Lim Li Yi (Liz), Senior Manager, Youth Leadership & Engagement, National Youth Council (NYC), Singapore

1) What does public service mean to you? Can you share more about your role in the public sector?

There’s a saying that the world is divided into three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. 

Public service, to me, means choosing to be someone who makes things happen. 

As a youth engagement officer at the National Youth Council, it also means empowering young people to realise they can make things happen too. 

My role has largely been about translating national issues and policies into something youths can genuinely connect with, whether through inspiring dialogues, fun digital campaigns or conversation toolkits, that make participation feel more accessible and less intimidating. 

Ultimately, our work is about inspiring and creating access for more young people to step forward - not just to watch change happen, but to realise they can shape the society around them and become people who make things happen themselves. 

2) Tell us about a project you championed. What impact did it have on the community?

One project I’m particularly proud of was championing Civic Conversations Toolkits designed to help young people have meaningful conversations about sensitive topics such as race and religion.

These are issues many care about deeply but rarely discuss openly in everyday life. 

We realised that while many youths wanted to engage in these conversations, there were limited safe and structured spaces to do so. Youth leaders also shared that although they were keen to facilitate such discussions, they often lacked the frameworks and confidence to guide them. 

To address this, we developed a gamified toolkit in the form of interactive conversation cards and board game that schools, youth groups and community organisations could use to host their own dialogues. 

We designed it to avoid a top-down lecture, but something that lets participants learn from one another by sharing personal stories and perspectives in a safe, open way. 

What stayed with me most was how real the conversations got. People opened up about stories they had buried deep in the past, and we saw some getting emotional.

Even after the sessions ended, many continued talking, added each other on Instagram, and some even asked if they could come back as facilitators themselves. 

To date, the toolkits have reached over 5,000 youths. 

3) As a young professional, how has your unique background or perspective allowed you to identify a solution that others in your organisation might have overlooked?

Coming from a communications background, I naturally approach problems from the audience’s perspective first.

In my case, I’m also a youth (who scrolls TikTok daily) working in an organisation that engages youths, so I bring a lived understanding of what resonates on the ground. 

In many agencies, we can become too focused on what we want to say. My background taught me to flip that and ask: “How will people actually experience this?”

That helps me spot gaps where traditional engagement methods don’t land with younger audiences. 

Youths today are highly visual and community-driven. They expect authenticity and interaction, not just information. 

For example, we redesigned the participatory budgeting experience, where youths got to decide grants that youth-led ground-up initiatives received, from a pilot where 20 youth leaders listened to formal presentations before deciding on funding. 

We felt the format was quite one-way, so we turned it into a more interactive online-to-offline experience.

On-ground, over 300 youths explored booths where teams pitched their projects, asked questions, and had real-time conversations with the teams. We then brought decision-making online through a digital platform using “virtual currency,” which made the funding process more tangible and participatory.

We also enabled online voting for almost 2,000 youths who couldn’t attend physically. 

The shift made the experience more engaging, inclusive, and significantly widened youth participation. 

4) What is your personal strategy for maintaining your creative energy when faced with bureaucracy?

National Youth Council’s main mission is to partner young people in Singapore to hear their views, empower them to act on their passions and provide opportunities for them to have a stake in Singapore’s future. 

Luckily for me, I am a youth and our agency is true to its stated mission. Senior management actively follows through on the practice of listening to youths. 

My approach is to work with bureaucracy rather than against it. 

There's usually a middle ground where you can meet the agency's objectives and still create something that resonates with your audience. Constraints can actually push you to be more creative. 

And when I do get stuck, I go back to the youths themselves. When we're designing something meant for them, they're always willing to give guidance. 

Their input not only keeps us grounded, it gives us the confidence to push ideas forward. 

5) If you had just one area to invest in to accelerate transformation in the public sector (regulation, technology, talent, etc.), which one would you choose and why?

It's definitely talent for me. 

Technology and regulation matter, but they're only as good as the people driving them. 

I've had the chance to kickstart a few projects as a young public officer, and what made them possible was the space and encouragement to try something different. 

I think there's a lot of untapped creative energy within the public service.

If we can create the conditions for them to experiment and take risks without fear of failure, I can imagine a lot more good, innovative projects coming out of the government. 

6) What is your greatest ambition as you grow in your public service career?

My greatest ambition is honestly quite simple: to stay young and stay creative. 

I think as we grow in our careers, there's a natural pull towards doing things the way they've always been done.

It takes less energy, less risk. But I hope that even as I take on more responsibility, I never lose the joy of starting something new, of trying something that hasn't been done before. 

The projects I've kickstarted as a young officer have been some of the most meaningful parts of my career so far.

I want that curiosity and that willingness to experiment to still be there decades from now, even if burning late nights thinking about new ideas get harder. 

7) What is a “universal value” that connects everyone in your department – from interns to directors – and how do you use that to drive collaboration?

I think the universal value is openness.

At my agency, hierarchy is pretty flat. Ideas are heard regardless of where they come from, and if they don't move forward, there's always a reason given. That transparency makes a real difference. 

For me, that's what makes collaboration easier. When people know their voices actually count, they're more willing to contribute and take risks. 

8) What is the best piece of advice you’ve got for the next generation of public servants?

Many of us join agencies we're genuinely passionate about, and as public servants we're already in a position to create real change. 

My advice is simple: use that. It's easy to accept the way things have always been done, but if you see something that could be better, don't just let it pass. Think about how you'd fix it, and try. 

9) What is a myth you wish to debunk about young public servants?

I think this myth applies to young workers in general. Some think that we’re not in it for the long term, that we're just hopping from role to role. 

But I think that says more about environment than attitude. When young public servants get the chance to contribute to meaningful work and see the impact of what they do, the desire to stay is very much there. 

10) Write a letter to your future self in 2035. Please keep it within 200 words.

Dear future me, 

I hope the fire is still there. 

Not the burning late nights - those can go. But I hope you still get excited about new ideas, and that you're still willing to try something that hasn't been done before, even when sometimes it is easier to let it be. 

I hope you never forgot what it felt like to be a new public officer, sitting in a room wondering if your ideas were worth sharing.

I hope that memory has made you the kind of senior officer who makes others feel comfortable bringing their ideas forward, and when those ideas don't move ahead, that you always take the time to explain why. 

Stay curious. Stay open. And if you ever find yourself just watching things happen rather than making them happen… well, you'll know what to do. 

With love, 

Liz (2026)