Civic Punks

Leg two of the Civic Punks World Tour is here.

I’m heading to Europe — with stops in Kyiv, London, Berlin, Tallinn, Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Tbilisi — to look for the people, places, and ideas shaping the future of government.

The heart of the trip is Kyiv. Ukraine feels like one of the most important places in the world to understand democracy, resilience, digital government, trust, and public service under pressure.

I’m also hea...

Governments around the world are trying to make sense of AI in real time. Some are experimenting, some are regulating, some are cautiously poking it with a stick from a safe distance.

In this episode, our global government innovation panel compares what we are seeing across different countries and systems. We talk about how AI is changing public sector innovation, why digital sovereignty is becoming such a big deal, and what all of...

Civic Punks is starting to come into focus.

In this short solo update, I’m back at Queen’s Park — where I filmed the original launch video — to share where the project is going next.

Over the last few months, I’ve been travelling across East Asia and the Pacific, meeting people, recording conversations, going to events, and trying to understand what the future of government looks like from the ground. Somewhere along the way, the s...

In this episode of the Future Government series, I sit down with Sir Geoff Mulgan, one of the people whose work has deeply shaped the field of public sector innovation — and, personally, someone I remember studying back in grad school.

So this was a bit of a special one.

We talk about why governments need to get much better at using intelligence, how history can help us make sense of the moment we are living through, and w...

Thea Snow is one of those people I love talking to because I always leave our conversation feeling a little more grounded and wise.

At the time of this recording, Thea was Director at the Centre for Public Impact for Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. She has since stepped back from that role and is taking time to enjoy life, reflect, and explore what comes next.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of ground: local empowerment, t...

What if one of the problems in government is that we keep using the wrong pattern for the work in front of us?

In this conversation, I sit down with Suhit Anantula to explore his framework of Lines, Loops, and Vibes. Vibes are about instinct, intuition, and sensing what is emerging. Loops are about iteration, experimentation, feedback, and learning by doing. Lines are about structure, process, and scaling what has become clear.

The...

Public sector innovation was supposed to help government change.

But what happens when innovation becomes part of the system it was meant to challenge?

In this conversation, I sit down with Nicholas Gruen, a longtime voice in public sector innovation, to talk about why the field may have lost some of its edge. We get into perpetual pilots, reform work that never quite lands, and the strange way innovation can become another layer o...

Roger Watson has been one of the leading voices shaping the practice of design in government in Australia — as a practitioner, teacher, author, and long-time champion of better public services.

I sat down with Roger in Sydney to talk about how he found his way into this work, the personal experiences that shaped his interest in government design, and why he believes the field needs to evolve.

We also dig into the idea of Design Thi...

There’s a lot of pressure right now to be more efficient, more effective, and somehow keep up with a steady stream of new tools—especially AI. In this conversation, I sit down with Michael Baskin, Chief Innovation Officer for Montgomery County, to talk about how he actually approaches that challenge in his work and life.

This isn’t just a conversation about tools. It’s about process, judgment, and the underlying philosophy Michael ...

This is part of a series I’m calling Rent Free. The idea is simple. I ask people about a concept that’s living rent-free in their head. Something that’s shaping how they see the world and how they show up in their work. This time, I sat down with my good friend, and someone who consistently inspires me, Almero Oosthuizen. For Almero, what is living rent-free is the quote: “I participate, therefore I am.” Originally from Mugendi...

I think we’re still designing policy for a world that doesn’t exist anymore. Last week I was in Canberra for the OpenFisca and Policy Innovation Conference, right after Government Innovation Week in Melbourne. Two very different conferences… and honestly, it felt like they were talking about two completely different realities. At OpenFisca, the conversation went deeper. Less about “what’s new” More about “why isn’t this working...

There’s a tension at the heart of government that we don’t talk about enough.

On the front lines, everything feels urgent. You’re dealing with real people, real problems, right now. You see what’s broken. You feel the pressure to act.

Then there’s the center. The place where resources sit. Where decisions get made. Where the stakes are bigger, the scale is wider… but the urgency isn’t always there in the same way.

And when these tw...

We might be starting to see the future of government take shape… and I’m not sure we’re ready for it.

In this video, I unpack Ukraine’s latest roadmap on the Agentic State — one of the first real attempts to move from theory to practice when it comes to AI in government.

This builds directly on my recent conversation with Manuel Kilian, where we explored the idea of the Agentic State. But this time, the question is different:

👉 Wh...

Last week I was in Melbourne for the Public Sector Network Government Innovation Week. I’ve got a full series linked below from the trip, so check those out if you want the full picture. But there’s one idea in particular that’s been stuck in my head ever since. After the conference, I broke out of the usual crowd and spent an evening with a small, eclectic group of civic punks. Less stage, more conversation. Less polished, more ...

I finally had a chance to sit down and process last week’s Public Sector Network Government Innovation Week in Melbourne… and there’s a lot that’s still rattling around in my head. From Minister Danny Pearson’s take on the “middle path” for AI, to the growing sense that Agentic AI is about to change the game (for better and worse), this week felt like a glimpse into where government is heading next. So I pulled together a quick...

I recently had the chance to spend a couple of days with one of my favourite Civic Punks, the author and public servant Amber Guette in Wellington, New Zealand.

We talked about what public service means to her and what inspired her to write her well-known book: Dear Minister - Letters From a Public Servant. She also gave a sneak peek into her next book that she is currently writing. You can learn more about the book here: https://...