Reimagining Public Institutions

Are our institutions equipped to deal with tomorrow’s world? Considering issues like disruptive technologies, or pressing crises like climate change, there’s a growing argument that we urgently need to rethink the design of public bodies.

This event brought together leaders in institutional innovation to discuss how our governing bodies could be reimagined:

• Milica Begovic, Head of UNDP’s Strategic Innovation Unit
• Geoff Mulgan, Professor and Co-founder of the Institutional Architecture Lab
• Christian Bason, Co-founder, Transition Collective
• Isabella Gady, Senior Expert at Demos Helsinki

Together they explored replicable strategies for instigating transformational change and introduced emerging forms of institutional design. The session concluded with a Q&A, allowing attendees to consider how their insights might be applied within their organisations.

This event took place as part of the launch of the Reimagining Public Institutions Community on the Apolitical platform.

The Reimagining Public Institutions Community facilitated by Demos Helsinki, The Institutional Architecture Lab (TIAL), and the Transition Collective, is for individuals passionate about addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges by building more human, thriving, collaborative, and impactful public service organisations.

Speakers

• Milica Begovic, Milica Begovic leads UNDP’s Strategic Innovation Unit, focusing on partnering across disciplines to explore conditions and build capabilities for large-scale transformation. She is also a mom of two girls who keep her grounded.
• Christian Bason, Co-founder of Transition Collective, which works with leaders and organizations to enable sustainable transitions in society, is also Adjunct Professor with University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and a Leader in Residence with Copenhagen Business School (CBS). Christian is a writer, author, speaker, coach, trainer and advisor on design, innovation and leadership. From 2014 to 2023 he was CEO of the Danish Design Center, a government-backed non-profit foundation. From 2007-2014 he was Director of MindLab, the Danish government’s innovation team. From 1998-2006 he held various leadership positions in Ramboll, a global advisory group. He is the author of nine books on leadership, innovation and design, including “Expand: Stretching the Future by Design” (2022), “Leading Public Sector Innovation” (2018) and (in Danish) “The Organization Was Set Free” (2023). Christian is M.Sc. (Political Science) from Aarhus University and Ph.D. (Design, Leadership and Governance) from Copenhagen Business School. Christian holds Danish and American citizenship and lives with his family in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Isabella Gady, whose work focuses on building capacities for the next era of public sector transformation, aims to highlight the connection between inner development and societal impact. Specializing in transdisciplinary design, strategic foresight, and psychology, her work spans roles at the Austrian Foreign Ministry, the UN, ideo.org, and 3×3 Design. Co-founder of the Digital Diplomacy Chapter in New York and Assistant Editor of Design for Social Innovation (Bloomsbury), Isabella develops leadership curricula that blend strategy, design, behavioural sciences to foster meaningful change.
• Sir Geoff Mulgan, Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London. Formerly the chief executive of Nesta, he held government roles from 1997-2004, including as the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit director and as Downing Street’s head of policy, and has worked for dozens of governments worldwide. He is the founder or co-founder of many organisations, from Demos to Action for Happiness, and the author of many books.