Developing Strategies for the Creation of Public Value: An Exercise in Futility?

Our search for public value, in terms of definition and creation, seems to remain elusive. The contributions of Mark Prebble in this volume and elsewhere have highlighted the messiness of the public context and, thus, public value. That messiness extends to strategic planning, which often lacks actual strategic thinking. This reality makes the search for public value using strategic planning difficult, if not utterly futile. However, in Prebble’s arguments about public value, there is a glimmer of hope in calling for humility in government. I argue in this chapter that humility, creativity, and adaptability in strategy development might get us closer to public value than formal strategic planning ever did.