Global: Innovation Portfolios

Have new technologies made you reconsider what you hold dear? Has change or innovation ever come into conflict, or sat uncomfortably, with your core values? Why is it that we as individuals can react negatively to things that are supposed to be beneficial? This post explore why different forms of innovation can spur different reactions from people, and what that might mean for practitioners seeking to introduce novel initiatives. We at OPSI think this is...

This post is a follow-on from our Part I post, which provided an overview of the design and development of our Innovation Portfolio Exploration workshop based on OPSI’s Innovation Facets model. Earlier this month, we facilitated a workshop with those from the public sector innovation ecosystem in Sweden. We were hosted by Vinnova, Sweden’s Innovation Agency. Vinnova invests 287 million euros annually in research and innovation projects across public, private, and academic sectors, especially…

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....

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...

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...

The third annual trends report by the OECD-OPSI and the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation (MBRCGI) presents a global review of the ways governments are transforming their operations and improving the lives of their people through innovation.

This blog also appeared on Apolitical Not too long ago, I moved from Sydney to Paris. No amount of book-learning could have prepared me for the rapidity of spoken Parisian French nor the sharp and shaming rebuke of unimpressed store clerks when my failure to communicate well held up the line. This isn’t to say I didn’t learn a few things before immigrating. Au contraire. Skilled in the way of Australian small talk, I was very...

With the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, OPSI reflects on mission-oriented innovation, in the context of its Innovation Facets model.

OPSI held its conference 'Innovation in Government: Steps, leaps and bounds' on the 19 and 20 of November 2018, convening leaders and innovators from around the world in Paris.

Christian bason, from the Danish Design Centre, critically engages with OPSI's new Innovation Facets model.