Better Govs focuses on implementation. In this section you will find blogs that talk about everything that happens once you start a project. From how to get started, monitor progress, and the learning process of implementation. If you can’t find something contact me, I love to receive suggestions for new topics.
AI can’t diagnose a policy problem for you. But as a thinking partner, it sharpens how you see the problem before you act. We rush to fix what we can see and miss the conditions producing it — which is why digitization projects so often fail: they automate a broken process instead of redesigning it first. In this article, I show how I use AI to find the root cause, not the symptom: running the 5 Whys, borrowing three perspectives, and asking the one question the original plan never does — who loses power if this process becomes efficient and transparent?
What else changes when a reform succeeds? Reflecting on Michael Woolcock's final lecture at the World Bank, this article explores the hidden trade-offs that shape implementation.
Most implementation problems are not failures. Instead of asking Why isn’t this working?, better leaders ask What is this system actually designed to produce? This article explores how public servants can diagnose reform failure by understanding incentives, mapping institutional behavior, and identifying the hidden assumptions that keep poor results in place. Because real change starts when we stop treating symptoms and start seeing how the system actually works.
Most public sector reforms don’t fail at approval. They stall in implementation—when technical design, operational capacity, and political support fall out of alignment. The Strategic Triangle helps you see where your reform is likely to break—and where to act before it does.
Vision is easy. Implementation is everything. This practical guide dives into why government reforms stall—and what effective public leaders do differently. Learn how to move from strategy to execution with a realistic roadmap, overcome coordination debt, and build the systems that make change stick. If you’re a public servant tasked with delivering results, this isn’t theory—it’s your implementation field guide.
AI Is Transforming Business. Can Government Keep Up?
AI is moving fast — but government is stuck in pilot mode. While 78% of companies are using AI, just 12% of public agencies have deployed GenAI. The gap is growing. In this post, I unpack why — and what it’ll take for government to catch up, scale up, and lead.
ChatGPT isn’t Google. If you want real value from AI, you need to brief it like a team member—not just toss in a few keywords. Here’s the five-step prompt strategy that’s saving me hours each week—and getting better results than I expected.
