The UK government’s recent announcement about infusing the civil service with a start-up culture signals a potentially transformative shift in how public administration operates. On paper, this idea is compelling. Start-ups are known for their agility, innovative spirit, and problem-solving ethos that thrives on iteration and grassroots insights. By contrast, the civil service - traditionally anchored in structures of accountability, regulation, and stability is often perceived as slow-moving and risk-averse. Bridging these two cultures is no small task, but the concept of leveraging Collective Intelligence could be the key to unlocking a harmonious blend of these seemingly divergent approaches.
The Challenge: Reconciling Start-Up Agility with Civil Service Structure
Start-ups flourish because they prioritise speed, empowerment, and creativity. They’re built to experiment, fail fast, and learn. The civil service, however, exists to ensure public trust, enforce rules, and deliver stability—values that inherently discourage risk and unproven methods. Attempting to transplant start-up methodologies wholesale into the civil service risks either diluting the essence of what makes start-ups effective or undermining the critical functions of government.
This is where Collective Intelligence comes in. By tapping into distributed decision-making and diverse networks of knowledge, the civil service can retain its core principles while integrating the dynamism of start-up culture. Collective Intelligence harnesses the insights of a broad spectrum of contributors—citizens, experts, technology, and even artificial intelligence—to co-create solutions that are innovative, inclusive, and practical.
Three Insights for Embedding Start-Up Energy in the Civil Service
1. Stop Centralising Decision-Making
Start-up culture thrives on empowerment, decentralisation, and the principle that the best ideas often emerge from unexpected places. Contrast this with the civil service’s tendency to consolidate decision-making among a select group of senior officials. While this ensures accountability, it also limits the scope for grassroots innovation.
To infuse agility, the government could embrace decentralised approaches where diverse actors - whether AI agents, community groups, or sector-specific experts - are empowered to contribute insights. By integrating these inputs through Collective Intelligence platforms, decision-making can become faster, more responsive, and inclusive, while still maintaining the necessary oversight and accountability frameworks.
For instance, imagine teams across departments autonomously piloting new digital tools to address localised challenges. AI systems could aggregate their findings, identify best practices, and propose scalable solutions - all without bottlenecks from excessive central oversight.
2. Tap the Wisdom of the Crowd
Traditional policymaking processes often rely on a relatively small pool of advisers, limiting the diversity of perspectives that inform decisions. What if these processes could instead draw from a much larger, more representative pool of stakeholders? By leveraging the principles of Collective Intelligence, the government could expand the range of contributors to include sector-specific experts, affected communities, and even generative AI trained on relevant data sets.
Picture this: a policy on climate change is not only drafted by civil servants but iteratively refined through a platform where environmental scientists, energy companies, grassroots activists, and AI agents collaborate. Collective Intelligence tools could synthesise these inputs, ensuring that final policies are not only robust and innovative but also reflective of real-world complexities.
3. Reward Experimentation
One of the most defining aspects of start-ups is their embrace of failure as an essential part of the learning process. This approach, however, is virtually absent in the civil service, where even minor missteps can erode public trust and lead to significant political fallout.
To create a safe space for experimentation, the government could adopt “sandbox” environments—protected spaces where teams can test new ideas, technologies, or policies without the risk of public failure. These sandboxes could be powered by Collective Intelligence, allowing for iterative development supported by cross-departmental collaboration and advanced AI tools. By framing failure as a pathway to better solutions, the civil service can foster a culture of innovation without compromising public confidence.
Building a Collaborative, Intelligent Future
As someone who has worked extensively on digital transformation in highly regulated sectors, I’ve seen first-hand the limitations of trying to innovate within traditional frameworks. What the civil service needs isn’t more layers of bureaucracy disguised as innovation but systems and cultures that allow problems to be reframed collaboratively. By leveraging the diverse perspectives of citizens, experts, and intelligent tools, the government can create solutions that are not only effective but also deeply resonant with the needs of society.
The journey to instil start-up energy into the civil service won’t be easy, but by embracing Collective Intelligence, the UK government has a unique opportunity to lead the way in modern, participatory governance. The result could be a civil service that is not only more agile and innovative but also better equipped to tackle the complex challenges of the 21st century.
Paul Jenkinson, Whitespace CEO and creator of Collective
