Customer focused science and knowledge management for sustainability in New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

The New South Wales (Australia) State Government's direction is set through its 'NSW 2021: A plan to make NSW number one' ten year strategic plan. Key to the government's reforms is the objective to increase the devolution of decision making to the community by providing open access to data, information and services via transparent processes. For the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), this is achieved through 'The Open OEH' program. The vision is to make OEH data and services open, available, accessible and useful to the community anywhere and anytime. This requires customer focused delivery that may depend on cross agency collaborations to set and deliver priority outcomes. Science within state government improves objective decision making at all levels and provides a lens through which often competing perspectives and demands from multiple customers may be better viewed and considered. The expectation is that science will 'bring to the table' and illuminate rigorous and transparent data and information on relevant issues and matters. OEH is seeking to better fulfil these expectations through its corporate emphasis on engaging customers. Understanding customer values is emerging as an important element in project management. A customer focus will progressively inform strategic priority setting for end to end project delivery of OEH science and knowledge management. State government science does not duplicate that of other recognised science providers. Science within Federal Agencies and Universities is more exploratory in nature whereas state government science is directed research, often drawing information from imperfect/incomplete knowledge. This knowledge is enhanced through participatory end user engagement, which allows for understanding of the data limitations and assumptions. Critical to this process is the concept of scientist social capital; that is, the benefits that arise from the science practitioner's connections, reputation, status and relationships. Paramount to success is developing and maintaining trust with an often diverse customer base. In the OEH the Science Division has undergone a major restructure to respond to the needs of NSW 2021. The new Ecosystem Management Science (EMS) branch consists of cross functional teams designed to deliver products and services to customers and colleagues undertaking policy and program design and delivery. The teams in the branch are headed by recognised scientific leaders who run programs using collective decision making. This seeks to optimise benefits from the science social capital of their connections, reputations and knowledge. It also enables them and their teams to work within a matrix management model to provide rapid and responsive science solutions while working towards long term strategic science program goals. There is a strong interdependency among all the EMS teams and this encourages interactions between individuals making possible a broad canvassing of ideas and knowledge. An important feature of the EMS branch is that its six teams are orientated on outcomes rather than science disciplines. This acts to further facilitate improved access to science and knowledge across teams and greater sharing of project components. To enhance knowledge creation and flow to customers, a dedicated science Knowledge Service Team has been created to instill rigor in knowledge management and thus directly contribute to Open OEH. This team will be strongly supported by an Evaluation Team that uses modeling and decision support systems. These systems will provide transparent, repeatable forecasting and scenario analysis capabilities. Clear two-way communication, will increase customer engagement, understanding, evidence-based decision making and action. Ultimately this will lead to better informed and more transparent discussions about ecosystem management including options for trade-offs and multiple co-benefits from government decisions and community investment. This will boost prosperity and sustainability by empowering community and government decision makers to improve ecosystem services and better sustain landscape and community productivity and function.