Creative Bureaucracy: Where Next and How

Book Presentation with Charles Landry

Over the past decade, the idea of the creative bureaucracy has evolved from a provocation into a global movement of public servants, civic leaders and institutional innovators seeking to make government more capable, adaptive and human. In this session, Charles Landry presents Creative Bureaucracy: Where Next and How, a new collection of reflections from leading thinkers and practitioners working at the forefront of public sector transformation.

Rather than a manifesto or a catalogue of best practices, the book offers a collective stock-take of where public innovation stands today. Its contributors share lessons from trying, learning, adapting, and sometimes failing, while continuing the work of institutional renewal. Together, they explore how governments can respond to an era of growing complexity, uncertainty and rapid change.

At its core, the book argues for an emerging operating logic for governance in turbulent times—one that combines imagination with implementation, experimentation with accountability, and technological capability with human judgement. The creative bureaucracy is not a destination, but an ongoing practice of renewing public institutions so they can better serve society in the years ahead.