Governments around the world are facing a dire crisis. With the pandemic, people around the world will begin to view the fundamentals and the building blocks of our society in a new light. The pressure to change the system was already great before the crisis as it seemed impossible to tackle the major global challenges, inequality and climate change, purely within the current system. We need a new social contract, one in which government’s will have to steer societies stronger.
Now, the need for decisive action is needed. Governments need to be better equipped for the post-pandemic era, the methods for governance designed in the 1900s will no longer suffice. We need to rethink how our governments are organized and how they operate in an increasingly complex, non-linear and interconnected world. We need Next Era Governments.
Our approach in capacity building services tackles key aspects of Next-Era governance
1. Push for new leadership. In the midst of this change, governments can only succeed in guaranteeing well-being to the people, if they become agile. The promise of agility in governance lies in its ability to create societal stability and rather controversially push societal transformations simultaneously. New approaches to leadership are needed to discover what agile could mean for governments.
2. Embrace experimentation. Existing policy solutions are unfit for the need for societal change. The tools and approaches of the yesteryears will not solve the challenges of today and tomorrow. Experimentation can help governments find out what works and what doesn’t, and allows the exploration of novel solutions and learning fast from outcomes.
3. Co-creation and breaking silos. In today’s world, no single actor can plan ahead alone. Civil servants are required and expected to be able to work and connect with an increasingly diverse group of people both within and beyond the government. This again requires an increased understanding of diversity in needs and approaches and being able to utilize multidisciplinary and innovative methods in the search for solutions and planning beyond electoral terms.
4. Informed decision making. The operational context of governments is marked by nonlinearity and complexity. It is imperative for the governments to be able to identify and use different kinds of knowledge as a basis for decision making. Complex, even wicked, problems are challenging because solving one part of the problem creates a bunch of new ones. In order to operate successfully in the current environment, civil servants will have to enhance their interaction skills with knowledge producers. Moreover, strategies and tactics for knowledge brokering are needed.
Contact: mikael.sokero@demoshelsinki.fi