Strategy in governments
How to cope with turbulent times and avoid the tyrrany of an eternal present
I've written a piece on how to redesign government's strategy function, based on conversations with various governments around the world,many of which are grappling with how to better handle short, medium and long-term challenges.
I gave an opening talk to the OECD’s annual gathering of centres of government last week, linked to its ‘Government Unstuck’ initiative, on how to run centres - from communications to strategy, efficiency to cross-government techniques and institutional innovation.
This new paper is part of the answer. It sets out detailed options for any government that is serious about the medium to long-term, including how strategy teams can work much faster than in the past.
The shrinking of time horizons and the almost complete disappearance of strategy in many governments (including the UK) looks quite irresponsible in an era of much longer lives, turbulence and huge challenges such as AI. Luckily many realise this.
You cannot regain trust if you are locked in an eternal present. And you cannot make good choices in the present if you don’t know where you’re headed.
Click here for the full paper: https://tial.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Designing-strategy-for-governments-in-the-late-2020s.pdf
@geoffmulgan, this is a useful articulation of the strategic capacity challenge governments are facing.
What's interesting is how familiar many of these dynamics feel from governance reform work in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. In these environments, strategy rarely fails because of weak analysis or poor design alone. It often falters because the political incentives required to sustain long-term direction are missing.
Technical strategies struggle to endure when coalitions shift, institutional mandates weaken or short-term political pressures dominate.
As political fragmentation increases across Europe, this feels increasingly relevant. The challenge may not only be designing better strategic capabilities, but also understanding how strategy becomes politically durable as incentives become more contested.