This report surveys twelve disciplines — from psychology to political science, design to complexity theory — for what they offer someone tasked with creating a new institution rather than merely explaining an old one. The pattern that emerges is consistent: a strong bias towards analysis over design, and towards diagnosing the past over building for...

This paper maps how cities organise for emergencies and proposes a new design tool for city leaders. Applied to city governance, the concept of the stack has five layers: what an emergency system must do, who carries those functions, shared standards and protocols, digital infrastructure and physical infrastructure.

This report explores the concept of stack thinking, which reframes how complex systems can be organised. Instead of organising around departments, systems are organised around functions and layers. Applied to government, stack thinking suggests a different model of institutional design.

National governments are struggling to be strategic in the late 2020s. This briefing note argues that this is not mainly a leadership flaw; it is an institutional design problem in the centre of government. The paper looks at current and past examples of strategy teams in governments and proposes designs for future ones.

The world has long depended on public institutions to solve problems and meet needs. A practical guide to designing, testing and evolving institutions, the playbook is action-oriented, helping institutional designers move from ideas to implementation. It provides six guiding principles, and offers tools and insights.