Video: Talking The Walk In Government

A discussion with Charles Landry at Creative Bureaucracy Festival on how leadership, on not knowing, on public sector innovation and on why language matters in government.

Charles Landry is one of those special people who manages to combine humility and ambition. Some people call this being humbitious. For a long time Charles has been curiously exploring what makes cities tick. We´ve been fortunate enough in Helsinki that Charles has written a lot about our city as well.

A few years back Charles founded the Creative Bureaucracy Festival, which has been organized twice in Berlin and this year remotely. At the festival government leaders, urban innovators and bureaucrats and civic activists come together in looking at making government work better. In the circle of trust created by the festival, we have been also able to discuss failures and wrong expectations.

I was very honored when Charles asked me to do a conversation with him on my journey in government. In this 25-minute discussion we tackle at least:

• unknowing as a path to innovation
• how language matters in government
• how leadership about walking the talk but also talking the walk, i.e. turning strategy documents into practical actions and pointing strategy in practical actions
• why you should do a circus workshop with your team
• scouting as training for executive roles
• being openly gay in government
• accepting help and helping others
• Helsinki´s innovations like Physical Activity Programme and Migrant Youth Helsinki