Context
The German public administration is considered to be overly bureaucratic and too slow in its effort to digitise. Despite large-scale efforts on national, federal, regional, and communal level, the perception remains: public administration is not fit for a modern, complex, digital world.
In 2021 the State Government of Baden-Württemberg started an ambitious project to change this: the Master Plan for the Transformation of Public Administration.
Objectives
Where projects so far focused on the digitisation of processes and change of regulations, the Master Plan was meant to tackle the root cause of the problem: administrative culture, work methods, and organisational structures. The focus changed from transforming the outputs to transforming the internal workings of public administration.
Implementation
The government created a transformation hub (TränsformerHub_bw) to strategically coordinate the Master Plan. It established a network of more than 40 representatives of all state-level ministries and the four regional councils; the Master Plan is their joint effort.
The Master Plan was implemented by combining short-term pilot projects and longer-term inter-organisational efforts. It focused on tangible changes as well as fostering a change of knowledge, mindset, and culture. It combined grass-roots efforts targeted at employees and initiatives directed at leadership-level.