Welcome to 2030: Rethinking the back office as the frontline of change
If you want to know where change is really happening in public services, don’t just look at the strategy.
Look at the edges.
In the community fridge that became a crisis response hub.
In the WhatsApp group that solved rotas before the system could.
In the voice note that explained more in two minutes than five years of comms plans.
What if corporate functions — stopped trying to control change, and started growing it from the edge?
This blog series is our attempt to imagine just that.
Not predictions.
Not blueprints.
But invitations.
Each blog is a glimpse of what one function could look like by 2030 if it was redesigned around where the real energy already is: in frontline experiments, underheard voices, informal networks, community insight, and the people quietly making things better.
✳️ The series: what could these teams become?
🧑🤝🧑 HR in 2030:
From policy writer to playbook co-creator. HR doesn’t fix people problems from the centre — it grows new systems of support, learning, and belonging at the edges.
📣 Comms in 2030:
From message manager to movement amplifier. Comms becomes the connective tissue between what’s being lived on the ground and what’s being heard at the top.
📊 PMO in 2030:
From project police to learning lab. PMO isn’t about red flags and Gantt charts — it’s about making delivery human, connected and reflective.
🛰️ Mission Control in 2030:
From central cockpit to campfire host. Mission Control becomes a place for shared direction, story exchange, and surfacing signals from across the system.
🤝 Participation in 2030:
From consultation to coalition-building. Participation becomes creative, distributed and valued — where communities shape decisions, not just comment on them.
Why this series, and why now?
In every council, NHS trust, charity, housing association or civil service department, the same questions are being asked:
- How do we lead change in complexity?
- How do we rebuild trust?
- How do we work across boundaries?
- How do we stop burning people out?
And increasingly: what’s the role of our internal teams in making that happen?
These blogs offer a hopeful, human response. They’re not just future scenarios. They’re grounded in real seeds we’ve already seen planted: from frontline micro-projects to open insight platforms to people-led system redesigns.
What you’ll find
- ✨ Imaginary but plausible stories from 2030
- 🔍 Reflections on what changed — and what held us back
- ✅ Practical steps you can take now
- 💡 A tone that’s warm, plain English and people-first
- 🔄 A way to rethink the “back office” as the frontline of transformation
If your team is feeling stuck — in process, in politics, in permission — we hope this series helps you find the edges again.
Because that’s where the sparks are.
