Design the regulator the mandate needs

Anissa Levy · 19 October 2026 · Part 1 of 3: Design. Transform. Assure.

Regulators invest heavily in change: new strategies, new systems, new structures. Yet the same problems in decisions and performance often come back. When an issue recurs, the usual response is another procedure, more training or another control. Sometimes that helps. Often the cause sits elsewhere in the system.

In my experience leading and advising regulators, one reason is that reform tends to start with initiatives, before anyone has agreed what the regulator needs to become. Each initiative has its own owner and timetable, dependencies go unresolved, and staff experience continual change while decisions and outcomes improve little.

That is why my approach starts with design, and one question:

What regulator do we need to achieve our intended public outcomes?

Start with the mandate

Good design starts with the mandate. The question is how each part of the regulator works together to deliver its purpose and intended public outcomes. That means looking at:

• The regulatory operating model, connecting purpose with how the organisation works, from strategy and governance to capability, systems, engagement and resourcing.
• Governance arrangements: who has authority, how decisions are made and how the regulator is held accountable.
• Core regulatory functions: the functions the mandate requires, and how they work together.
• Enabling functions: deliberately designed support, capability and assurance that make regulatory delivery work.
• Bringing functions together into one coherent regulator, with clear accountability and shared capability.

Design gives reform a direction

Get the design right and transformation has a direction: every initiative can be tested against the regulator you are trying to become. Skip it, and even well-intended change can pull in different directions.

This applies whether you are establishing a new regulator, bringing dispersed functions together, or reshaping an established regulator after a review.

Design is the first of three connected dimensions in my integrated approach for modern, trusted regulators: Design. Transform. Assure. Good design sets direction. Transformation makes it happen. Assurance helps us learn and improve.

Next in the series: Transform: one coherent roadmap to the regulator you need.

Stop fixing symptoms. Start fixing systems.