What if community was not just a ‘nice to have’—but an essential capability for 21st-century government?

At this year’s Creative Bureaucracy Festival, Apolitical brought together public sector leaders to explore this question. In the session “Why Community Matters in Government”, hosted by Apolitical VP North America Cori Zarek, panel members Dominic Campbell, Tamara Srzentić, and Chikako (Chika) Masuda, shared stories and strategies that show why community is no longer peripheral to public service. It's central.

The session, anchored by insights from across North America, Europe, and Asia, offered a compelling reminder: community is how we build resilience, trust, and capacity—not just in crisis, but every day.

Collaboration: the skill public servants want most

In 2024, Apolitical asked 2,000 public servants in over 60 countries: What skill do you most want to develop to help you in government right now? The overwhelming answer—across all levels of seniority—was collaboration.

And yet, too often, collaboration is blocked by bureaucratic silos, outdated hierarchies, and cultures of caution. The panel argued that community is the enabling condition that cuts through these blockers and makes true collaboration possible.

Circles and triangles: rethinking government from the ground up

Dominic Campbell challenged attendees to reimagine the relationship between traditional bureaucracies and the communities they serve. "Government tends to operate in hierarchical triangles," he noted, "while communities organise themselves in organic, overlapping circles."

The future of public services, he argued, depends on blending these two shapes—bringing the responsiveness and relational power of community into the formal systems of government, while also helping communities build the structural savvy to shape systemic outcomes.

This shift requires systems leadership: people who can connect deeply technical skills with social insight, orchestrating change across sectors and scales.

Building trust in crisis through visibility

Tamara Srzentić, former Minister of Public Administration in Montenegro and a long-time civic tech leader in California, brought powerful examples of how community can build trust fast—especially during moments of crisis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and later the Ukraine refugee crisis, she helped governments pivot rapidly by creating open, iterative, community-led responses. This included launching co-created platforms, rewriting guidance based on real-time citizen feedback, and coordinating across civil society, private sector, and government actors.

Her key takeaway? "Visibility builds trust. When communities can see what’s happening—and help shape it—they engage, support, and co-create better outcomes."

Space as an enabler of community

Chika Masuda, Head of Intelligence Research at Japan’s Digital Agency, emphasised that in highly siloed or hierarchical systems, community can feel threatening or irrelevant. But it’s exactly in these environments that cross-boundary spaces matter most.

She shared how Japan’s government—known for its formality and risk-aversion—is investing in physical spaces where internal and external actors can collaborate safely and openly. In a world racing to build digital public infrastructure, these real-world meeting points are vital to building the social infrastructure that enables systems change.

Building community before the crisis

One of the most powerful themes to emerge from the panel was this: the time to build community is before the crisis hits.

Too often, governments turn to community only when the pressure is on—during a pandemic, a refugee emergency, or a wave of public mistrust. But as the panellists reflected, it’s the pre-existing relationships, trust, and coordination that allow for an agile, effective response when the stakes are high.

Communities aren't just useful in crisis—they are the infrastructure of resilience and they take time to build. Investing in community now—through cross-sector partnerships, internal networks, or civic engagement spaces—lays the foundation for faster collaboration, stronger legitimacy, and more sustainable change later.

What’s Next?

At Apolitical, we believe community is the most underutilised superpower in government. It's how we learn faster, act together, and adapt to complexity. Whether you're redesigning services, working on climate action, or transforming bureaucracies from the inside out—community isn’t a distraction from your work. It is your work.

As one speaker reminded us: “Decisions are made by those who show up.” So let’s show up, together.

Join the conversation in Apolitical’s Communities of Practice, and help make the public service stronger—one community at a time.

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