Global: Innovative Capacity

This is a report from the Workshop ‘How might we approach transformational change for complex challenges in the future?’, held in London 30-31 August 2017. It provides 18 insights and considerations for playing the enabler, catalyst, and convenor roles in creating a mindset of long-termism.

Features: Guiding framework

Today, the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) is pleased to announce the release of The Innovation System of the Public Service of Canada, the first of the OECD’s reviews of a national public sector innovation system. The report was launched at a panel discussion at OPSI’s conference “Innovation in Government: Steps, Leaps and Bounds” with speakers including: Marco Daglio, Head of the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, OECD Rodney Ghali, Assistant Secretary of...

Governments require a systemic approach to public sector innovation to develop and deliver novel solutions that meet the existing and emergent needs of citizens. This report looks at the experience and context of the Public Service of Canada, where significant emphasis has been placed on innovation, and proposes a new public sector innovation system model to assist Canada and other countries.

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Experimentation Works (EW) is a Government-of-Canada initiative to build public servants’ capacity in experimentation skills and practice through a learning-by-doing model that supports and showcases 5 small-scale experiments in the open. EW seeks to generate practical examples of experiments and ensure open access to learning materials, progress updates and results for broad impact. It works by connecting project teams with each other, and with experts in a open-by-default “cohort model."

The case for public sector innovation has been steadily growing for years. Citizens’ expectations continue to grow and evolve, and governments need to rethink and re-imagine how they deliver value to citizens. These were some of the strongest underlying themes that arose in the discussions at OPSI’s 2017 Innovation Conference. To make this a reality, governments cannot afford for innovation capabilities to be exclusively in the hands of hired private sector consultants or a select...

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...

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...

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...

To meet public policy challenges – continued fiscal pressures, rising public expectations, more complex public policy issues – there is a fundamental need to increase the level of innovation within the public sector of OECD countries and EU states.