my blogposts

Why government should kick its addiction to failed top-down controls Despite the ubiquity and longevity of top down control by government through performance measurement and management (PMM) regimes  - they rarely work. They are foiled by the reality of the complex settings of most of the priority outcomes articulated by successive governments. And they are doomed because they are underpinned by a profoundly flawed view of what motivates public servants to perform, learn and

My civilservicereformuk.com research programme is looking differently at civil service reforms to provide insights into the practice of...

Prime Minister Starmer promised that five Missions would be the North Star for his government. Almost 12 months later they are obscured...

As we head into an unusually significant ‘outcome focused’ spending review ministers and senior officials should reflect on two mistruths...

Key speeches by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster have signalled that the government has serious ambitions...

Prime Minister Starmer launched his government’s strategic plan for change on Thursday 5th December  - fleshing out his five missions...

A flurry of speeches addressing public service reform have come out in November 2024 as new ministers get their feet properly under the...

Recent days have been awash with commentaries on Starmer’s ability to grip Number 10 and the government machine – accompanied by a flurry...

My progress on the non trivial challenge of trying to find a way to describe what the impact of a successful reform looks like.

The UK is the most frenzied civil service reformer on the planet. But after 65 years of reforms there is no shortage of contradictory and...