Sector Highlights: Government

Government operates within a uniquely complex system, where commitments are often locked in upfront and delivery is shaped by process adherence. This creates a tension between certainty and complexity, limiting the ability to respond.

 The opportunity is to shift from predefined solutions to outcome-led intent, enabling teams to test, learn and adapt within constraints.

Progress in government is rarely achieved through transformation at scale, but through deliberate, incremental ‘ninja moves’ - working with patience and resilience within the system to gradually reshape it.

Having spent much of my career in the private sector, I’ll admit, I thought I had 'seen it all' when it came to complexity. Then I started working in government. The problems can look similar on the surface, but the operating context is fundamentally different.

The operating context is driven by an accountability trap:

🔝 Accountability from the top

Ministers and politicians hold public servants accountable to commitments. Those commitments often translate into detailed, upfront project plans designed to remove risk before delivery begins. But in complex environments, certainty upfront is often an illusion. When commitments are framed as predefined solutions rather than outcomes, adaptability narrows, risk increases, and public scrutiny is high.

💠 Accountability from within the system

Government departments are largely designed around process. Once a project is approved, multiple governance layers evaluate whether the process is being followed - especially when things go wrong. Public servants are rewarded for following process. When the process is heavy or outdated, there is little incentive to challenge it.

The result? A 'damned if you do, damned if you don’t' loop. The challenge isn’t capability or intent. It’s how the system is set up to operate.

What I’ve seen is that progress doesn’t come from large-scale transformation. It comes from working with the system - through deliberate, incremental shifts that create space for better outcomes over time.

What has made a difference in these environments includes:

• 🎯 Shifting from predefined solutions to outcome-led intent - creating clarity on what success looks like, not just what will be delivered.

• 🔄 Creating space to test, learn and adapt within existing constraints, rather than waiting for perfect conditions.

• 👩‍⚖️ Evolving governance to enable decision-making, not just enforce process adherence.

• 🔍 Establishing visibility across work to improve prioritisation, trade-offs and alignment.

• 🚀 Designing teams and delivery models that can operate across policy, process and technology - not within silos.

Key highlights of the work I have done in the sector include:

• ALIGNING STRATEGY TO EXECUTION THROUGH VALUE PORTFOLIOS - Restructured a siloed project portfolio into customer-centric Value Portfolios, defining what value means and creating a clear Golden Thread from strategy to delivery improving prioritisation and visibility.

• ALIGNING ON STRATEGIC INTENT - Co-developed a cross-departmental strategy for core State Government services, establishing 3-year and 1-year OKRs and aligning multiple Departments for the first time under a shared direction.

• CREATING END-TO-END PORTFOLIO VISIBILITY TO ENABLE BETTER DECISIONS - Established a single, integrated view of all work across multiple Branches - including tech implementation, business process improvements, and policy - enabling improved demand and capacity management across the portfolio.

• ENABLING DELIVERY THROUGH TEAM DESIGN AND ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE - Defined stable Product Teams to drive innovation alongside project delivery, and adapted the framework through Machinery of Government changes to maintain alignment with the Product Delivery Model.

Key learnings, as shown below, are as relevant to other industries as the energy sector:

This work requires patience, resilience and a shift in mindset — from control to learning, from certainty to adaptability.

Keen to hear from others working in or alongside government:

What’s been your experience? What’s worked (or not worked) in navigating this complexity? Contact me on LinkedIn and let me know what you think!