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Strategic Reading

@StratRead

Interesting reading for people changing government

 London, UK
strategicreading.uk/about
Joined May 2017
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Why we need service literacy strategicreading.uk/2022/12/…
Why we need service literacy

Why we need service literacy

Lou Downe This is a powerful polemic by Lou Downe who quite literally wrote the book on good services. We experience services almost everywhere and yet often fail to notice them. We focus on the th…

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In 2022, I thought a lot about my Mum, the internet and a cashless society strategicreading.uk/2022/12/…
In 2022, I thought a lot about my Mum, the internet and a cashless society

In 2022, I thought a lot about my Mum, the internet and a cashless society

Anonymous – I thought about that a lot In the early years of online service design, the online part was felt by many to be a self-contained activity. To the extent that other ways of accessin…

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Looking for balance on the Future Leaders Scheme strategicreading.uk/2022/12/…
Looking for balance on the Future Leaders Scheme

Looking for balance on the Future Leaders Scheme

Nour Sidawi This is both an account of the experience of being on a very specific leadership development scheme – in this case for the ‘future leaders’ of the civil service –…

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How to read a formal document strategicreading.uk/2022/11/…
How to read a formal document

How to read a formal document

David Allen Green – The Law and Policy Blog Words provide powerful tools. They can be used to make things clear and they can be used to obfuscate. They can reveal what their author is thinkin…

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The stuff of politics: Getting to know our material strategicreading.uk/2022/11/…
The stuff of politics: Getting to know our material

The stuff of politics: Getting to know our material

James Plunkett Are institutions the raw material of politics? And if they are, what does that help us understand about the nature of politics (and the nature of institutions, for that matter)? Thos…

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Things I believe about change strategicreading.uk/2022/11/…
Things I believe about change

Things I believe about change

Simon Parker This post presents seven propositions on organisational change, based on the simple but powerful perspective of having successfully changed organisations. It is a theory of change whic…

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“Charbonneau Loops” and government IT contracting strategicreading.uk/2022/11/…
“Charbonneau Loops” and government IT contracting

“Charbonneau Loops” and government IT contracting

Sean Boots ‘Charbonneau loop’ turns out to be one of those terms which we didn’t know we needed until it was called into existence, but draws attention to something all too easily…

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So long and thanks for all the bits strategicreading.uk/2022/11/…
So long and thanks for all the bits

So long and thanks for all the bits

Ian Levy This is a valedictory post from the departing technical director of the National Cyber Security Centre, which leads off with a quantum state superposition joke. That might all suggest some…

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Every meeting will now be an online meeting strategicreading.uk/2022/06/…
Every meeting will now be an online meeting

Every meeting will now be an online meeting

Chris Tubb – LinkedIn This is another take (from about a year ago) on remote working and the purpose of offices – this one based on a reductio ad absurdum arithmetic of meeting  arrange…

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The Dynamo and the Computer: An Historical Perspective On the Modern Productivity Paradox strategicreading.uk/2022/06/…
The Dynamo and the Computer: An Historical Perspective On the Modern Productivity Paradox

The Dynamo and the Computer: An Historical Perspective On the Modern Productivity Paradox

Paul David – American Economic Review This paper, published in 1990 and focused on events almost a hundred years earlier is probably the oldest entry in Strategic Reading. But it remains fres…

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Why the return to the office isn’t working strategicreading.uk/2022/06/…
Why the return to the office isn’t working

Why the return to the office isn’t working

Rani Molla – Vox We used to know what offices were for. There is now a consensus that that isn’t what they are for any more, but there isn’t much of a consensus about anythng else…

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Carousel strategicreading.uk/2022/06/…
Carousel

Carousel

Mark O’Neill This is another perspective on the (unconfirmed) news of another attempt at civil service reform, unpicking why simplistic approaches are doomed to failure. As is so often the ca…

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Civil Service Reform – Lord Maude Tries Again strategicreading.uk/2022/06/…
Civil Service Reform – Lord Maude Tries Again

Civil Service Reform – Lord Maude Tries Again

Martin Stanley – UK Civil Servant ‘Civil service reform’ is an unintentionally revealing phrase. Its use is a strong indicator of somebody who hasn’t thought through what pr…

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The Wetware Crisis: the Thermocline of Truth strategicreading.uk/2022/06/…
The Wetware Crisis: the Thermocline of Truth

The Wetware Crisis: the Thermocline of Truth

Bruce F. Webster This is an old post, but a good one. I had occasion to look it out again this week, so posting it here both as a service to others and to make it easier to find the inevitable next…

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Fixing Whitehall’s broken policy machine strategicreading.uk/2022/06/…
Fixing Whitehall’s broken policy machine

Fixing Whitehall’s broken policy machine

Jonathan Slater – The Policy Institute There is a recursiveness to Whitehall’s examinations of its own shortcomings. The construction and analysis of arguments, the slight distancing fr…

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The big idea: should we abolish the Treasury? strategicreading.uk/2022/06/…
The big idea: should we abolish the Treasury?

The big idea: should we abolish the Treasury?

Stian Westlake – The Guardian Stian Westlake asks an important question, gives the clearly correct answer, but curiously shys away from facing up to the reasons why the Treasury should indeed…

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A measure of value for digital public service delivery strategicreading.uk/2022/04/…
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Beyond the Web strategicreading.uk/2021/09/…
Beyond the Web

Beyond the Web

Doc Searls Metaphors have power, they frame how we think about things, sometimes rather insidiously. We talk blithely about ‘the web’ as if it were a thing and as if that thing were wel…

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How Government Learned to Waste Your Time strategicreading.uk/2021/09/…
How Government Learned to Waste Your Time

How Government Learned to Waste Your Time

Annie Lowrey – The Atlantic Time is rarely the central measure of bureaucracy, and where it is considered at all the focus tend to be on total elapsed time rather than the time cost of comply…

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10 Things I Learnt in Government ... not without pain strategicreading.uk/2021/09/…
10 Things I Learnt in Government … not without pain

10 Things I Learnt in Government … not without pain

Anthony Finkelstein This is a beguilingly simple list of ten things necessary to understand in order to get things done in government. It’s the best list of its kind I have ever seen, with a …

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