If we are deliver ambitious goals such as achieving net zero, or securing inclusive economic growth, we need to change not only ‘what’ government does but ‘how’ it goes about its work.This means recognising the importance of acting strategically, of a participatory approach to decision making, of consistency and mutual reinforcement in the policy mix and of innovation, prototyping, evidence and learning.The concept of a Mission-led approach to change brings these elements together alongside a call for more ambition in what good government can achieve. It has become very influential. For example, it has been used to structure the EU’s approach to how it manages its research and innovation programmes. Most significantly for this Capstone, a prospective Labour government has committed to governing in this way.Clearly, Missions are only as good as their implementation. There are, though, long-standing concerns about the capacity of the UK Civil Service to effectively deliver long-term shifts in outcomes. The goal of this Capstone project is to shed light on the skills that are needed to deliver a Mission-led approach to change and whether they can already be found in Whitehall. In doing this, it hopes to be useful and practical by anticipating the challenges and opportunities that a Mission-led government will encounter.

For a long-time, I have been fascinated by the question of how governments can be more effective. I am lucky enough to have worked for both Sir Michael Barber, the first head of the Delivery Unit under Tony Blair, and Sir Geoff Mulgan, his peer in the Strategy Unit. I think I am the only person to have done so. In my capstone, I wanted to advance this interest using the new methods that I have learnt in my MASc.

I am using qualitative research to gather insights from senior leaders who are already working in Mission-driven organisations. Alongside that, I am using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to identify the skills that are mentioned in the literature on a Mission led approach and to discover if they can be found in live Civil Service vacancies.

In this way, I hope to indirectly get at the question of whether the necessary skills for delivering a Mission-led approach are recognised, and found, in the UK Civil Service.

I have been web-scraping Civil Service vacancies once a month, since March, and have built-up ,1000s of them.

Threaded throughout my Capstone is the awareness that delivering outcomes such as inclusive economic growth means influencing, for the better, complex systems at all levels. I am therefore using the perspectives that we covered in Engaging Complexity.

The most obvious way is that the qualitative research I am doing feeds into, and integrates with, the quantitative work. Less obviously, I am finding that in writing my Capstone new and unexpected connections with what we’ve covered on the MASc are sparked. An example would be how cultural contagion is relevant to organisational change.

The vital importance of understanding what is going ‘under the hood’ when it comes to Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing. Treating it as a magical black-box can lead to very unfounded conclusions.