To improve governmental decision-making and policy delivery amidst the complexity of the 21st century, a radical rethink is needed for the traditional design and hierarchy of ministerial portfolios and cabinet committees; the strategic role and capability of the bureaucracy; and the methodologies deployed to wrestle with complex, integrated problems.

The big issues that will dominate future decades – climate change, multi-spectrum geostrategic competition, societal cohesion, demographic ageing and the great unknown of generative AI – cut across a wide range of what I term “legacy” portfolios. Dealing solely with the complexity we know about today is proving intensely challenging for the legacy structures. What about the complexity waiting around the corner?