2024 Fellow Ben Clark

“Motivated by my experience over several years as a Regional Public Service Commissioner, I became increasingly interested in how system leadership differs in practice from traditional forms of top-down leadership which rely more on role-based power and authority. I was also curious about the extent to which our structures were better equipped to deal with standard operating procedures than the unpredictable complexity usually found in a system leadership context” says Ben.

As part of his fellowship Ben completed a literature review, a Harvard based leadership programme and interviewed over 50 senior leaders in roles across the Public Service, private sector, NGOs and academia.

In his report, Joining the Dots: How Do We Help Our People Lead Complex System? Ben explores how to develop public service leaders capable of leading complex systems and fostering cross-agency collaboration.

The report offers practical recommendations for embedding system leadership into development programmes, aligning incentives and fostering innovation. These insights aim to complement existing New Zealand public service leadership development activity and strengthen the pipeline of agile, collaborative leaders equipped to deliver public value in an increasingly complex environment.

Reflecting on this Fellowship, Ben says “I think each of us has the capability to lead outside of our hierarchy. Trust, humility and collaboration are the bedrock of progress in complex environments, and these are trainable. However, collaboration must not become an end in itself - clarity of purpose, shared problem definition and measurable outcomes are key to ensuring system leadership delivers sustainable change to communities.”

Read his full report below.

Joining the Dots: How Do We Help Our People Lead Complex System? [PDF, 1MB]