Reimagining Government

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) recently published some of the results of my collaboration with them on their November 2025 annual national conference.

At the conference, two colleagues and I facilitated breakout groups on the theme of reimagining government. With the imminent “semiquincentennial” in mind (the 250th anniversary of the U.S. this year), our prompt was the next milestone birthday after that. We had the participants “stand in future” and imagine with us – what could government in the U.S. be like in the Tricentennial Year of 2076?

Across the three groups, dozens of fascinating ideas emerged, which coalesced into four themes. The work after the conference elaborated on those themes, which NAPA has now published in a series of four blog posts (links follow):

The first theme: What if the “fifth estate” (bloggers, online networks, Hollywood, independent journalists, etc.) not only did its important work of editorializing about government from outside, but was also deliberately, meaningfully made a part of the dialogue of governing?

The second theme: What if collaboration across the levels of government (Federal, state, county, municipal) was easier, with new forms and new mindsets of partnering and teamwork reducing the frictions to boost the speed and ease to new kinds of results?

The third theme: What if the future of how Americans participate in government had many additional different forms beyond the forms it has today, for public servants and citizens to do the work of governing together in new ways as authentic partners?

The fourth theme: What if AI in government was about more than greater efficiencies and effectiveness in what government already does today, but also transformed what government does, what it is capable of doing, opening the doors to things that no government has ever been able to do before?

My sincere thanks to James-Christian Blockwood, NAPA’s President and CEO, and Kaitlyn Blume, NAPA’s Chief of Staff, for inviting me into this collaboration with them on this important work. What’s next? Bringing these futures of government to life! Let’s go!