From Gov 2.0 to Gov 3.0: Lessons from FGI Live Roundtables

Introduction

Across our latest FGI Live roundtables, one message kept coming through: governments can no longer afford to drift behind the private sector in citizen experience, trust, and leadership. Citizens don’t get to “switch providers.” That means the bar is higher for government, not lower.

At the Future Government Institute (FGI), we describe the current moment as the transition from Government 2.0 - interactive but siloed - to Government 3.0 - connected, citizen-centred, and trustworthy. Gov 3.0 is not a slogan; it’s the practical work of wrapping government around people rather than making people wrap themselves around government.

This piece reflects on what we heard in recent FGI Live sessions, capturing what leaders themselves are learning in real time. The experiences, frustrations, and ideas they shared form a snapshot of the global Gov 3.0 journey. Alongside their insights, we’ve added FGI’s perspective-how these lessons connect to the FGIX Framework and how they point to a more collaborative, future-ready public sector.

1. Leadership as the amplifier

A theme that cut across every conversation was leadership. Participants agreed that transformation succeeds when leaders send unmistakable signals and back them with scaffolding. It doesn’t always mean new programs or structures-sometimes it’s as simple as tying funding decisions to citizen outcomes.

One attendee described elevating customer satisfaction and journey metrics to the “top table,” making them decisive factors in portfolio management. That single act reshaped behaviour across their organisation. Others spoke of using crises as catalysts-embedding better practices rather than patching holes when things go wrong.

From FGI’s perspective, this mirrors global experience: progress accelerates when leaders make voice of customer and journey performance non-negotiable parts of investment and governance. Leadership, in this sense, is not about hierarchy; it’s about direction, consistency, and accountability.

2. Human experience as the strategy 

The roundtables reinforced that user experience is not a side project - it is the strategy. Attendees shared how they’re moving from individual “products” toward orchestrating total experiences that span agencies, life events, and channels.

Several leaders explained how they now run ongoing discovery cycles, continuously iterating platforms based on user insight rather than waiting for a relaunch. Others emphasised measuring success by outcomes that matter to people-adoption, time to benefit, equity of access-not by technical uptime or internal milestones.

Suggestions that surfaced included designing around life events, embedding journey analytics, and quantifying burden hours saved for both citizens and staff.

FGI’s stance is clear: in Gov 3.0, human experience is not the tail of the dog - it’s the compass. When it leads the strategy, efficiency, inclusion, and trust follow naturally.

3. Trust delivered, not declared

“If you have to keep saying the word ‘trust,’ maybe you haven’t earned it yet.” That comment from one participant captured a shared sentiment. Trust isn’t something you claim; it’s something you demonstrate through delivery and disclosure.

Many participants referenced FGI’s SPRITE framework-Security, Privacy, Resilience, Inclusion, Transparency, Ethics-as a pragmatic foundation for building confidence in data, AI, and digital systems. Others echoed complementary approaches like “COKE” (Collaboration, Operations, Knowledge, Excellence) to describe the culture needed to make trust stick.

We heard practical examples: publishing AI model cards, sharing service standards and outage logs, running live resilience drills, and communicating openly about lessons learned. These acts, small but consistent, rebuild credibility over time.

FGI’s position is that trust must be operationalised. Principles alone aren’t enough; embedding SPRITE in policies, procurement, and delivery makes accountability visible and verifiable.

4. The blockers that keep surfacing

Despite strong intent, several systemic challenges kept reappearing:

• Maturity gaps. Many agencies still operate a decade behind best practice - not from lack of will, but because budget cycles, procurement rules, and legacy architecture reward incremental upgrades over system outcomes.
• Enterprise incoherence. Digital progress often depends on local champions, while whole-of-government alignment remains patchy.
• Fragile collaboration. Cross-agency work frequently relies on personal relationships rather than structural supports like shared standards or funding.
• Trust theatre. Declaring openness without backing it with data or action undermines confidence.

The consensus: Gov 3.0 won’t be achieved through isolated brilliance. It demands system-level scaffolding-shared architecture, shared accountability, and shared learning.

5. Bright spots worth scaling

Against those challenges, participants also showcased practices already making tangible impact:

• Experience-led portfolios. Using citizen feedback to decide what to build next, not to validate what was already planned.
• Platform operating models. Funding common capabilities - identity, payments, notifications - as reusable products with clear ownership.
• Deliberate transparency. Publishing artefacts and sharing lessons as a norm.
• Communities of practice. Cross-agency groups solving real problems together and sharing reusable playbooks.

FGI sees these as the DNA of Gov 3.0. They demonstrate how collaboration, not just coordination, turns innovation into institution.

6. The collaboration multiplier

Across the sessions, one theme stood out even more strongly than expected: the hunger to share more openly - ideas, research, playbooks, and templates. Transformation slows when everyone starts from scratch; it accelerates when people build on one another’s work.

That’s why FGI created the FGI Workspace, a collaborative environment where public sector professionals, academics, NGOs, industry partners, and for-purpose organisations can exchange practical tools and case examples. The Workspace’s aim is to become the commons for Gov 3.0 - a place to post a framework, a trust template, or a service-design playbook so others can adapt it rather than reinvent it.

Participants repeatedly noted that Gov 3.0 cannot be achieved by any single department or sector. Success depends on governments, partners, and civil society travelling this journey together - sharing what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve faster as a collective.

7. The near-term horizon-what participants suggested

One of the most energising parts of the discussion was hearing what practitioners would focus on over the next year. These were not FGI directives but practical ideas from attendees about how to sustain momentum:

Leaders spoke about publishing clear, human narratives of intent - stating in plain language which journeys will improve this year and the outcomes that will prove it. They described setting up cross-agency councils to prioritise backlogs, funding work based on voice-of-customer data, and selecting a few journeys to transform end-to-end, shipping small increments every few weeks.

Others are embedding real-time feedback - CSAT, drop-off analytics, burden hours saved-and closing the loop publicly. A few shared plans to run quarterly continuity drills on critical services and to resource communities of practice so they can maintain shared assets.

Taken together, these ideas form a grounded twelve-month horizon-a way to demonstrate tangible progress while laying foundations for systemic reform.

8. Measuring what matters

Attendees were refreshingly clear that vanity metrics have no place in Gov 3.0. Measures that drive decisions include adoption and completion rates, time-to-benefit, burden hours saved for both citizens and staff, equity of uptake across demographics, and visible transparency artefacts like open dashboards or AI disclosures.

FGI fully supports this focus on outcome-based measurement. If a metric doesn’t change behaviour or illuminate value, it’s decoration.

9. Culture shift: less slogan, more signal

Cultural change came up in every group. The teams most trusted by the public weren’t those talking about transformation; they were showing it - through weekly releases, honest post-mortems, and shared documentation. Trust was built through repetition, not rhetoric.

Likewise, collaboration meant co-creation, not coordination: co-writing briefs, running joint user sessions, and sharing open code. The behaviour of working in the open-of making progress visible-proved far more contagious than any communications campaign.

FGI views this as the essence of Gov 3.0: transforming the everyday habits that make collaboration and accountability routine.

10. FGI’s stance-four anchor shifts

The conversations confirmed four enduring shifts at the heart of the FGIX model:

1. From projects to journeys. Measure at the level where outcomes are felt.
2. From silo KPIs to shared metrics. Put citizen outcomes on the enterprise scorecard.
3. From principle to practice on trust. Embed SPRITE in delivery, disclosure, and design.
4. From heroics to scaffolds. Build standards, governance, and communities that outlast individuals.

These shifts represent FGI’s north star: practical, evidence-based moves that turn intent into capability.

11. Looking ahead

Several themes surfaced for deeper exploration in future sessions. Procurement came through as a critical prequel - how we buy determines whether innovation can take root. Capability building also featured heavily, with interest in recognising individual development through structured accreditation.

Both areas - procurement and people - will shape how quickly systems evolve. They also reinforce that Gov 3.0 is not only about technology; it’s about enabling the humans who design, deliver, and govern it.

12. Conclusion: intent into capability

The most encouraging signal from FGI Live was not the glossy strategies, but the appetite for shared accountability. Leaders want practical scaffolds, shared tools, and transparent metrics. They want to learn together and move faster together.

That’s exactly where FGI sits: convening those who want to act, codifying what works, and coaching teams to deliver outcomes that citizens can feel.

If there’s one promise governments and their partners should make in the year ahead, it’s this: we will wrap government around people, not the other way around-and we’ll do it together, through shared ideas, open playbooks, and collective delivery.

That is Gov 3.0 in practice. And it is within reach.