Civic institutions need to better serve their constituents.

It can start with improving the services that they currently provide and perhaps creating new ones. Understanding what people need and taking an entrepreneurial approach is a good place to start. 

However, what if the system of governing needs to be overhauled? There are certain complications with throwing an existing system out the window and starting from scratch to rebuild it. We’re not talking about revolution here, but rather the basic shift from a top-down leadership system to leader-as-facilitator system–this has an impact on how the organization functions and ultimately how it is organized.

Maybe the exercise takes place on paper first?

Modeling how a system could be redesigned to better serve people, regardless of real world constraints, would be a great way to get ideas flowing. Out of this effort, a team may discover that there are aspects of the new system that could be applied to the existing system. 

This kind of design effort can help people shift their perspective and unlock creative potential.