Putting relationality in the driving seat: Applying McGilchrist to public management

IMPACTThis article places the tenacity of New Public Management (NPM) in a wider cultural context. It argues that embedding relational approaches requires more than the implementation of a new management model. It requires deep-rooted change in what is valued and seen as valid—giving more weight to context, direct experience and human judgement. Top-down planning, procedures, and abstractions such as metrics are valuable tools, but they should not dominate as they currently do. To do this in practice will mean recruiting and training public sector leaders to be ‘bilingual’—able to navigate between the abstract world of models and data, and the messy world of lived experience, with its uncertainties, contradictions and complexities. Crucially, it means putting relationships, direct experience and human judgement, rather than models and metrics, in the driving seat.