All models are wrong, but some are useful Over the last few months, OPSI has been testing a model for public sector innovation based on our experiences with system-level studies in Canada and Brazil. As the field of public sector innovation grows and diversifies, we need a more nuanced understanding of its purposes and mechanisms for its stewardship. The multi-faceted innovation model provides a common language and a way to contextualise the purpose of innovation....
The annual meeting of the Mission-Oriented Innovation Network (MOIN) chaired by Prof. Mariana Mazzucato and Prof. Rainer Kattel took place at the Rockerfeller Foundation’s Bellagio Centre between March 27-29, 2019. In the picturesque setting by Lake Como, over 20 organisations worked on various aspects of mission-oriented innovation including evaluation and assessment, tools and methods to deliver on missions. I represented OPSI, as lead on systems thinking and anticipatory governance and my…
From the 11 to 13 of March, OPSI travelled to Israel to interview high-level leaders from across the public sector to understand the Israeli context for innovation better. “This trip was our first foray into this fascinating place, a short scan of how the public service operates. Israel has such diverse communities. Just how vastly different “innovation” looks to each community is the thing that really stood out to me’, said OPSI Analyst Kevin Richman....
If you do not name a thing, how can you talk about it? If you avoid a word, what do you miss out on? In some recent discussions, some members of the OPSI team were talking with people from one jurisdiction about how the word “innovation” did not seem to be that commonplace in their context. It seems that as a word, innovation had gone through a period of heavy (over?) usage and was now...
UPDATE: There is still time for you to share your Social Policy Innovation Story! The deadline for the Call for Innovations in Stakeholder Engagement for Social Policy Development is now 12 April 2019. With public trust in government deteriorating across many countries, the push to put people at the heart of policymaking is on the rise across the globe. And politicians are listening. The OECD is calling on public servants and their partners in civil...
With these words Dennis Snower, President of the Global Solutions Initiative, helped capture the essence of the 2019 Global Solutions Summit held in Berlin. “The world need not be this way.” A simple statement of fact, but also a powerful challenge. A provocation that things could (and often should) be different. It is also an invitation – that we can each help shape a new state of affairs. The event, on 18 and 19 March,...
You’re invited to OPSI’s next webinar, on the topic of global trends in public sector innovation. Members of the OPSI team will be joined on the webinar by a colleague from the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation (MBRCGI). As you may have seen, OPSI and the MBRCGI recently launched Embracing Innovation in Government: Global Trends 2019, the culmination of the third year of an ongoing partnership. In the webinar, we’ll walk you through…
Abraham Maslow once wrote, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”[1] This snappy quote captures the insight that our behaviour tends to be shaped by the tools we have at hand, and the tools we have at hand shape how we see the world and what is possible. In this post, I would like to explore our emerging thinking...
This guest post is written by Leeanne Douglas from BizLab within the Australian Government. We have learned lots of lessons running the first human centred design academy in the Australian Government. It has been a bit of trial and error for us, so we thought we would share a few things that might help others in the same position. BizLab, an innovation hub within Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, was established in 2016....
A reflection on a workshop co-designed with Piret Tõnurist and Kevin Richman as part of a programme led by Piret Tõnurist. Building on OPSI’s ongoing systems work, including in Scotland, Finland, and Slovenia, the team travelled to Estonia to learn about their policymaking approach and design a custom workshop module to build capacity around systems-thinking. I am sharing the tools and materials here in case others find them useful. This session comprised a module in a...