Most political leaders find a device to communicate their top priorities. Pledges, promises and missions can easily sound like portentous, but interchangeable ways, of reciting a to-do list.

Mission-driven government, however, has the potential to be a far more substantial concept. Indeed, with limited resources and huge challenges, the Prime Minister knows his only option is to change the way government works - as quickly and profoundly as he changed the Labour party. In particular, he has declared that the missions need to be ‘national missions' that galvanise all parts of society, local and national government, public and private sectors, and citizens and civil society.

The goals for each mission are national ones. However, they cannot be achieved without the contribution of local leaders

For that to become a reality, the new Government must get four things right. First, the missions must be genuinely strategic. While most Whitehall strategies often consist of lofty objectives with a list of initiatives brigaded under each goal, this must be different. A strategy involves a clear theory of change, underpinned by evidence and an attempt to quantify how much impact will be made by different policy changes.

But even more critical is to characterise what we do not know. There are so many uncertainties when developing a strategy to improve growth, expand opportunities or cut violence against women and girls. A good strategy involves identifying uncertainties and then finding the best way to resolve them – whether through prototyping ideas, running experiments or setting up challenge prizes and gathering feedback from citizens and experts.

Second, several missions – in particular those relating to health, education and crime – need to think about how to drive improvement in public services. The fastest route to progress will be to identify the outperforming schools and teachers or hospitals and doctors, use data to understand what might be driving this variation and then attempt to spread these innovations more widely across the country.

Adopting best practice is not a simple matter of sharing knowledge and ‘rolling out' changes – it is hugely challenging to shift the habits and practices of frontline practitioners. Scaling proven practices is a behavioural challenge which requires innovation in its own right.

Third, mission-driven government needs to push the frontier forward. The best current practices are often not as life-changing as we might hope, given the scale of the issues. New technology opens up the potential for more radical improvements. The route to more radical innovation is not through big-bang changes, or Horizon-style IT projects. Instead, we need to borrow from how the best technology companies are constantly tweaking and testing their products and services. What seems like incremental change often adds up through numerous iterations, to transformation.

Beyond public services when shaping economic development and net zero, government needs to solve the co-ordination problems that prevent investment in more innovative systems.

Net zero requires lots of companies to decide to invest together – putting in EV infrastructure is only economically viable if more EVs are sold and vice versa.

New renewable infrastructure often requires investment in ports and improved skills. Government needs to corral the key players in each sector and create a shared vision and plan, and then be prepared to de-risk investments, where necessary.

The goals for each mission are national ones. However, they cannot be achieved without the contribution of local leaders.

As combined authorities gain new powers over transport and skills, they will need to build the capability to align those functions behind a coherent vision and strategy for their area that plays to the comparative advantage of each city. Local authorities will need to build their capability to use data and run experiments as well as the hunger to learn and apply lessons from others.

But the biggest role for local leaders in shaping missions is in their role as convenors and coalition-builders. The power to shape each mission is highly distributed. Local leaders are critical in crafting a shared vision for the places they serve, one that inspires every part of society to contribute. This includes direct engagement with the public, particularly over potentially contentious changes to planning and housing or to achieve net zero.

Covid showed us what happens when there is an urgent imperative for change and national and local government work together on a shared priority. That same spirit is needed for each of Keir Starmer's missions.

Ravi Gurumurthy is chief executive of Nesta, the UK's innovation agency. He spoke at Local Government Association Conference session this week on what to expect from mission-driven government