opportunities;
• An Expert – providing expert commentary and advice on economic, fiscal, public sector management and regulatory issues, as well as using and integrating the expertise of others;
• A Problem-solver – working collaboratively with stakeholders and other government agencies to deliver innovative solutions to problems; and
• An Exemplar – leading with exemplary performance and exhibiting a culture of continually striving to improve in everything we do.

These are roles that cannot be claimed, they must be earned. We currently play these roles but not consistently and not as well as we could. In the past we have tried to improve our performance, but have not been clear enough about what success will look like. Clarifying the four roles we aspire to play is a way of being clear about where we're going as an organisation and what we are trying to become.

How the Treasury will continue to strive for excellence

As well as being clear about the roles we play, we also need to be clear about how we will perform them. In our 2009/10 Leadership Review, the Treasury outlined three behaviours it values as an organisation: influence, accountability, and one Treasury. These are central to where we want to go. We cannot become the organisation we want to be - navigator, expert, problem-solver and exemplar - without practicing those behaviours.

The Treasury has a number of initiatives underway to improve our influence, accountability, and the way we work as one. This is our Change Programme. It will help us prioritise where we want to improve, pace our efforts over time to avoid crowding out other work, and draw out lessons from successful initiatives that can be applied across the organisation. Overall, it allows us to take a more thorough, targeted, timely, and transparent approach to improving our performance.

The Change Programme will focus on delivering and landing projects that are underway before beginning new initiatives. When new initiatives begin, they will contribute to annual themes which help progress the three behaviours of influence, accountability and one Treasury.

In 2011/12, the focus of our Change Programme will be on the following themes for improving our performance:

• Influence - we have our finger on the pulse and make a difference where it counts
  • Theme for improvement: Ensuring external engagement is two-way and the role the Treasury will play in an issue is made clear to stakeholders. Often the Treasury may not have expertise in a particular area, and will play a role integrating the advice or expertise of other parties. Improving how we engage with external stakeholders will improve the quality of our work and improve the impact it has on outcomes for New Zealand.
• Accountability - we take personal responsibility for our impact
  • Theme for improvement: Demonstrating our effectiveness and efficiency through high quality performance measures. This will allow us to know with more certainty where our performance needs improving, target our efforts and lead the State sector by example.
• One Treasury - we are at our most powerful when we work as one
  • Theme for improvement: Having a clear line of sight between our outcomes and individuals’ work, and a common understanding of the contribution each team and discipline makes to the organisation and its outcomes. This will help us to coordinate our efforts, take advantage of different skills in the organisation and make links across our different areas of work.

The Treasury will also place a focus on completing and implementing work that began in 2010/11, in particular work on our performance management system, leadership, and workforce planning.

Prioritising our efforts

The Treasury is not and cannot be an expert in every field, nor can we be a problem-solver for all of government. Often our role is one of listening to others' expertise and integrating their advice into our own. We must focus our efforts on where we can add the most value, and acknowledge and encourage others to problem-solve where our expertise is limited.

How we will know we have achieved our organisational vision

We will measure our success at becoming an organisation that is a navigator, expert, problem-solver and exemplar by:

• Navigator - our advice and operational work achieves our intermediate outcomes for New Zealand as identified in our 2011 Statement of Intent.
• Expert - practical experience and feedback from stakeholder surveys indicate the Treasury is looked to for up to date, evidence-based advice in our areas of expertise, and that we are using and integrating the expertise of other stakeholders where appropriate.
• Problem-solver -the solutions that we deliver succeed in achieving their goals, and feedback from Ministers indicates the Treasury is trusted to provide solutions to difficult problems.
• Exemplar - the Treasury rates strongly in key cross-government performance indicators (eg. PIF, BASS and policy advice measures).

We will measure how we are demonstrating the three behaviours through improvements in our results in staff engagement surveys and stakeholder surveys.

What this means for us now

Ultimately, improving our performance as an agency relies on the efforts of each individual staff member. I have no doubt that the Treasury staff will rise to the challenge.

The coming year will be one filled with challenges and opportunities for New Zealand. The aftermath of the earthquakes in Canterbury will echo across the next few years, with economic and fiscal repercussions. The Treasury will play a key role in helping the Government meet this and other challenges and capitalise on upcoming opportunities. For these reasons and for our own integrity as an organisation, we must continue to plan and strive for excellence.