For senior managers in public administration efficiency is often a hard ask in practice, because it requires decisions that nobody enjoys making.
Perspectives
The Digital Compass: Steering Instrument or Statement of Intent?
The tool meant to track dozens of deadlines across the state is itself only being piloted in three agencies from 2026. Schleswig-Holstein’s Digital Strategy 2026 shows the gap between vision and steering.
Structured Interviews, Not Gut Feeling: Competency-Based Staff Selection in Public Administration
In many public authorities, the job interview still follows the same pattern: a friendly exchange, a few questions about the CV, and at the end a gut feeling the selection panel agrees on.
Four in Five Believe the State Is Overwhelmed
79 per cent see the state as overwhelmed — the lowest level of trust ever recorded since the dbb citizen survey first asked the question in 2019.
Why Public Administrations Struggle with Data
The answer is usually: experience, judgement, common sense. That is not the exception in public administration, it is the norm. Anyone who has worked
The job description no one reads – and what it should say instead
A job description that only lists tasks does not describe a post. It describes an expectation placed on a person who does not exist. One concrete change fixes it.
Efficiency Is Not a Savings Programme: Why This Misconception Paralyses Public Administration
This misconception is exactly why so many reform efforts fail. Public authorities have found themselves in a state of permanent overload for years.
Merit-Based Selection in the Public Service: Transparency as Both Blessing and Curse
Doing both at once is harder than it sounds. Anyone filling a post in public administration operates within a tight framework of rules. Pay, grading and experience levels
Three Speeds of Administrative Modernisation
Many modernisation projects in the public sector carry a quiet wish: to tackle everything at once. Practice tells a different story. Quick wins, structural change and cultural change move on different timelines.
Cutting Red Tape as a Promise: What Actually Costs Time in Public Administration
A sober look at how time is actually distributed in administrative processes shows that the debate about cutting red tape often misses the real time drain.
Why the Next Reform Initiative Often Just Breeds Scepticism
Senior managers in local authorities and public authorities know the pattern. A new initiative is announced, a workshop follows, and after a few months implementation fades into everyday routine.
How can you tell whether a digitalisation project has actually made a difference?
Whether a digitalised process has genuinely changed anything only becomes visible after go-live – and only if someone looks systematically.
When the Law Becomes the Brake: Why the Fix Lies Not in Legislation but in Timing
When the Law Becomes the Brake: Why the Fix Lies Not in Legislation but in Timing It is not the legal review that slows projects down, but the moment at which it begins. In many public authorities the same sentence comes up whenever a project stalls: legal has not signed off yet. The sentence sounds like an explanation, but it is usually a...
Why Public Authorities Are More Adaptable Than They Believe
A closer look at the structure often shows the opposite. Anyone discussing modernisation with public authorities hears the same sentence: “That won’t work here, we’re too set in our ways.”
Projects Instead of Decisions: Why Reforms Add to the Burden Rather Than Relieving It
In practice, the opposite tends to happen: public authorities pile initiative on top of initiative, and not a single old task ever falls away.
Employer Brand Without Substance: When the Promise Outpaces Practice
What they find after signing the contract determines whether they stay. Public sector employers are investing more and more in HR marketing. Careers pages are being refreshed, Instagram channels
VESPRA: Three Questions Every Administrative Analysis Must Answer
The VESPRA method turns this insight into a tool: structure, potential and resource as the three touchstones of every analysis. Many modernisation efforts in public administration
Digitalisation Without Impact: When Public Authorities Only Rebuild Old Processes Online
A digital form does not replace a rethink. Taking an overloaded process online simply produces an overloaded process online. Few terms are cited as a solution in public authorities as often as digitalisation.
The Job Description: The Foundation of HR Work That Is Too Often Out of Date
Ask for the current job description of a particular post in a public authority, and the answer is often disappointing. The document exists, but it dates from a time when the tasks
Digitalisation Without Organisational Development: When Public Authorities Only Digitise Their Problems
Just faster and more visibly inefficient. The same pattern has been repeating in many public authorities for years. A process is identified as suitable for digitisation, a form moves from paper to an online portal.
Legal Requirements as a Brake on Efficiency? A Second Look Pays Off
A closer look shows that part of the perceived legal requirement is home-made. Ask people in public administration why they are overloaded and you often get a quick answer: the law demands it,
Succession Planning in Public Administration: When No One Steps Up
In many administrations, a large number of staff will reach retirement age over the coming years, as the baby-boomer generation increasingly leaves the workforce and recruitment needs rise.
New Organisation Charts, Old Inefficiencies: Why Structural Reforms Alone Change Nothing
In many administrations, reform starts with structure. Departments are merged, responsibilities reassigned, hierarchy levels cut or added. After months