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Experimentation is talked about, but rarely done beyond agencies: handful of pioneers, but little true high-level support

Experimentation is not always timely in policymaking processes

Outside of the Government Programme preparation every 4 years and the Report of the Future, little structured ‘future seeking’ and experimental moments in policy reforms

Regulations as gate keepers of experimentation: experimental law on employment services experiment in municipalities

Solutions defined too early in regulation-driven policymaking process: lack of agile and iterative policy design

R&D and experimentation often outsourced through waterfall processes with little iterative learning

Data interoperability: data sources are usually known, but legislation often hinders the alternative use of data.

Experiments/innovation and their role still not understood by leadership

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NEED for CoG organisations (PMO, MoF, MoJ) to take a more direct role in steering whole of government approaches

NEED for an upgrade in the steering system for more innovative processes

NEED new narratives going beyond “breaking silos” to “building bridges”

NEED “waves” of reforms across different governments

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Role of public administration and politicians in complex and long-term policy issues unclear and subject to (hidden) power relations

Strategies do not lead to action – time for proper implementation is too short to develop theories of change, operationalize and evaluate changes on the ground

Myth of implementation not being part of strategic policymaking – stands in the way of experimentation and agile/iterative policymaking

Government Programme as future seeking moments and catalyzers, but of varying strategic quality

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NEED for more formal transition processes between government terms

NEED for more supply-driven knowledge creation and advice by civil servants and civil servants to engage with also political interest areas/political mind-set

NEED for more timely evaluation processes

NEED to dispel myths around policy implementation as policymaking de facto is speeding up (real-time policymaking through implementation)

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Short-term tasks override long-term thinking

Development responsibilities fall on few people with very full portfolios: lack of dedicated resources with right skills, capacities and resources (incl. time)

Unequal spread of transformative leadership capabilities both in PA and politics

Performance management systems do not support cross-government aims and anticipation/innovation

Perception that foresight and innovation are side of the desk activities and not part of core processes

Fear of close media scrutiny and making mistakes – internal legitimacy overrides external legitimacy

Lack of individual and organisational capabilities in anticipation, innovation and futures literacy

Engineering mind-set and preference for forecasting standing in the way of systems innovation, yet digital skills and background been very beneficial in modernising the public sector

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NEED analysis of analysis of behavioural traits and decision-making tools around uncertainty

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NEED analysis of analysis of behavioural traits and decision-making tools around uncertainty

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NEED dialogue, deliberation and partnership skills, incl. in establishing both vertical and horizontal ecosystems

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NEED dialogue, deliberation and partnership skills, incl. in establishing both vertical and horizontal ecosystems

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NEED for process that prioritizes experiments before investments OR experimental investments

NEED to clarify the real-life value chain from exploration, experiment design, learning and policy development

NEED to think of regulation not only as a barrier to experimentation, but also as an enabler

NEED for more sharing of ‘what’ and ‘how’ of experimentation

NEED to systematically encourage and support organizations to start their innovation/experimentation journey

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Budgetary steering processes precede strategic steering and are not in line with futures and foresight

Money does not follow problems: budget allocations are not phenomenon/user centric nor are allocations holistically aligned with the challenges involved

Aligning commitments across organisational budgets at the same time is very difficult

Phenomenon based narrative widely in strategy, but does not work in practice

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NEED for dedicated resources and new competency models

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NEED for dedicated resources and new competency models

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‘Foresight by number’ – preference for highly probable futures aligned with existing plans, institutionally bounded futures

Difficulty to align with ongoing strategic planning and political decision-making processes

Foresight happening in narrow circles and problems with transparency and timely sharing of results

Futures and foresight not feeding into innovation and experimentation

There is a lock of capacity and futures literacy on both individual and organizational level

Few organisations have structured signal reading and sense-making processes/teams

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NEED for intermediaries in public organisations able to translate information to politicians and decision makers

NEED for capacity building at different strategic foresight practitioner levels: expert, policymakers and decision makers

NEED to create more structured demand for futures and foresight in strategic planning processes and outline a clear value chain to innovation

NEED for better communication principles for different government participants

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PROPOSITION: there should be a futures literacy program for also media to fight negative backlash for considering negative futures

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PROPOSITION: there should be a futures literacy program for also media to fight negative backlash for considering negative futures

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Lack of institutionalised citizen participation methods early on to consider policy alternatives

Closed processes and lack of facilitation skills

Lack of deliberative processes in futures and foresight exercises outside of more consultative dialogues

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NEED to counter ‘standard’ counter-arguments for citizen participation: e.g., politicians do not want the processes to be open/sped up processes do not allow for it

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NEED to counter ‘standard’ counter-arguments for citizen participation: e.g., politicians do not want the processes to be open/sped up processes do not allow for it

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PROPOSITION: citizen-led deliberative futures exercises could help counter silo-effects in government

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PROPOSITION: citizen-led deliberative futures exercises could help counter silo-effects in government

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Budget, judicial and strategic steering enforce different aims: strategic vs organisational

Budgetary steering process precedes strategic steering and are not in line with futures and foresight

Trade-offs between different policy areas are not visible nor are investments across government based on societal challenges (budgeting through excel)

When new, cross-governmental issues arise then the responsibilities assigned on an ad hoc and varying ways: lack of clarity of process

Diverging ideas on how to tackle coordination issues: through stronger organisational reforms or more softer mind-set/leadership tools (serving the government or one ministry/minister)