In the last post in our innovation facets series, we looked at the particulars of enhancement-oriented innovation. In this post, we examine in detail the mission-oriented innovation facet – what it is, what role it plays, how to support it, and the key considerations. This post is us at OPSI “showing our work”, as this is still very much thinking that is evolving. Your feedback will help us in distilling the key messages, to ensure...
In our first two pieces looking at the innovation facets, we have described how each facet has different characteristics, and how different types of change are associated with different types of innovation. In this post, we dive into the specifics of the enhancement-oriented innovation facet – what it is, what role it plays, how to support it, and the key considerations. This post is us at OPSI “showing our work”, as this is still very...
When we opened up registration for our first webinar, we knew there was pent up demand to use different mediums to share OPSI’s knowledge, expertise, and thinking, but we were not sure if webinars were the right solution. After three webinars, 450 attendees from over 70 countries, and countless requests asking for the recording and presentations, we feel we are on the right track. Moving forward, we will be hosting webinars on a monthly basis....
In our post on innovation facets we outlined how innovation is not just one thing, but that there are different types of innovation that should be considered and appreciated in the public sector. We identified that different facets should be supported in different ways, in accordance with what they are most suited for. But before we dive further into the characteristics and strategies appropriate for each facet, in this post we’re going to explore some...
Yesterday, September 25th, OPSI Director Marco Daglio spoke at the 2nd annual Innova’ter in Paris. The conference highlighted the different challenges that local and regional public sector innovators face in France, and explored how to reinvent public service. During the day-long event, French innovators engaged with representatives of major players in the field of public sector innovation, including OPSI, Nesta, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) from the UK, the French 27ème region, and…
In our first visit to Brasilia in May, members of the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation team were on a journey of discovery to uncover the innovation context for the Public Service of Brazil. In our recent second visit, we dove deeper to get a better sense of the key characteristics and developments, and to gain insight into what the dynamics of the public sector innovation system are. To assist us in this process, this...
Due to demand from the innovation community, and to give more time for users who encountered technical issues, we have extended the deadline for the Call for Innovations until 5 October 2018. You may submit an innovation any time before the end of 5 October. We do not have a firm midnight deadline. As long as it is October 5th somewhere in the world, we will accept your innovation. The OECD Observatory of Public Sector...
This post is authored by OPSI team members Alex Roberts and Piret Tõnurist. We at the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation have discussions about public sector innovation every day. So, it can be surprising when we are asked, on a fairly regular basis, ‘what is innovation anyway?’ Of course it really should not be that much of a surprise. The word innovation gets thrown around a lot and is used to describe many things in...
Every now and again I see the claim that there’s too great a focus within innovation discussions on technology and tools, rather than on people and their needs. The argument runs that the specific technology is not what matters. Instead, attention should be paid to what is needed, and then technology options assessed by what they are able to deliver against those needs. The fear is that if the focus is on the technology then...
“We need more innovation!” It’s a phrase we hear a lot. Politicians, Ministers, Secretary Generals, organisational leaders, and middle managers – mostly everyone agrees that the public sector needs to increase innovation capacity. In response, most of our work at OPSI is geared towards improving, assisting or developing resources that help countries increase their innovation capacity. One of the quickest and most effective ways to see an immediate increase of innovation capacity is by…