This blog was co-authored with former OPSI intern, Théo Bourgery “What does innovation mean to you?” This is a common topic when you speak to public servants about innovation – what is it really about, what does it really mean. And it is always interesting to hear the different views and perspectives, and the degree to which the answers vary. Yet these differences in opinion are not mere curiosities – they matter and can have...
Wouldn’t it be great if you could play games at work? Sorry, I meant, wouldn’t it be great if you could play games at work and learn new skills at the same time? Here at the Observatory we’re interested in finding out more about how playing games can help public servants learn new ways of thinking and doing things. As part of our innovation lifecycle work, we want to better understand how to support public...
The OECD’s OPSI and our partners at the European Commission are excited to convene innovators from around the world for a conference on “Innovation in Government: The New Normal” on 20-21 November 2017 a the OECD Conference Centre in Paris, France. We’re lining up a lot of fantastic speakers – would you like to be one? Interested in sharing the event with your friends? Feel free to share this page or download the flyer. Innovation...
This blog was authored by former OPSI Policy Analyst, Matt Kerlogue In my previous blog post, I set out the OPSI’s beta model of skills for public sector innovation, structured around six skill areas: iteration, data literacy, user centricity, curiosity, storytelling and insurgency. But providing an outline and description of these six areas is hardly sufficient to enable the uptake of these skills. Our work to develop the skills model, alongside the Observatory’s wider work...
We here at OPSI recognise the value of celebrating innovation, regardless of whether the innovations are great successes or whether they are failures that we can all learn from. An increasingly popular way to celebrate innovation is through awards that can provide well-deserved recognition for innovative teams and projects, and sometimes even funding to help take innovations to the next level. They’re great for surfacing examples and for inspiring others but they can also leave...
This blog was co-authored by Justin W. Cook On the 28th of February, policy makers, systems thinkers, designers, academics and others convened in Paris for an all day workshop discussing new ways to address public challenges marked by complexity and ambiguity inherent to many policy fields today. This deep look at uncertainty sits in the context of OECD’s efforts to adapt its advisory capacity and develop new approaches to respond to these changing circumstances. In...
GPS system came out of the US Defence Department. Same as ARPANET, the basis of the modern Internet. NASA scientists put the man on the moon. Point here? Public sector innovation does not happen by itself but grows out of people and organisations (and their rules) which made inventions possible. This is the point of departure of a recent report Fostering innovation in the public sector we have produced which explores the role that central government functions...
Have you ever heard the warnings “we shouldn’t innovate for the sake of it” and “innovation isn’t an end in itself”? In this somewhat contrarian post I’d like to suggest a different perspective, one that argues that innovation for its own sake is both: a) quite uncommon, as innovation usually serves a number of purposes, even if they are not always explicit; and b) not something to worry about even when/if it does happen, and...
The case for innovation in the public sector is well known, but despite being on the agenda of governments for much of the past decade it often remains limited to small teams, scattered activities and/or high profile projects. Often these teams and projects involve external innovators and specialists being brought in to government to work on key projects. While governments will still need the expertise of external specialists – to ensure they maintain access to...
This blog was authored by guest blogger, Benjamin Kumpf Policy Specialist, Innovation, United Nations Development Programme “We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we make progress.” Richard Feynman, Noble Prize winning physicist, emphasized this paradigm as guiding principle for work in natural sciences. Based on what we have learned over the last three years in the Innovation Facility in the United Nations Development Programme…