An invitation to reimagine government
The Centre for Public Impact has partnered with the Australia and New Zealand School of Government to create a series of six webinars about reimagining government. This article shares why we wanted to do this, and what we hope to get out of the series.
Last Thursday 21 May, the Centre for Public Impact, a BCG Foundation, and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government hosted the first in a series of six webinars, focused on reimagining government.
We have been very busy designing the programme, securing speakers, and testing out different approaches to audience engagement, which means we haven’t spent much time sharing why we wanted to do this and what we hope to get out of it. So here is it a bit more of that story.
Why do we need a webinar series on reimagining government?
Our models of government need reimagining. We have inherited a version of government modelled on an industrial, post-war mindset. But the world looks very different now. We have the internet; globalisation; a world characterised by interconnectedness. The world is complex, and the mindsets and toolkit from the past are no longer fit for purpose.
We need a new version of government, which is fit for the 21st century. We need to identify what a renewed set of beliefs, values and principles might look like, and what this means for how government understands its role in society.
Why now?
What better moment than now — when norms, structures and institutions have been turned upside down — to be doing this reimagining?
What better time to be challenging how government has always been, when it suddenly looks very different?
Historically, dramatic events like those we are currently experiencing in the context of COVID-19 have acted as a catalyst for radical policy and paradigm shifts. However, for radical change to happen, an alternative model and set of ideas must be available to build from.
This webinar series aims to convene this conversation by bringing together practitioners, academics and leading thinkers from across the globe for some organised social imagining around a renewed vision for government.
Who do we want to be part of the conversation?
Government touches on everyone’s lives, which means that everyone can and should have a view about what they would like government to be and do.
We welcome all voices. We welcome all opinions, people of all political persuasions, people who have been thinking about this for years, and people who have only just discovered an interest in this conversation.
Any future we imagine needs to be diverse, plural and inclusive; we can’t do this without a diverse set of voices around the (virtual) table.
What will we be covering?
The six sessions are oriented around a reimagining of government centred on “the enablement paradigm”, where the core role of government is to help create the conditions from which good outcomes are more likely emerge.
The first session was a broad discussion about the enablement paradigm.
The next five sessions are themed according to the core elements which underpin the enablement paradigm:
- Thinking in systems
- A relationships-first approach
- Shared power
- Humble leadership
- Reorienting to learning
How do the webinars work?
Each webinar has three speakers, who are hosted in conversation by James Button. The conversation is guided by the audience, who choose the questions to be put to the panel.
After 20 minutes of panel conversation, audience members are split into breakout rooms for 15 minutes to discuss what resonated, what they disagreed with, and what changes they might make to their own practice as a result of what they have heard.
After the breakout sessions, the remaining panel conversation focuses on these audience reflections.
We have structured the webinars in this way for the following reasons:
- This approach engages attendees not just as passive recipients of information, but as active agents who play an important role in shaping the direction and focus of the conversation.
- Breakouts offer participants an opportunity to reflect on what this conversation means for their own practice as well as the chance to build new connections and networks.
- This approach allows panel members to hear and learn from participants — moving away from the idea of the panel as “experts” towards an understanding that we all have an equally important contribution to make towards this discussion.
It is important to us that this webinar series reflects the values that we at CPI promote. For this reason, we are challenging the traditional format of an expert panel and a passive audience and instead seeking to design sessions where power between the audience and panel members is shared, and where the conversation is co-created as a result of that dynamic.
What do we hope to achieve?
The intention of this series is to convene a coalition of the willing who are interested in developing, challenging and experimenting with a reimagining of government.
We are looking to build a movement and network of people interested in exploring what changes might be needed if government were to reimagine itself as “head gardener”: responsible for setting out the design, planting, tending, nurturing and, where necessary, weeding the system of which it is a part.
What exactly this network will look like, how it will be organised, we don’t quite know yet. We’re thinking about this a lot at the moment and would welcome your views — please do get in touch, or subscribe for CPI’s weekly newsletter to keep up to date with what we’re doing.
Most importantly, please join us for the webinar series. We hope you’ll learn, be challenged, and also inspired to become part of the global movement and network seeking to pave the way for a reimagining of government that is fit to serve us well post-COVID-19, and beyond.
