Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image

public sector reform

Feb 08, 2019

Government departments are organized vertically, but solving big societal challenges requires horizontal collaboration. Three case studies show it can be done.

February 8, 2019

When the Mowat Centre recently asked public servants to identify the greatest challenges they face, most did not name big societal challenges like homelessness and climate change. Rather, the overwhelming majority pointed to the difficulties associated with working “horizontally”: that is, across departmental boundaries within government. Read More

Jan 22, 2019

The horizontal collaboration toolkit

January 22, 2019

In an era when the most significant challenges facing many governments, such as climate change and homelessness, require coordinated responses from multiple departments, the ability to coordinate across organizational boundaries is critical to success. Read More

Dec 19, 2018

Three ways public servants can break down silos and collaborate horizontally

December 19, 2018

Governments around the world are struggling to solve urgent problems like homelessness and climate change. While the size and complexity of these problems makes them hard to tackle, the fact that they also cut across traditional organisational boundaries further enhances the challenge. Read More

Dec 11, 2018

Abandoning Silos: Key Takeaways

December 11, 2018

The big and increasingly complex problems faced by governments around the world do not fit neatly into the internal structures by which governments have divided and organized themselves. As a result, many governments are struggling to respond effectively.
Read More

Dec 11, 2018

Abandoning Silos

December 11, 2018

How innovative governments are collaborating horizontally to solve complex problems

The complex challenges that governments at all levels are facing today cut across long-standing and well-defined government boundaries and organizational structures. Solving these problems therefore requires a horizontal approach. This report looks at how such an approach can be successfully implemented. Read More

Nov 29, 2017

Technology will make government as we know it obsolete – and that’s a good thing

November 29, 2017

Tech advances should prompt government to radically increase efficiency and effectiveness of programs and services. Read More

Jul 06, 2017

From fail-safe to safe-to-fail

July 6, 2017

Creating a Ministry of Failure in Canadian government

Failure is not an option for government. Public dollars are at stake. Political leaders expect perfection in program design and policy thinking to preserve their re-election hopes. Civil servants hoping to move up the career ladder are loathe to admit mistakes. Yet, if governments don’t fail sometimes, how can they successfully tackle the cross-cutting, complex issues that increasingly bedevil society?
Read More

Jun 29, 2017

Let’s get in the game

June 29, 2017

Revitalizing Canada’s sport sector

Canadians certainly have a passion for sport. Not only for the sake of entertainment: many of us – 85 per cent to be exact – feel that participation also has the potential to build stronger communities. Therefore, it was appropriate when Governor General David Johnston declared 2015 the “Year of Sport” in Canada. Read More

Jun 06, 2017

Video: Bold Ideas – “The Uber of public policy”

June 6, 2017

In the latest release in Mowat’s Bold Ideas series, Ted Graham, Head of Open Innovation at General Motors, calls on Canadian governments to embrace disruption and lessons learned through the sharing economy to modernize the policymaking process. Read More

May 11, 2017

Regulating Disruption

May 11, 2017

Governing in an era of rapid technological change

In this report, the Mowat Centre examines the relationship between regulation and innovation in rapidly-changing technological industries. Read More