The Reinventor's Fieldbook provides public-sector managers with essential tools for reforming government from within. By Tod Newcombe, Features Editor David Osborne knows the power of a metaphor. Explaining how the management strategies interrelate, Osborne refers to the sport of basketball and the Boston Celtics, a team once known for the teamwork of such players as Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish, but one that now lacks that vital chemistry.
Geneticists recode a certain part of life's building block in order to banish a disease.
Government managers also must recode bureaucracy's DNA in order to change it into more flexible, innovative, entrepreneurial organizations and systems. Osborne grabs the attention of his audience, whether it's someone reading one of his books or a group of people listening to him speak, by giving poignant illustrations to make his point. For example, he tells from personal experience how one airline, with the latest technology, managed to botch up a long, tiring journey home from South America, while another airline, with no technology but great customer service skills, managed to turn a journey from a potential disaster into a relaxing ride. The point, of course, is that Osborne knows how to illustrate his case for reinventing so that it sticks in the reader's mind. He does it so convincingly in his 1992 book, Reinventing Government , written with Ted Gaebler, that it made The New York Times best sellers' list.