On April 29, 2020 we held a webinar with a guest lecturer prof. Matthew Andrews from Harvard Kennedy School, addressing leadership challenges in public institutions that emerged during COVID-19 pandemic.

The webinar was attended by 56 experts, managers, and leaders from countries of South East Europe and beyond that work on the implementation of reforms at different levels in their countries and/or are facing the COVID-19 crisis-related challenges. We reflected on:

• factors that affect successful leadership in crisis response,
• the concept of multi-agent leadership,
• flat, fast and flexible organizational structure that is according to his research most suited for crisis response, and
• the question of growth and development after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prof. Andrews's research focus is primarily on public sector reform, with additional attention given to forging a theoretical understanding of the nontechnical factors influencing success in reform processes. He is also addressing leadership challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic in a series of blog posts: Public Leadership through Crisis. 

The webinar was part of our Leadership for managing reforms focus and we will look for additional opportunities to address these issues also in the future.