Blog

The Observatory of Public Sector Innovation team has been focused on a set of questions emerging from the Covid-19 crisis this year: how are governments around the world responding? What can we learn from responses and ideas? We would now like to turn attention to another question: what ideas are emerging? The government and civic communities quickly realized that this current shock to our systems would create a moment to rethink assumptions and – possibly...

Do you know about real-world cases and examples of innovation management? OPSI would like to hear from you. We are starting work with Vinnova, Sweden’s Innovation Agency to explore what good innovation management looks like in practice. We will take a systematic approach to understanding the role, nature, barriers, and enablers of innovation in an organisation. This means considering innovation activities within a wider context of (e.g., leadership, culture, processes, capabilities) rather…

This is our eighth update about innovative responses (including public sector innovation, digital government or open government) being undertaken around the world. Thank you again to all who have contributed in answer to our call and to our partners (including the Centre for Public Impact and GovInsider) for helping us to collect innovative practices. We hope that teams around the world can learn from each other and take inspiration from the…

Co-Design launch of Government After Shock  Last week, together with our partners at Cofluence, we launched the co-design process for the Government After Shock November event. Our vision for this event is not to be a traditional conference presented online, but rather, an opportunity to collaborate, promote global dialogue and use the crises we are experiencing across the world as an opportunity for change. It’s for this reason that co-design is at the heart of...

Recently, OPSI released its third Innovation Primer on Rules as Code (RaC) for public consultation. Cracking the Code: Rulemaking for humans and machines seeks to provide a clear, understandable introduction to an emerging and sometimes complex topic. It explores the concept’s potential and likely benefits, as well as its challenges and limitations. On Tuesday 16 June 2020, we, the authors, James Mohun and Alex Roberts, will host an informal online meet-up about the Primer. The...

This is our seventh update about innovative responses (including public sector innovation, digital government or open government) being undertaken around the world. Thank you again to all who have contributed in answer to our call and to our partners (including the Centre for Public Impact and GovInsider) for helping us to collect innovative practices. We hope that teams around the world can learn from each other and take inspiration from the information collected.…

Today we’re seeking your help in finalising our Rules as Code primer – “Cracking the code: Rulemaking for humans and machines”. We’re seeking feedback until 24 June, with the hope of finalising the report for release in late July or early August.  In November 2019, OPSI commenced work on a new Innovation Primer focused on the exciting concept of Rules as Code (RaC). At the time, we wrote that ‘Rules as Code presents a new approach to…

Guest blog from the Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group, School of Engineering & Innovation, The Open University (UK) Systems thinking in times of complex challenges The Covid-19 pandemic has shown what governments can do when faced with an existential threat: The climate and associated emergencies are existential threats. These will require even more of governments and of governance. Further, these new ways of governing are what is needed to enable governments to achieve real...

This is our sixth update about innovative responses (including public sector innovation, digital government or open government) being undertaken around the world. Thank you again to all who have contributed in answer to our call and to our partners (including the Centre for Public Impact and GovInsider) for helping us to collect innovative practices. We hope that teams around the world can learn from each other and take inspiration from the information collected.…

“We were trying to change the normal before the crisis – we don’t want to return to that normal” (Bruno Monteiro).  As witnessed by the growing collection in our innovative responses tracker, there is currently a surge of innovation going on in the public sector as governments adjust and adapt to the coronavirus crisis. Governments are faced with multiple dimensions of the crisis – health, economic, social – and novel responses are being tried and tested with…