Global Government Leaders’ Forum 2024 | Global Government Forum | 23 January 2024 | TBA, Singapore

Bringing civil service leaders from around the world to Singapore to take part in debate on organisational change, policymaking and service delivery, the Leaders’ Forum is a free conference for civil service managers

Traditional approaches to civil service leadership have encouraged a hierarchical, top-down management style. They’ve focused on vertical accountabilities, rather than looking outwards to other departments and into the community. They’ve prioritised policymaking and ‘generalist’ management skills over specialist professional expertise. And they’ve expected civil servants to make key decisions internally, drawing on formal consultation processes, rather than involving key stakeholders and the wider public directly in developing new policies and services.

But in the modern world, this approach is no longer effective.

The economic, social and environmental problems faced by governments demand close partnership working by officials, reaching across departmental boundaries. The new tools available to civil servants – notably digital technologies and ‘big data’ – require collaborative, iterative approaches to project development that sit awkwardly with established processes. The innovation necessary to adapt to an ever faster-moving environment calls for both fresh approaches to risk, and new forms of public engagement. And these days, talented employees want the autonomy and authority to make a real difference in their working lives: to get results, leaders must empower rather than direct them.