CAN GOVERNMENTS THINK STRATEGICALLY?

The revelations from the official COVID inquiry of the tensions between the various parts of the government machine have been the last straw for the public – which needed little persuasion that the UK government machine was not “fit for purpose” and required a complete overhaul. Such indeed  is the conclusion of no less than 2 reports which hit the press this week - Power with Purpose – final report from the Commission on the Centre of Government (Institute of Government 2024): and The Radical How (Nesta 2024)

I have mixed feelings about the Institute of Government. At one level, it clearly 

produces useful reports but, at another, it so obviously consists of the “Great 

and the Good” who consistently fall into the trap of groupthink. The Nesta 

report seems to reflect a more inclusive style of thinking. As someone with 

16 years of experience of leading and implementing strategic change in a 

huge government body (admittedly finishing in 1990) this post offers some 

tentative thoughts on the challenges involved. More systematic thinking can 

be found in the reading list below

we may have been dealing with more than 2 million citizens but knew that 
the people we needed to persuade numbered in the hundreds – namely 
the officials of such departments as Education, Police and Social Work, but also community activists

As a first step, we simply signalled (in 1975) that dealing with the issue we defined as “multiple deprivation” was our first priority.
It took a year to come up with the first statement of that strategy and a 
further few years to test that and produce in 1982 a Social Strategy for the Eighties which was further tweaked in 1988 dues to the changed political conditions 

Some Dilemmas of Social Reform is a recent article in which I try to explain 

the process in more detail - Rosabeth Kanter is one of the most famous management 

writers and offered, a few decades ago, 10 Commandments for implementing Change1 - 

starting with the need for analysis and, more specifically,

Create a shared vision and common direction
Separate from the past
Create a Sense of Urgency
Support a Strong Leader
Line up Political Support 
Craft an Implementation Plan
Develop Enabling Structures
Communicate, Involve People and be Honest
Reinforce and Institutionalise the Change

I used this checklist as a retrospective test of my own experience, over a 15 year period, of developing and applying a strategy for the West of Scotland -

• The shocking 1973 “Born to Fail?” report identified the West of Scotland as a UK 

leader in “multiple deprivation” and a few of us – instead of acting defensively  - saw 

this as an opportunity to ensure that the Region, set up in 1974, recognised 

this need as its basic priority - and it certainly did establish and sustain a shared vision.

• “Separating from the past” was easy at one level since the Region was starting from 

scratch but enormously difficult at another since it was an amalgamation of six 

large powerful bodies – each with its distinctive style – let alone the strength of 

the professional cultures to be found in departments such as Education, Police, 

Water, Fire and Social Work

• That indeed had created a lot of potential enemies for the new Region – its very 

scale made it difficult to defend and its power left a bitter taste in the mouths 
of the politicians and officials working in the lower tier of local government. 
There was an urgency in the Region having to prove itself – which gave us the incentive to do things differently.
For the first 4 years, leadership was shared by 2 very different characters – a community minister being the public persona and a miner being the behind-the- scenes deal-maker. It allowed a rare combination of practicality and idealism to flow in the wider leadership

• And community activists were brought into that

• With the implementation plan taking several years to evolve

• and appropriate enabling structures – at both political, administrative and 

community levels 

• Communication was intense and continuous – as you would expect of a 

democratic system

And appropriate structures reinforced and institutionalised the changes

Whether by luck or by design, the Region got it about right. Our management of 

the strategy may not have met everyone’s standards but least we were spared 

Gordon Brown’s infamous target-setting!  

And here's one guy who disputes the Institute for Government analysis 

Recommended Reading

How Institutions Think Mary Douglas 1986 Although an anthropologist, Douglas uses the 
latest thinking on institutional theory to offer a very distinctive and unique presentation

Strategy – a history Lawrence Freedman 2009 A very accessible read by a military historian 
which does justice to both top-down and bottoms-up approaches

The Art of Public Strategy Geoff Mulgan 2009 From someone who has experienced 
both the theory and the practice.
There is no single formula for organizing strategy in public organizations. It can be 
led by specialized strategy teams and units, task forces and commissions; it can grow 
out of the discussions and collaborations of networks that cut across departments; 
it can have its roots in political parties, or in the civil service. It can be open and
inclusive, tapping into the collective intelligence of a society, or it can be closed and 
tightly controlled. But all successful governments have created spaces for thought, 
learning, and reflection to resist the tyranny of the immediate, and any
government or public agency that takes its responsibilities seriously
needs structures and processes to do these things. Otherwise the
competing forces that can be found within government, including party
tacticians, media and public relations experts, cynics, and
time-servers, are even more likely to sacrifice the future for the
present. The costs of strategy need not be high, but the benefits
can be, focusing energieswhere theymatter, and refreshing governments
that otherwise go stale.
Leading Public Sector Innovation Bason 2010 A Danish take

Strategic Thinking in Government Vol I HMSO 2012 A UK Parliament Select Committee 
report
Strategic thinking in Government (Vol II 2012) some written evidence to the Committee
UK govt response  

Matt Flinders ‘ review of “The Blunders of our Government” A superb take-down of an 
over-ambitious book

Leading Public Design Bason 2017 The Dane’s further thoughts

Strategies for Governing – retinventing public admin for a dangerous century 
Alasdair Roberts 2019 A canadian political scientist rethinks PA

Why Governments get it wrong; and how they can get it right Dennis Grube 2022
An Australian public servant now a Cambridge academic takes on the subject with an unusual if  not flippant book

https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/