Thawing the ‘middle management permafrost’: Management and workforce takeaways from Innovation 2025 

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Global Government Forum has used an artificial intelligence tool to analyse all the sessions at Innovation 2025 for takeaways relating to public and civil service management and workforce issues.

Key topics discussed at Global Government Forum’s Innovation conference include addressing digital and data skills gaps within the civil service, creating a culture of innovation – by empowering officials through effective and supportive leadership, for example – and fostering collaboration across government to deliver better public services.

Issues relating to public and civil service management and workforce

• Skills gaps and talent challenges: A significant issue is the lack of sufficient digital and data skills within the civil service. There are too few digital and data professionals, and a need to upskill the existing workforce to work with current and emerging technologies like AI. Skills data itself is also considered “really messy”. Attracting and retaining young talent in the public sector is a challenge, as seen in Slovenia where the average public servant is over 50 years old.

• Leadership and culture: There’s a recognised leadership challenge, with not enough leaders possessing experience in transformative and technology-driven change. A need to foster a culture of innovation and risk-taking is crucial, moving away from risk-averse attitudes and processes that hinder progress. Civil servants report wanting more support from leadership to pursue new ideas. Hierarchical structures and “middle management permafrost” can lead to “no” responses more often than “yes” responses, and inhibit innovation.

• Bureaucracy and processes: Red tape and bureaucratic processes slow down progress and can lead to a culture where civil servants feel they constantly need permission to take actions. There can be a tension between a process-led culture and fostering creativity.

• Fragmentation and lack of collaboration: Fragmentation is a feature of government systems, impacting procurement, data management, and service delivery. Breaking down silos between departments and fostering better collaboration, including with local government, the third sector, and the private sector, is essential.

• Public trust: Public satisfaction with digital services in the UK has been falling. Rebuilding public trust in the government’s ability to deliver services and handle complex decision-making is a key concern.

• Measuring impact: Difficulty in measuring the benefits of foundational digital and data elements and the long-term outcomes of innovation efforts poses a challenge. Evaluation often focuses on justifying spending rather than the ultimate impact.

• Tooling and systems: The use of different and often incompatible tools and systems across government departments can hinder collaboration and efficiency.

Key areas relating to government skills and delivery

• Core skills for civil servants: There’s a focus on defining the core digital skills that every civil servant needs, as well as leadership and line management skills. The UK government is developing a core curriculum around these areas.

• Building innovation skills: Initiatives like the UK government’s “One Big Thing’ aimed to upskill all civil servants in innovation. This involved e-learning, team conversations, and experimentation. Evidence suggests that providing access to innovation skill development increases the likelihood of public servants engaging in innovation projects.

• Digital and data expertise: There is a push to significantly increase the number of expert digital specialists in the UK civil service. The government is aiming for one in 10 civil servants to be in such roles by 2030. The Digital and Data Capability Framework provides a common definition of roles and skills in this area.

• Modernising service delivery: The vision for digital government includes reducing ‘time tax’ for citizens by thinking holistically about their interactions with public services. Joining up citizen journeys and creating multi-channel experiences are key opportunities. The UK government has published a blueprint for modern digital government setting out ambitions for the future.

• Agile and ‘test and learn’ approaches: Adopting a test and learn culture, akin to agile methodology, is seen as crucial for faster and more effective outcomes. Experimentation and a willingness to learn from mistakes are encouraged.

• Data sharing and governance: Establishing clear frameworks and legislation for data sharing and governance, as seen in Ireland, is important for improving services and citizen engagement.

• Mission-oriented delivery: Focusing on mission delivery aims to break down silos and work as one to solve problems for citizens. This requires shared objectives and a focus on outcomes.

Leadership lessons shared from governments around the world

• Importance of top-level support: Strong leadership buy-in and a “call to arms” from senior leaders and ministers are crucial for empowering civil servants to innovate and take risks. The UK prime minister’s focus on digital and data transformation provides a significant opportunity.

• Learning from international examples: There is a strong emphasis on the value of learning from international best practices. Examples from Estonia (digital government, data sharing), Ireland (data sharing legislation, digital wallet), and Singapore (digital identity) were highlighted.

• Creating enabling structures: Establishing a digital centre of government can help set strategic direction and enable change. Ensuring chief digital information officers (CDIOs) have sufficient influence within departments is important.

• Investing in skills and talent: Prioritising the development of digital and innovation skills through training programmes and attracting expert talent is a key lesson. Slovenia’s approach includes mandatory development conversations for all employees, including ministers, and partnerships with universities to attract young talent. Estonia has a competency framework for top civil servants with innovation baked in.

• Fostering collaboration: Leaders need to convene and bring people together across different levels of government and with external partners to share best practices and achieve common goals.

• Communicating vision and progress: Clearly communicating the government’s vision and the progress being made is essential for building public trust and bringing the civil service along. The UK government is encouraged to “shout louder and more proudly” about its achievements.

• Empowering the workforce: Leaders should aim to empower civil servants at all levels, trusting them to solve problems and supporting them in taking calculated risks. Building great line management skills is key to empowering teams.

• Focusing on citizen needs: Keeping citizens and businesses in mind as users of services helps to break down silos and ensures that efforts are focused on improving society.

• Continuous improvement and agility: Embracing a culture of continuous improvement and adopting agile ways of working allows governments to adapt to challenges and deliver services more effectively.

The conference highlighted a global recognition of the critical role of a skilled, empowered and innovative public service in delivering government missions and improving citizen outcomes. While challenges remain, there is a clear commitment to learning from both successes and failures, and fostering a more agile and collaborative approach to public service management.

This summary was generated using Notebook LLM, based on the following prompt from GGF: Provide a summary of the key issues relating to public and civil service management and workforce discussed at Global Government Forum’s Innovation conference. Provide a summary of the key areas relating to government skills and delivery, as well as the leadership lessons shared from around the world.