ABSTRACT
The skill set is a mixture of high intellect and an intimidating capacity for elegant analytics, matched by a communication style that is lean and persuasive. The battle of the caricatures suggests something bigger is going on that is changing the business of policy. The struggle to close the credibility gap that has opened up between them turns out to be a bit of a sideshow. The problem is that traditional skills, processes and values of policy-making are ill equipped to respond to the consequent replacement of ego-centric thinking by network-centric thinking. The tension remains between a policy process informed by network-centric thinking, and ego-centric institutions of accountability that seek clear hierarchical patterns of activity when such patterns are actually disappearing. Network-centric policy-making won’t be done in a single or necessarily easily identifiable place or by a group of people with policy skills and expertise.
