Global: European Commission Collaboration

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...

In the lead up to Government After Shock we undertook a number of interviews with a range of leaders and practitioners to hear about perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic and what the associated crisis was revealing. The culminating event of Government After Shock was part of our collaboration with the European Commission through the H2020 programme, and these interviews helped provide us with a richer understanding of how innovation works in practice, with the crisis...

With over 60 confirmed events happening on (or just before) the 17th of November and a distinguished line up of participants on the 18th of November, Government After Shock is shaping up to be one of the biggest international gatherings to explore the implications of the crisis for governments.  This event is an important opportunity to take stock. From early on in the year, we saw the hard work being done by different public services…

Convening intentional conversations on crisis implications The crisis of this year has required governments at all levels around the world to respond and adapt. The COVID-19 crisis is unique in the sense that, while many individuals, communities and countries have suffered disproportionate impacts, there has also been a global, collective impact that has spared no one. There has been a terrible shock, one whose aftereffects will continue to be felt for some time. It is...

The last few months have been a period of immense growth and learning, personally and within governments and organisations. This crisis has demonstrated an overwhelming need, opportunity and business case for why innovation is essential and possible in government. We have collectively experienced a terrible shock – and while the crisis continues and evolves, we need to make sense of that shock, to understand how we need to change and adapt to a world that will never be…

Recently I posted about a sensemaking project to collect, curate, and provide tools to understand and contextualize the many ideas emerging from the COVID-19 crisis. Over the past months, there has been a deluge of articles taking the form “COVID-19 urgently proves the need for X,” where X is an investment, approach, program, policy, or complete paradigm shift. Which we think is a genuine and needed examination. “William Hynes, Head of the New Approaches to...

Tobacco use is extremely harmful to health and its illicit trade causes billions in tax revenue losses each year. The EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) provides for the establishment of a tracking and tracing system that enables the authorities to follow the movements of every packet of the 26 billion or more sold or produced in the EU, along every step of the supply chain, via real-time reporting by industry. The system is a tool for authorities in implementing their tobacco control policy.

If there’s one thing that I can promise about the year 2020 – and given the past few months of unpredictability, it will probably be only one thing – it is that there is going to be a LOT said about this year. We’ve all experienced a big shock that has upturned our lives and there’s certainly a lot to talk about.  A big part of these conversations will be to do with governments, their role, what they did well, what they might have…

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...

We are taking OPSI’s portfolio exploration and assessment support into the virtual realm. We are asking for 20-30 minutes of your time to share initial thoughts and feedback on our first draft of questions for exploring:   The way your organisation’s innovation portfolio is oriented  Your organisation’s overall portfolio management capability   Following the set of questions, there is an example output based on hypothetical inputs. We…