On Leadership: What Makes Delivery a Success?

“Where Are the Trains?”

The prime minister of an Eastern European country looked up from his briefing papers, visibly frustrated. It was a routine progress meeting – one of many held over the previous year – tracking the status of the capital’s ambitious new metro system.

Across the table sat the minister of urban planning, officials from the land-records department and representatives from the private-sector consortium tasked with delivering the project. For months, the focus had been almost exclusively on land acquisition – resolving ownership disputes, finalising bids and laying down kilometres of track.

In fact, the team had made impressive progress. The land had been secured at record pace and tracks had begun to stretch across the city. But in the excitement of this progress, no one had asked a simple but vital question: what about the trains themselves?

This was the first time in a year of meetings that someone had probed for an update on the parallel process of train procurement. When pressed, the private-sector partner responsible reluctantly admitted that the trains were six months behind schedule.

Suddenly, the truth was clear. Even though land had been acquired and tracks had been laid, the system couldn’t launch on time. There were simply no trains to run.

This moment exposed deep cracks in the existing delivery approach:

• First, coordination across ministries was poor. No single owner was responsible for the end-to-end outcome. Each department focused on its own piece of the puzzle – land, construction, procurement – but no one was ensuring the pieces fit together.

• Second, many had known about the delays but kept quiet, fearing the consequences of speaking up. The regular progress meetings, originally meant to solve problems, had instead become opportunities to claim credit and deflect blame.

• Finally, the prime minister had made a public promise – a new metro system by a certain date. Citizens were expecting a functioning train service, not just tracks on the ground. Until the trains ran and people could ride them, all the effort meant little.

A hard but important lesson was learned: delivery isn’t about process, it’s about outcomes. Real success would only come when citizens could step onto a platform, board a train and experience a promise fulfilled.

Delivering government wins isn’t just about having a big vision or a detailed plan. Success also requires the right conditions. You need to have – or be able to build – the foundations for committed leadership, enough government capacity, good data and a mindset focused on problem-solving, potentially in bold new ways, including by finding creative technological solutions.

Without these basics in place, even the best policies are typically hampered by bureaucracy, politics or weak follow-through.

The Conditions for Success

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI)’s global experience shows that successful leaders, regardless of context, share common traits that help turn an ambitious vision into meaningful results. Before launching any delivery effort, the following conditions, at a bare minimum, must be in place and ready to be built upon:

• The politics: The leader must be visibly committed, ready to use political capital and have the authority to push for change, even when encountering resistance.

• The system: Basic government capacity to execute a reform must exist, ideally with a dedicated delivery team and innovative data systems that track progress and guide decisions.

• The people: Leaders and teams must be ready to solve problems, tackle roadblocks and shift from business-as-usual to a culture focused on results.

In the case of the Eastern European country, although there was clear commitment from the political leader, the foundations were missing. Specifically with regards to the system, there was no single-threaded delivery owner to drive coordination. Additionally, the right delivery mindset wasn’t in place – teams were focused on avoiding scrutiny rather than openly addressing roadblocks. Without these conditions in place, any attempt to deliver a reform faces an uphill battle. But what exactly do we mean by “the politics”, “the system” and “the people”?

1. The Politics: Firm and Focused Commitment From Leadership

For any delivery effort to succeed, the most senior political leader must visibly and consistently champion it. This means dedicating their time, resources, political capital, staff and decision-making authority to ensure sustained momentum. Of all the conditions necessary for successful delivery, the wholehearted commitment of the leader is the single most essential for success.

In an African country where political resistance often stalled progress, a determined president backed his new Delivery Unit as an extension of his own office – meeting with them monthly, and keeping them focused on pursuing targets and removing roadblocks. With his full support, the team stayed laser-focused, helping to bring electricity to 4 million households and safe drinking water to 3.5 million more.

A political leader must be able to prioritise, among the long list of government priorities, the three to five core areas where they want to see the biggest impact on citizens’ lives. With the leader’s full backing, initiatives will gain traction, overcome resistance and achieve their goals.

2. The System: Government Capacity to Support Delivery

For a delivery effort to succeed, a dedicated team with the capacity to execute – or the intent to rapidly build that capacity or function – must be in place. This does not necessarily mean creating a new unit but can mean identifying an existing team that has clear ownership and accountability for delivery, as well as the visible backing of the leader.

Cross-ministry collaboration is rarely easy – but in one Eastern European country, it was nearly impossible. Tasked with fixing deep funding gaps in the agricultural sector, which employs almost 30 per cent of the population, the Delivery Unit faced entrenched silos and competing interests. Yet with the prime minister backing a bold new credit facility for smallholder farmers, the Delivery Unit were uniquely empowered to cut through the gridlock. TBI coached the Delivery Unit as they rallied ministries, agencies and banks, and launched a programme that unlocked financing for equipment and processing – transforming productivity and livelihoods across the sector.

Delivery requires a small, well-resourced team (existing or new) that can take ownership of the delivery effort and its outcomes. That team must be politically savvy and trusted by the senior political leader. They must understand the context and culture of their environment so that they can build relationships across ministries to get things done. Key stakeholders, such as ministries, agencies and, in many cases, private-sector partners, must be aligned on the “why”: the shared vision and moral purpose behind the effort.

3. The System: A Commitment to Data-Driven Decision Making

Once the right leadership mandate and capacity are in place, delivery requires a shift from relying on anecdotal evidence to tracking measurable data to inform progress and decision-making. While robust data systems may not always be in place at the outset, there must be clear intent and willingness to build or strengthen them. Delivery solutions must integrate the most effective technologies and artificial intelligence to open up new pathways to achieving the desired outcomes. The AI tools available today to help leaders tackle data challenges and gain insight, for example, offer far more exciting and targeted solutions than ever before.

In a Southeast Asian government racing to deliver major infrastructure projects as elections neared, the president’s office were flying blind. Buried in scattered data and unclear milestones, the president couldn’t see which projects were failing – or why. Working with the president’s team, TBI helped build a real-time dashboard that cut through the noise, revealing bottlenecks and empowering him to make rapid decisions and drive results. Delivering effectively requires relevant data to measure progress against policy goals, or at least a commitment to develop reliable data systems quickly. Once the system is in place, the data must be consistently collected and rigorously tracked to determine if progress is proceeding as planned.

4. The People: A Culture of Problem-Solving

In any delivery effort, setbacks and challenges are inevitable. Success depends on the ability to course-correct if progress is off track, instead of assigning blame. A culture focused on curiosity and collaboratively tackling challenges will advance quickly (without resorting to finger-pointing), as well as with the courage to solve problems differently – rather than simply adhering to “the way things are done” – and boldly, including by embracing the digital era and the age of AI.

TBI saw this work with dramatic effect in a small East African country facing a foreign-exchange crisis, where the Minister of Trade was under pressure to deliver. Instead of chasing broad reforms, he chose a single, bold target: grow export revenue. Fast. He focused on a few high-potential commodities, set clear revenue goals and demanded action. A real-time export dashboard exposed bottlenecks early, but good data weren’t enough. Every Monday, he met his team, pointed to the numbers, and asked one question: “How will we hit the target?”

The focus shifted from a culture of passing blame and dwelling on setbacks to one of actively confronting bottlenecks as a team in endless pursuit of a singular target using real-time data. Excuses didn’t fly – only solutions. That relentless rhythm paid off. In just one year, exports surged by 30 per cent.

Trust and vulnerability often contribute to the building of strong relationships, and as described above, the Delivery Unit can only function with the backing of the leader. Further, head-on problem-solving isn’t always the easy path, and it can force hard decisions that feel politically unpalatable at the time. Creating a high-functioning culture of delivery requires plain speaking and honesty about the real hurdles, even when this is challenging.

5. The People: A Laser Focus on Outcomes

To successfully deliver, leaders must maintain a consistent line of sight to the real goal: achieving meaningful impact for citizens in ways they can see and feel. This is particularly true in the digital era, when citizens expect ever-improving accessibility and transparency. Shift the mindset from valuing activity to prioritising results, with a constant laser focus on how to move the needle. Keep intended impact front and centre.

In the wake of Covid-era learning disruption, a North African government launched an ambitious education-reform programme with one bold question at its core: “How can we improve learning?” Backed by TBI, the education ministry piloted new teaching methods, scripted lessons and results-based school management. Every decision was tested, tracked and tied to outcomes. Promising ideas were quickly scaled. Ineffective ones were scrapped.

After just one year, the results were staggering: the average student in a pilot school outperformed about 82 per cent of their peers in non-pilot schools, placing the programme in the top 1 per cent of global education interventions. This success shows that large-scale, government-led education reform can deliver measurable, impactful results when guided by disciplined delivery and a relentless focus on outcomes.

Remember, delivery isn’t about ticking boxes – it’s about solving real problems that change lives. With urgency and focus, this government proved that systems can change – and students can soar.

From Ambition to Action

All leaders rise to power with a vision for what they can accomplish once in position. Bridging the gap between intent and impact is not simply a matter of having the right policies or the most ambitious goals – it is about creating the conditions that allow those ambitions to be realised. It is about delivery. In the best cases:

• Leadership commitment provides the clarity and momentum needed to drive change, ensuring that those tasked with delivery remain focused and decisions are made with urgency.

• Dedicated delivery teams serve as the backbone of implementation, cutting through bureaucracy and maintaining progress even when senior leaders are pulled in other directions.

• Reliable data transform decision-making from guesswork to informed action, allowing leaders to track progress and adapt strategies in real time.

• A culture of problem-solving ensures that obstacles are anticipated and addressed head-on, rather than becoming barriers that slow down or derail progress.

• A relentless focus on results accelerates normal government operations from business-as-usual to transforming citizens’ lives in the digital age.

Where these conditions are present, governments can move quickly, solve challenges systematically, and deliver tangible results during their limited time in office. If a government can relentlessly prioritise delivery – committing to it day in, day out – its citizens will feel the benefit: real improvements to their education prospects, health outcomes and more.

Our Credentials

• Mary Dain is a TBI Senior Advisor for Delivery, with 20 years’ experience leading health delivery across Africa, India, Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Sameer Anwar is a TBI Senior Advisor for Delivery and has advised many heads of state and centres of governments globally on strategy, policy and delivery.