The Creative Bureaucracy Manifesto

We believe we are in the midst of a dramatic transformation and a business as usual approach will not get us to where we need to be. We think good public administrations have a substantial role to play to make places and modern society work in this transition. Good government matters! Bureaucracy is not everything, yet little can happen without bureaucracy and it needs to be revalued for what it is good at – especially promoting and protecting the public interest and the common good.

We are committed to a strong public sector. There is a hidden and untapped reservoir of talent in public administrations that we want to help unleash; there is a vast number of unsung heroes to whom we want to provide a platform; and there is a plethora of new ideas we want to shine a light on.

»A new beginning - a very creative idea. «

Michael Müller Mayor of Berlin

THREE PILLARS

Our aim is to help bureaucracies feel more competent and confident to address the big social, economic, and political problems of our time. We are guided by the following three questions:

  1. What then is the incentives and regulations regime to achieve that?
  2. How can we enrich the inner life of the bureaucracy and empower people and the organization to give of its best?
  3. How can bureaucracies rethink and refresh their relationship to the civic and business worlds?

MOVING FROM A ‘NO, BECAUSE’ TO A ‘YES, IF’ CULTURE

To meet our challenges we need an imaginative, adaptive, agile, accountable and trustworthy public administration. This can provide the backbone of a future-oriented society that addresss the effects of the global pandemic, climate change and the digitizing world.To do this well public servants need to work within a culture and a structure that is open-minded to tap into and to explore the best solutions.

IT’S ABOUT RULES – AND PEOPLE

There are many creative bureaucrats who are supporting change in our public bodies and making them much more effective. They are found at every level of the organization. We want to strengthen them and bring them together with others of like mind. We aim at building a movement with international partners across the globe.