I've been slow writing up the results of the Global Survey on Creativity in Government but I've summarised the key findings below. These were shared at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival, 2020. The total number of people who completed the survey was 355 - the results below are based on 329 responses across 33 countries that … Continue reading Global Survey of Creativity in Government, 2020 – update
The Creative Bureaucracy Festival will be from 28th September - 2 October 2020. It will be entirely on-line and it is free - so check it out - it will be amazing and surprising. As part of my contribution I'm conducting a global survey on creativity and government employees. It takes about 15 minutes to … Continue reading Global Survey on Creativity in Government
The Creative Bureaucracy Festival will be entirely on-line from September 28 - October 2 2020. It is shaping up to offer an amazing range of serious and more playful sessions. This year the festival is specifically looking for people, stories and sessions dealing with four thematic threads: “The Silver Lining” – focusing on the good that … Continue reading Creative Bureaucracy Festival, 2020
This article was originally published in a special supplement of Tagesspiegel, a daily newspaper in Berlin, to coincide with the first Creative Bureaucracy Festival in 2018. It was published in German. I think it's still relevant so here it is, slightly updated and amended to acknowledge the passage of time. Working in government should be … Continue reading Creative Bureaucracy – unleashing the creative potential of bureaucrats
We all know that our era is an urban one. By 2050, 70 % of the global population is expected to live in cities. Over 1 million people move into urban areas every week. The draw of economic and social opportunity makes many cities magnetic for firms, talent and culture. So much of our thinking … Continue reading Abandoned cities and temporary settlements – sea level rises may radically change our urban future
In June 2019 there was an Urban Psychology Summit in London. It was an exploratory event hosted by the Heseltine Institute at the University of Liverpool and organised by Chris Murray and Charles Landry. Chris Murray quotes Jan Gehl ‘we know more about what makes a good habitat for mountain gorillas than we do about living in … Continue reading Urban Psychology – are you in tune with your city?
Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels No matter what you do or where you are, you are going to be in a space and place that is bounded. There are special people that connect and bridge. They are not accorded status at the moment. They don’t exist as ‘thing’. There is no degree in … Continue reading The power of bridging
Like many around the world, my local high street is apparently in trouble. A pub has just closed. A well-known café has gone out of business. There are vacant shops. We know retail is under threat. My high street needs a burst of community spirit and creativity to make us care again about our local … Continue reading The future of the high street
When Amazon announced that it was inviting cities to bid for its second headquarters (HQ2) in the US it released criteria to guide city bids. Amazon’s criteria included being a city/metro area of more than 1 million people, with a stable business environment, attractive to technical talent, excellent universities, near an international airport, with direct … Continue reading What can ‘secondary cities’ learn from the Amazon ‘beauty contest’?
When you mention the term ‘creative bureaucracy’ people laugh and say ‘isn’t that an oxymoron?’. But Sebastian Turner, publisher of Tagesspiegel, Berlin’s leading daily paper, found the term ‘creative bureaucracy’ inspiring when he first heard it from Charles Landry. It crystallised something he’d been thinking about. Why did his paper ‘listen’ to everyone except government … Continue reading The Creative Bureaucracy Festival, Berlin, 2018
urban collaboration 