This period in history is about leadership not only out of the pandemic, but away from old paradigms and towards investment in major structural change.
It’s clear that public sector leaders face challenges and opportunities in four key areas:
1. The massive shift online and the new blend of the physical and digital world in daily life, in other words the new hybrid society
2. Today’s new leadership demands including huge public spending to rescue economies, the urgency of climate change, and the growing wealth, race and gender gaps
3. Constant waves of new technologies that make innovation possible.
4. With the shift to digital, there are now huge data lakes and massive access to data.
The question is what are governments going to do with it?
As the digital transformation of public services continues, governments’ ability to interact responsively and seamlessly with citizens online, and to hold and use massive amounts of data in a secure and innovative way, is critical. This paper examines more closely the steps that need to be taken as the world begins the process of recovery once the pandemic is under control.
Towards the new normal: finding a balance in the hybrid society
What has become clear over the course of 2020 is that in everyday life, there is now less need for people’s physical presence.
Before the covid-19 crisis, it was common for citizens to physically appear at local council offices for administrative reasons. Now, we are seeing a dramatic rise in the use of chatbots and algorithms to increase access to public services 24/7 for common queries.
“The seamless blending of your physical world and your digital world – your digital twin, you may say – is the new hybrid society of tomorrow”.
Our experts

Kay Hooghoudt
Global Government Advisor on
“e-State 2020” & Education