🚨Join us July 15 for a webinar w/@jackpannell.bsky.social, @danhonig.bsky.social & @jenditchburn.bsky.social!

They'll discuss what a “mission-driven” approach to governing means, how it has played out in the U.K., & what lessons it might offer for Canada’s federal public service!
👉 irpp.org?p=20851

Have you been wondering whether (or when) talk about missions is just rhetoric and when it is (or is leading to) real change? We wrote something we think can help. Come and let us know what you think on Thursday, details/registration link below!

New thing klaxon! How do you know if your organisation is mission-driven? Today we’re releasing a mission maturity framework I’ve co-authored with @danhonig.bsky.social and Vinuri Dissanaya at Georgetown Better Government Lab in collaboration with Nesta. Link: www.nesta.org.uk/report/on-mi.... 1/n

📆 Join us online on 17 July, for a live discussion with the framework’s authors @danhonig.bsky.social and @jamestplunkett.bsky.social to discover how to successfully implement mission-driven approaches.

🎟️ Register now: bit.ly/4k2IhUK

Efficiency Isn’t Everything Successful delivery of state services requires judgment, not chainsaws.

Yamini Aiyar & I argue in @foreignpolicy.com that efficiency is a good thing, but not the only good thing. The state is not just about 'delivery', but about judgment, engagement, equity, process. Thoughts very welcome; ungated here: bit.ly/EfficiencyIs...

If you're in A2 this Monday, do come!

We argue in this @snfagora.bsky.social working paper this is because 'capacity' is not just technical - it is also relationships between citizen & the state. For more on the project (generously funded by
@ukri.org
via the Horizon 2020 ERC backstop), please see relationalstatecapacity.com. Thanks!

The social contract is fraying. Our states oft can't "deliver" - & when they do that doesn't seem to satisfy, with democratic backsliding and populism the result. Mekhala Krishnamurthy, @rahulksharma.bsky.social, & I think the answer is in part Relational State Capacity. 👇https://t.co/W6W6hKfwcp

Let's mourn the death of USAID. Was it always the perfect aid agency? No, it wasn't. But it was full of dedicated humans who earnest sought to make the world better. They also, very often, succeeded. This decision will kill people who "don't matter" to score political points. Speramus meliora

Mission driven bureaucrats & agency performance in difficult times Published in Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Joint with Sarah Thompson, a new piece on Mission Driven Bureaucrats & agency performance now live here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10..... Even - or especially - when agency missions are under threat, Mission Driven Bureaucrats are critical to success. They are also a reason for hope.

Of your many posts on many platforms, this is the one I most strongly agree with; sweet Lou deserves better. (I may be biased here by a now-lost photo of me sitting on his shoulders as a 3? yr old in the mid-80's)

What's really lovely about this IMO is that it is 1) True; 2) Seems a kind of 'visual proof' of the power of agency, and of making positive change in your life; 3) Makes clear the importance of initial position to the range of options one has. All things to remember; happy 2025 to one and all.

Empowering mission driven bureaucrats to provide better public services - ePODstemology In the UK, up to 80% of a social worker’s time can be spent filling out forms rather than helping the desperate people in their care. This is an example of what Dan Honig calls ‘management for complia...

Other recent episodes of ePODstemology: @danhonig.bsky.social from UCL and Georgetown explains how we can get better public services:

www.buzzsprout.com/1763534/epis...

Proposed campaign slogan: MO Malley, Fewer Problems

How Labour can fix the public sector Figuring out how to let the workforce do their job

Reminded me of this really insightful article from @danhonig.bsky.social on how we need to let public servants get on with doing their job samf.substack.com/p/how-labour...

Thanks so much, Edd!

Love it! Thanks, Anthony. FWIW very open to being steered straight - where can an ignorant American get the best scone in London?

Thanks so much, Helen!

Congrats, too, to President-elect Boakai and the Unity Party. I remember Boakai from 15 yrs ago as a good soul, with a sharp eye for talent. I hope it serves him, and all Liberians, well in the years to come.

NYT: www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/w...

FPA: frontpageafricaonline.com/analysis/ana...

2/2

A "razor-thin" election outcome in Liberia will make very little international news today - and it shouldn't. Kudos to President Weah on stepping down so honorably. As Weah put it, "Liberia has won". That's 100% right, and he deserves a great deal of the credit. 1/

The interface of a R shiny application. The title is "Global poverty trends with national discounting."

Many of us have the intuition that people in our countries are morally more important than others. I made a shiny app that lets you measure global poverty rates while allowing for this kind of nationalistic discounting. ryanbriggs.shinyapps.io/PovcalNet_we...