Getting Government Unstuck: A Behavioral Science View From The Hague

If you’ve ever seen the movie A Christmas Story, you remember the scene: a kid sticks his tongue to a frozen metal pole on a school playground and instantly regrets every decision that led him there. He’s not lazy or unmotivated. He’s just… stuck. Completely, comically, painfully stuck.

https://youtu.be/Ato0gbM0bi0?si=Cjw1danQFVjAByEI

Government employees and administrators can feel like that sometimes. Just stuck. People are really trying, but internal frictions have a way of accumulating. Processes pile up. Rules multiply. Systems age. Eventually, forward movement freezes.

A Global Conversation on Internal Friction

So, when the OECD released its Government Unstuck agenda, I felt an immediate connection. Some of the best behavioral scientists in the world named something public servants everywhere “get.” That is, most agencies are carrying an unaffordable internal drag, and it shows up in employee behaviors and outcomes.

Recently, I was invited to join government leaders and scholars from 40+ countries at an OECD meeting in The Hague to explore this theme together, through the lens of behavioral science. It was the11th OECD BRAIN (Behavioural Research in Action International Network) Meeting. I presented my experience and my research, and I’m still thinking about the conversations.

Different histories. Different political realities. Yet, the same refrain: we know we’re stuck, and working like heck to use behavioral science to help us make things better for employees.

The Behavioral Science of Tape: Red, Green, Pink, White, Beige

Scholars use a spectrum of “tape” to describe frictions:

• Red tape. The intuitive yet burdensome, “why do we still do it this way?” kind. Can be felt by employees, customers, intermediaries, and suppliers.

• Green tape. Rules that, for some, feel like just part of the normal course of business.

• Pink tape. Gendered friction baked into public sector workplace systems.

• White tape. Rules some might consider beneficial but create uneven impacts.

What Beige Tape Does to People

For years scholars have mostly referred to internal frictions as simply “internal red tape.” Beige tape essentially replaces that term. Beige tape reflects internal frictions that shape employee behavior and keep work stuck. The checking, waiting, rework, escalation, and uncertainty. For public sector employees research links the experience of beige tape to:   

• Muted innovation

• Rule-bending and work-around behaviors

• Resistance to change

• Employee procrastination and cognitive uncertainty

• Dissatisfaction, stress, and resigned work satisfaction

• Turnover intentions, reduced engagement, and feelings of powerlessness

• Difficulty living out agency mission and values

Practical Ways of Getting Unstuck

In my presentation to the attendees, I talked about how getting unstuck doesn’t necessarily require changing regulations. Friction can be eased in practical, human-sized ways:

• A sludge audit—illuminating steps, approvals, and forms no one remembers adding.

• Redesigning application entry points so work starts clean instead of chaotic.

• Reducing cognitive load so employees can focus on what matters.

What I heard in The Hague wasn’t resignation to the realities of government administration. It was determination, recognition, and momentum. Because everyone understands when you ease frictions you change what becomes possible.

Thank you to sludge superstars Eva Koromilas and Mia Drazilova for the invitation and to the OECD for hosting such a terrific, relevant meeting.

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