From Control to Connection: Reframing Mission-Led
Make public service purposeful again. Kickstart economic growth, make Britain a clean energy superpower, take back our streets, break down barriers to opportunity, build an NHS fit for the future. Over the last year, “mission-led government” surfaced as a kind of north star: a promise that, despite the exhaustion and complexity most public servants are grappling with, purpose still matters.
But something subtle has happened. The idea of being mission-led has drifted into the language of control—clear outcomes, bold goals, top-down clarity. It’s a compelling story: someone, somewhere, knows where we’re going. Yet the deeper truth may be harder to hold—that the real work begins not with certainty, but with the willingness to lead in its absence. That our authority might come not from having the answer, but from choosing to care.
This is one of two reflections on a question that’s quietly unsettling public systems: what if control—so long assumed to be the responsible thing—has become the obstacle, not the answer? In what follows, we explore why being “mission-led” isn’t a process to follow but a relational and emotional journey. One that has less to do with executing a plan, and more to do with remembering why you showed up together in the first place.
In the companion blog 'The Power of Not Knowing, Radical Trust in Mission-Led Organisations' we explore the hold that control exerts on government and organisational life, and why radical trust—the act of prioritising psychological safety over certainty—may be not just an ideal, but the only serious strategy left for real collaboration and creativity.
The When-Iffery Trap
Civil servants and leaders alike find themselves stuck in a loop of “when-iffery”: “when X is decided, then we can act,” or “if Y sorts itself out, then we’ll move.” You may recognise this pattern. It feels productive, even rational. But underneath it lies a profound passivity. A waiting game disguised as planning.
An AI-generated image of “mission-led mythology” we created recently tried to capture this: a glowing oracle, alone on a mountaintop, offering clarity to the waiting masses. Comforting. But wrong.
Imaged created with DALL-E using the prompt “mythology mission-led ".
Disillusionment as a Gift (or at Least a Gateway)
I once heard a public sector leader say, with more relief than frustration: “Nobody knows the answer. Nobody’s going to tell me what to do.”
This, I suspect, is the moment everything begins to change.
The disillusionment between Ministers and civil servants that’s set in post-election isn’t just unfortunate. It’s necessary. Disillusionment, after all, is only the loss of an illusion. What comes next may not be tidy, but it can be true.
Before we look to the stars, we need to feel our feet on the ground. Not in the abstract, but in the very real, uncomfortable terrain of our shared humanity—our messy values, conflicting needs, and irrepressible hopes. This is not failure. This is the raw material of meaningful change.
Purpose Isn’t a PowerPoint Slide
This doesn’t sit well with the culture of ‘studied neutrality’ in the civil service. The logic goes: facts before feelings, plans before purpose. But organisations, like people, are not made of spreadsheets. They are made of stories. And stories, like the people who tell them, are always political, emotional, lived.
One of the most stubborn myths is that we need certainty in order to act. That knowledge is the prerequisite to agency. But what if it’s the other way around?
What if agency begins not with what we know, but with what we care about?
This is the question we explore in our work on mission-led government. And it changes everything. Purpose, as Gervase Bushe puts it, is not a destination, it’s what we’re trying to do every day. Not a strategy but a practice. Not a vision to chase but a compass to return to.
Working With What’s Real: Head, Heart, and Hands
So where do we go from here?
Not to the mountain-top. But perhaps to the messy middle: to the boardroom, the community centre, the hybrid workshop where no one has a perfect answer but everyone has a piece of the truth.
At Mayvin, we’ve begun reframing “mission” not as something owned by the few, but something made real by the many. Making it real at the level of head (intellect), heart (care) and hands (action). We help teams:
- Make sense of complexity in ways that honour ambiguity.
- Rebuild trust and morale in the places that feel most stuck.
- Have the hard conversations that lead somewhere new.
- Turn lofty “missions” into shared, meaningful action.
Our work is grounded in Organisation Development, systemic thinking, and dialogic practice—methods, yes, but more importantly, mindsets. Because if we want public service to be different, we have to start by relating differently. To each other. To power. To purpose.
The Invitation
If you're working in or around the public sector and sensing that the old maps no longer serve—that something more grounded, more human is needed—perhaps now is the time to begin.
Not with certainty. But with curiosity. Not with grand vision. But with heartfelt purpose.
We’d love to talk.