Strategy Exchange

Welcome to Strategy Exchange

This is our introductory newsletter to Strategy Exchange. Now that you have registered we will send you occasional alerts to let you know about events or publications that we think will interest you and – twice a year – we will send you our newsletter.

If this is the first time you have visited Strategy Exchange, please take some time to look around the site at www.nationalschool.gov.uk/strategyexchange and let us know what you think of it. We always want to hear what’s useful and what isn’t and how you think we can improve it (click here to let us know).

What’s Strategy Exchange for?

Our ambition at the National School of Government’s Strategy Exchange is to build the appetite and capability of people and organisations in government and the wider public sector to work strategically. We work in partnership with the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit and the Horizon Scanning Centre in the Government Office for Science

In detail this means that we:

• Find out what’s happening in the world of public strategy and share it with you
• Identify the barriers to working strategically in government and the wider public sector and help you with practical advice on how to overcome these
• Put you in touch with people doing jobs like yours and give you the space to stay in touch, if you want to
• Tell you about strategy-related events in the UK
• Offer training courses for you personally or for your organisation, and offer advice on training more generally
• Offer consultancy on strategy and advice on consultancy interventions more generally  

What do we mean by ‘work strategically?’

Strategy is traditionally understood as the process by which organisations increase their resilience to change over the long-term by building an understanding of plausible futures and developing plans to perform effectively in those futures. We think that government and public organisations need to be more than resilient – they need to shape the process of change itself, whether at the international level (climate change, security, conflict, economic development), at the national level (obesity, transport, crime) or at the local level (housing, safe communities, economic regeneration, participation). Government – at all levels – needs to be clear about what it is seeking to achieve for its citizens. Strategy is the key to unlocking outcomes that can be achieved by governments and citizens working together.

We know there are barriers to working strategically in government, but we also know of people and organisations that have worked-out good ways to overcome these. See our ‘case studies’ section to find out more.

Who is Strategy Exchange for? 

Strategy Exchange is for anyone with an interest in public strategy. The National School of Government is a part of the UK government, and our users are mainly UK civil servants. But our strategy community goes much wider than that, and includes: 

• Elected officials with an interest in strategy 
• Senior and not-so-senior civil servants responsible for developing strategy in their departments and organisations 
• People who work for local authorities 
• Staff in NDPBs, the Police, NHS and Fire Services
• Members of the Armed Forces
• People from the wider non-profit sector
• Academics, particularly in public administration, political science and business schools
• Post graduate students
• Colleagues from other countries

Who runs Strategy Exchange?

You do – if you send us your views and information you find we will make good use of it.

We do – we are a small team working on strategy within the National School of Government. We run Strategy Exchange because we believe government that thinks about the important and not just the urgent makes better policy and achieves lasting outcomes for individuals, families and communities.