From Silo Thinking to Service Orientation

Three years of work, starting with 90 people, 20 active authors, and the five of us editors who turned it all into a book!

Vision, Methods, Experiences

Transformation processes are best managed with agile thinking. This book offers concrete proposals for future administrative structures and provides practical approaches, particularly for digitalization. The focus is on empowering stakeholders to drive future initiatives. It encourages starting with small steps that can lead to impactful change, with real-life examples and guides on implementing agile practices specifically within public administration.

A Long Journey

In mid-2021, I responded to a call from the Forum Agile Verwaltung e.V., first as a participant in a barcamp. Eventually, I joined the PO team (Product Owner Team) of five editors. Together, in open barcamps with a constantly changing subset of 90 dedicated people, we collected and organized topics. What united us all was a shared perspective: while customer interaction is critical in industry, interaction with citizens is essential in public administration! The administration doesn’t simply produce something for others to consume. We are all part of civil society, and a strong, efficient administration is in everyone’s best interest. Agile methods bring people together in productive collaboration, harnessing diversity and different perspectives to develop effective solutions. When citizens participate and it makes sense, there’s tremendous potential. Digitalization is a part of this, but it’s not everything.

Since September 24, 2024, the book is available for sale!

Three years filled with ups and downs, joy and frustration, moments of wanting to give up and pushing forward—all online. This book is our “corona baby.” We editors met only once in person, and most contributors only knew each other digitally. It’s a fantastic feeling to hold our thoughts, writings, and sketches in the form of such a quality book! Each chapter has a practical application, with results that show real outcomes. Our goal was for the book to be actively used—read, marked up, filled with Post-its.

This book is the result of the work of all the authors and participants, as well as our small, resilient, and wonderful editorial team: Peter Bauer, Christiane Büchter, Jan Fischbach, Wolf Steinbrecher, and myself. Through every high and low, we stayed committed, with strong trust and reliability—a perfect example of our motto: Adaptive work through open, effective, and regular communication, transparency, and well-organized feedback.

For those who want to learn more, check out the “Sound of Science” podcast by Carl-Auer Verlag. In it, Matthias Ohler interviews us editors about the making and content of the book.

Here’s the direct link to the publisher, though the book is also available on Amazon.