“It’s nice in principle, but where do we start?” In our collaboration with countries, this is a question we often encountered in relation to the application of the OECD Declaration on Public Sector Innovation. We learned that identifying the first step is often the hardest. In response, the OECD Innovation Playbook 1.0 was launched in 2022, offering public officials and managers a solid starting point to apply these principles effectively. Today, we’re excited to introduce...
Posts on Innovation Tools & Resources
We are on the lookout for game-changing, freely available toolkits that can ignite innovative thinking and drive progress in governments worldwide. As the hosts of OECD Toolkit Navigator, one of the world’s largest compendia of public sector innovation toolkits, we’re excited to collaborate with you to identify fresh, forward-thinking resources to support governments and public servants in the design and delivery of better policies and services. Five minutes – that’s all it…
Decision-makers and experts frequently express an unmet need for resources to help them better perceive, make sense of, and act upon future changes as they are emerging in the present. But, how do we get started with creating something new that responds to the future as it’s shaping up around us? That process of generating novel initiatives that take the future into account is what we mean by “anticipatory innovation”. To make the journey easier,...
Authors: Christina Vogt and Martin Ruebens (INO – Flemish Public Sector Innovation Network), Patricia Idsinga and Frits Bussemaker (RIC – Dutch Government Innovation Community), Laurien Mues (NIDO – Belgian federal government innovation lab), Tom Van Nieuwenhove (City of Ghent) In the course of the 2021 Creative Bureacracy Festival, five community builders from four north-west European public sector innovation networks (PSIN) came together to discuss their experiences, hopes as…
Mission-oriented innovation helps the public sector direct innovation towards grand societal challenges. In the face of today’s wicked problems – from plastic pollution to rising inequalities – interest in mission-oriented innovation is growing across OECD countries and beyond. We invited organisations to a simulation to test mission-based approaches on the complex issues they work on. Since late 2020, the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation has partnered with the UCL Institute…
How do you coordinate and convene a public sector innovation network? How do you connect people whose common interest is difference? Recently, we started to compile a catalogue of public sector innovation networks from around the world, in recognition of the important and valuable role that such networks can play. There are quite a number now, and in response to questions from some of the coordinators of the networks, we decided to hold a meet-up...
Christian Bason, Ph.D., is the CEO of the Danish Design Centre Editor’s note: The OPSI has partnered with the Danish Design Centre to further explore the application of tools and methods to public sector challenges. This article explores the varied spectrum of design disciplines and practices and provides guidance on how to choose the best design method, drawing from the diversity of design toolkits in the OPSI Toolkit Navigator. It also signals what is next...
Asking people to do things or think differently is not always welcome. In the public sector, new things are often (or can seem to be) in competition with existing work or priorities. This is one reason why we at OPSI strongly support public sector innovation networks (and communities or practice / forums / etc.). They can be valuable means to connect with like-minded others who you can learn from, share with and sometimes just vent to...
Since the launch of the Toolkit Navigator in November 2018, we have maintained it as a live and continuously growing resource and built up an active community of fellow tool and method experts and enthusiasts. In addition to adding new toolkits, including many submitted by our community, as well as encouraging reviews of existing toolkits from practitioners who have experience with the toolkits, we look forward to Toolkit Navigator enhancements in 2021. We are happy...
Many of you working in the public sector may want to prepare for uncertainty, or set up a future-oriented vision in your organisation. Many of you may have heard of anticipatory innovation or have engaged in foresight activities, but the sheer flurry of methodologies and tools in this space can be disorientating – and they may seem to require special abilities if you are not used to apply them. For this reason, OPSI and LabX...