Abhishek Gopalka: How motivation can fix public systems

How motivation can fix public systems

How do you fix broken public systems? You spark people's competitive spirit. In a talk about getting people motivated to make change, public sector strategist Abhishek Gopalka discusses how he helped improve the health system of Rajasthan, a state in India home to more than 80 million people, using the powers of transparency and public accountability. "Motivation doesn't just appear," Gopalka says. "Something needs to change to make you care."

Lasting change in public institutions starts not with more resources, but with igniting motivation through transparency and public accountability. In Rajasthan, where newborn deaths were ten times higher than in the UK, bold citizen promises and public rankings revived trust and performance. When clinics posted guarantees on their walls and districts competed openly to improve, patient visits surged by 20 percent in just a year. Transforming a system requires tapping into people's drive to be seen and recognized by their communities.