Delivering change across decentralised organisations

Change is hard. Change in organisations with a broad remit and wildly different users is harder. 

Add a decentralised delivery model on top and it becomes something else entirely.

When delivering transformational change in decentralised organisations, you often need approaches that don’t come from the centre. You need models that respect autonomy, work within local contexts, and move in ways that feel natural to the organisation rather than imposed on it. In this context, the levers you apply in a single organisation simply won’t work.

The realities of decentralised public systems

Given that the public sector has inherently decentralised organisational models, at Public Digital we design for this in our transformation delivery approach. The systems and decentralise nature can change dramatically dependent on the make up of the organisation, for example:

• Health is one of the most decentralised systems in the UK. Strategy sits with NHS England and DHSC, but delivery is carried out by a patchwork of Trusts, GP practices, secondary care providers, and local authorities. Integrated Care Systems connect the pieces, but they don’t remove local autonomy. Each Trust, ICB and primary care network still has its own priorities, constraints and culture.

• Central government departments set policy, but delivery often sits with arm’s length bodies, regulators and local authorities, each with its own priorities, boards and powers.

• Local government is rarely a single entity. Councils themselves are more like a federation of small organisations working alongside parishes, local partners, suppliers and place-based organisations, each with their own responsibilities, budgets and priorities. Delivery is distributed across this ecosystem, so no single council can simply roll out change on its own.

• Charities often work through federated or branch networks, alongside partners, with large volunteer workforces and their own distinct cultures and rhythms. Local branches or regional offices may be independently registered, with their own governance, budgets, and ways of working, even under the same brand. Funding adds complexity, as donations and grants are often restricted, limiting flexibility.

The result is a landscape where no one body can simply “roll out” transformation. Change must be spread in a way that fits the shape of the system.

Here are six approaches we have applied when delivering transformational change across decentralised organisations.

4. Identifying the hyperconnected

Titles and mandates rarely map onto real influence. In complex, decentralised systems, some people carry change in ways no job title can capture.

Helen Bevan in the NHSE calls these people “superconnectors”: informal influencers who bridge teams and can make or break a transformation. They could be a midwife in Northumberland, a porter in Dorset County Hospital, or a GP in Lytham St Anns.

Unlike top-down selected ‘change champions’, hyperconnected people do not need permission - they already hold credibility. Engaging them spreads innovation organically, works with local autonomy, and builds on existing trust, making change more likely to stick.

5. Going Deep in a Few Areas

In decentralised systems, it is tempting to try to create change in as many teams, services, or departments as possible. The result? Initiatives fizzle out, people get overwhelmed, and momentum is lost. Real progress usually starts with a handful of places, letting learning spread organically. Two approaches that make this effective are:

• Creating Beacons or exemplars
  Identifying teams where the conditions are right to start the change: the relationships, the curiosity, the appetite to try something different. When change lands there, these teams become living examples of what’s possible, and confidence spreads across the wider system.

• Test and learn
  In decentralised systems, context varies wildly, so the work needs to grow in the places where it is actually lived. This means trying things with real teams, learning from how they bend or break in practice, and adapting as you go. The aim is not to land a perfect model, but to build approaches that evolve in the grain of day-to-day work rather than vanish with the end of a programme.

Example: Nottinghamshire’s safeguarding system spans multiple organisations, including local authority teams, police, and NHS partners. To improve multi-agency working, the programme started with the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), with whom Public Digital co-designed processes, tested ideas in real time, and adapted as challenges arose. By focusing deeply on a single team first, the programme built confidence, created momentum, and embedded improvements across the wider safeguarding system.

6. Building a movement, not a PDF

In decentralised organisations, messages struggle to travel. A PDF or PowerPoint can outline intent, but it won’t build trust or change behaviour across a network of semi-autonomous teams.

As such, creating a movement is not soft or optional; it is the mechanism that makes change travel across a decentralised system. People - not PDFs - turn strategic direction into reality, and become the real drivers of change in decentralised systems. The following approaches help to build and spread a movement for change:

• Visible, human leadership
  Decentralised organisations have their own brands, local identities, language, subcultures and ways of working. The risk of ‘not invented here’ is high. A trusted, neutral lead who works across the whole network - and who listens first - helps make the intent tangible and relevant to each organisation.
• Showing up in person
  Visiting local offices and frontline teams brings the work to life, creates space for questions and curiosity, and lets people see the humans behind the change.
• Storytelling
  Stories, told in the adopters’ own words, travel further than slide deck. They make the change real, sharing what teams have tried, what surprised them, what they learned, and who it helped.
• Co-design and participatory approaches
  This doesn’t need to be big or formal. It can be steady, lightweight involvement such as a poll, a quick idea ask at the end of a show and tell, or a request for examples of people’s work. These small inputs help people shape, test and steer the work as it develops.