Proof that a Public Sector Corporate can Empower its People
A post about Ruter, a transport authority actively working to increase employee empowerment = and therefore deliver results
Imagine a place where no-one died travelling - even on the roads.
The idea that it is possible to get transport deaths down to zero in the USA (43,000 road deaths in 2021) or India (16,000 railway deaths in 2021) would be laughable. London is closer and has it as a strategic goal to achieve by 2041.
Very few places have actually managed it.
But the closest place is Oslo. In two years of this decade so far, just one person has died. They are touchingly close to the magic zero.
Oslo is not just a leader in safety. They’ve also completed the decarbonisation of its bus fleet, pretty much eliminated paper tickets from its transport network, delivered a fully integrated public/private partnership for operational delivery and is about to trial autonomous vehicles (not, as America has done, as taxis – but as public transport).
How has all this been achieved?
#Ruter (including an electric tram and a bio-gas bus)
It’s the Economy, Stupid
Well, it obviously helps that Norway’s wealthy. Indeed, if you ignore tax havens and micro-states, it’s arguably the richest country in the world.
When Britain and Norway discovered North Sea oil in the 1980s, we Brits spent it all giving ourselves a tax cut. Norway created the world’s biggest investment fund, owned by its citizens. With hindsight, not such a bad idea..
But while money is a good thing, it’s not the only reason for Oslo’s singular success. The other is their transport authority, Ruter, and how it is run.
And I’d like to tell you about it because it it’s a superb example of a public authority putting real thought into questions of governance, empowerment, delegation and decision-making: exactly the topics I focus on with my clients.
Command and control doesn’t work
OK, this headline’s not true.
Command and control totally can work, but it’s very risky.
Apple became the most valuable company on earth as a dictatorship run by Steve Jobs. More recently, the boss of Nvidia (the AI chip phenomenon whose value has more than doubled since the start of 2024) has credited their extraordinary success on his management style: he has 55 direct reports and only ever communicates with all of them at once.
The obvious problem with this approach is that it rather depends on the CEO being right about everything. If, like Steve Jobs or Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang, you founded the company then you’re entitled to drive it in the direction you want. But for every Jobs or Huang who gets every decision right, there’s another dozen in failed firms. We’ve never heard of their names.
If you’re in charge of a taxpayer-funded service, attempting to run a dictatorship is a bad idea, as you’re not only getting it wrong on your own behalf, but on behalf of taxpayers. But the result is that, instead, most organisations run as bureaucracies.
In a world with an ever-increasing pace of change, that also introduces its own risks.
But what is the alternative?
Well, how about “co-ordinated autonomy”?
A gratuitous picture of a Ruter electric ferry
Co-ordinated Autonomy
Ruter recognises that top-down dictatorship is irresponsible and bureaucracy doesn’t meet their needs. Instead, their 'Coordinated Autonomy' method balances clear vision with team independence, inspired by Spotify’s model. You can read about it yourself on this Medium post.
The first thing is to make sure they’ve got absolute clarity on their destination. What’s their North Star?
For them, it is the idea of “Sustainable Movement”. What they mean by this is a highly digital transport system that provides, without a car, the immediacy of access to transport that is offered by a car. To achieve that, they need to combine traditional public transport with newer algorithmic modes and there needs to be a super-slick digital interface for the user.
That vision is well-known and understood in the organisation, and constantly repeated by Bernt Reitan Jenssen, their CEO, who I spoke to on The Freewheeling Podcast a few weeks ago.
In an empowered team, clarity of the goal is absolutely critical. Birds flying in formation do not need a leader as they are all aiming for the same destination. By contrast, a sheepdog has a tough gig as the sheep don’t all understand the destination. We too often run our organisations like sheepdogs.
Now everyone knows where they’re going, the next thing is to be clear on where they’re starting from
Going Home with the Customer
Customer focus is a cliché. But it’s also crucial. If you’re aiming to build a customer-centric future, you’ve got to understand how different that is from where you are now.
Most organisations are drowning in customer data but don’t actually have customer insight. If managers can’t empathise with how customers actually feel, they can’t make things better.
So Ruter told all its managers they had to “go home with a customer”.
No, don’t worry, this wasn’t a company-sponsored hook-up programme: the idea was that volunteer customers would be shadowed on their commute and then interviewed on their experiences. All managers were expected to take part. Customer insight came directly from the customers.
Agility
So if you’re a Ruter manager, you now know where Ruter wants to get to, and you know where Ruter’s customers are starting from.
That’s a good start, but can you do anything about it?
In many public services, change is slow and painful. There are often layers of sign-offs. Managers in those layers sometimes seem reluctant to make a decision. And every department depends on every other department, often resulting in lots of projects 60% complete but unable to get over the line because the resource needed from another department is not available – as everyone there is busy working on another project (which, itself, may then stall awaiting resource from another department!). Too often everyone feels busy but nothing gets done.
That’s where coordinated autonomy comes in.
The key elements are:
Clear principles
Dynamic financial management
Target management
Guiding Principles
If teams are going to have autonomy in how they get to the destination, there must be limits.
That’s where the guiding principles come in.
They describe the key purpose of each transport mode and the key principles of what is and is not acceptable. So, for example, the principles explain that Ruter is willing to experiment with different pricing models and price points but is not willing to accept distribution models which are inaccessible to some citizens.
Armed with clarity on what the business is trying to achieve and the guiding principles on how to get there, people in the business can now get on with delivering projects to make it happen.
Or can they?…
What about money?
After all, we often end up in a vicious circle. We can’t deliver a project without money but we can’t get the money without a business case. And we can’t prove a business case without delivering the project. (the solution to this is often to create a complex spreadsheet that no-one really understands which, miraculously, unlocks the money.)
The conventional model of upfront business case leading to big allocations of cash sitting in a budget is great for big investments in something relatively predictable but is not great for allowing teams to test and learn.
Dynamic Financial Management
The final element to all this is changing the budgeting process to enable greater agility.
Budgets should be tools to manage not straightjackets.
Instead of locking everything down in a business plan, they flexibly allocate resources during the year. Decisions are made continuously meaning that teams can form themselves during the year. The business avoids money being locked into projects that are not delivering and projects being initiated simply to spend the budget.
Work in progress
I don’t want to give the impression that Ruter is perfect. Of course it’s not - no organisation is.
Talking to Johan Gjærum, their director of market and business development and author of the Medium post I quoted earlier, you get the sense that this is still work in progress. Their next focus is going to be helping the business work as truly autonomous, multi-disciplinary teams. This is pretty standard in the tech sector but very unusual in public transport. They have a way to go. But it’s very exciting to watch an organisation in our space really trying to get things done faster.
Take action!
Freewheeling organisations are biased to action. Here are actions you can take.
For Leaders
Define a Clear Vision: Establish a compelling "North Star" goal for your organisation. Make sure everyone understands it and can relate their work back to this objective.
Empower Teams with Principles, Not Rules: Set clear, guiding principles to give teams the autonomy to innovate within defined boundaries. Trust them to make decisions aligned with these principles.
Encourage Customer Empathy: Encourage managers to gain direct insights by spending time with customers. Implement programs where leaders "walk in the customers' shoes" to deepen empathy and understanding. Here’s how I did it - you can do it your way.
Promote Dynamic Financial Management: Shift from rigid annual budgets to flexible funding models that can adapt throughout the year. Allocate resources continuously, avoiding funds locked into stagnant projects.
Encourage Multi-Disciplinary Teams: Enable cross-functional teams that can operate autonomously. Reduce dependencies across departments to enhance agility and decision-making.
For Employees
Align Your Work with the Vision: Understand the organisation’s goals and check that your work is going in that direction. Be a bird flying in formation, not a sheep chased by a dog.
Ask for a “North Star”: If your organisation hasn’t got a clear “North Star”, ask for one. If it has and you can’t see the link, ask how your work drives progress towards it.
Embrace Customer Feedback: Participate in customer-focused initiatives, like shadowing users or gathering feedback directly. Seek to understand the real experiences and needs of those you serve.
Take Ownership of Decisions: Within your area, take initiative and make decisions aligned with the organization’s guiding principles. Don’t wait for approvals if you’re clear on the direction and goals.
Advocate for Agility: Challenge unnecessary bureaucracy. When you encounter bottlenecks, propose streamlined solutions to keep projects moving forward.
Build Cross-Functional Relationships: Collaborate with colleagues in other departments to achieve shared goals. Don’t wait for someone else to initiate a project: do it together with colleagues.
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