Collaborative Design for Service and Policy in the Public Sector

Runa Sabroe, MindLab

Involving citizens in innovation

…is about finding ideas that have a better chance of working for them.

”You know the ministry from the inside and we see you as colleagues. You follow up after a while and ask how the implementation went, and if you can assist with anything to support that process further. That gives you credibility.”

Head of Division

Cross-public sector Ministries City of Odense Staff of 20 Core staff Seconded public servants Interns and student assistens Governance Board: Top executives Advisory Board: Academia, business,

practitioners

How might design become an accepted part of a policy environment?

Design

Challenging Reimagining problems & opportunities Human Understanding drivers of behaviour Experimental Prototyping as a vehicle for learning Concrete Visualising to enable cross-cutting dialogues

Why is design interesting

Analysis (Splitting)

Synthesis (Putting together)

•Rational •Logical •Deductive •Solutions •‘Thinking it through’ •Single discipline •Causality

•Emotional •Intuitive •Inductive •Paradigms, platforms •Rapid prototyping (thinking through doing) •Multiple disciplines •Impact

What is going on out there?

And what does it imply?

Play it out rehearsing the future

Authorities Services

Regulation Funding

Citizens

CITIZENS (outcomes)

Family, friends, network

Other public actors

Business, NGOs, civic

society

Our own Authority

CASE

LONG-TERM CHANGE VIA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

The service journey... ...and points of pain.

CASE

CHOOSING A BUSINESS CODE

Why? 20 – 35% errors in business code registration Bad data quality is a problem for various gov. bodies + 10.000 phone calls a year is expensive

Solution: from confusion to clarity when registering a new business

1:21 Every $ spent on the new solution comes back 21 times in benefits

4,5 mio. $

Saved in 4 years

20:000 $

DST uses in 3 years 20:000 $ handeling phones and mails.

CASE

FROM DIGITALLY INCOMPETENT TO DIGITALLY SELF RELIANT

Critcal steps from 1st to 3rd generation...

First generation Creative platform

Second generation Innovation unit

Third generation Change partner

Process People Capacity focus Tools Management Main role of design Key challenge

Focus on ideation Employee-oriented Training and facilitation Creativity tools; emphasis on individual coaching etc Management not involved Graphic design Buy-in to new ways of working

Focus on value-creation User-centred Innovation projects Research, project, facilitation tools;involvement of teams Management passively supportive Interaction design, service design Integration of innovation processes

Focus on change agenda User and organisation-centred Core business transformation Co-creation through professional empathy & rehearsing the future Management actively involved Systems design, organisation design, managing as designing Adopting new narrative in the organisation

Internal

External

Central State Policy

Decentral Local Service

Positioning design

From random innovation to a conscious and systematic approach to public sector renewal From managing human resources to building innovation capacity at all levels of government From running tasks and projects to orchestrating processes of co-creation, creating new solutions with people, not for them From administrating public organisations to courageously leading innovation across and beyond the public sector.

Do´s and Don’t´s

The way forward: 4 principles

Recognise that no public policy arrives on a “ground zero” Other actors and contexts are always part of the picture Understanding people’s behaviour in practice is key to good policy design Policy that works is best (co)-created through systematic experimentation

www.mind-lab.dk/en