INNOVATION IN PUBLIC SECTOR
ORGANISATIONSDr. Jo CasebourneDirector of Public & Social Innovation
Why is public sector innovation important?
Photo: mattfred Photo: Mat Walker
Science systems are global & have large scale investment
Open innovation
Innovation in services
User innovationDesign led innovation
Data driven innovation
Market-driven innovation also global & helped by strong incentives
But no comparable model for public sector innovation
Leading to:• Top-down imposition of unproven new ideas, or• Creative but disorganised local innovation, or• Reliance on quasi-markets – but without the R&D
necessary for radical innovation as opposed to incremental improvement
The result: productivity stagnation in 45% of EU GDP
Recognition that most innovation funding gone to military & hardware…
Marksontok, CC BY 2.0
Not to most pressing economic, social & environmental challenges
Csjetruner, CC BY-NC 2.0
Fuersen, CC BY-NC 2.0 Monica McGivern, CC BY-NC 2.0Msmail, CC BY-NC 2.0
kevinkarnsfamily, CC BY-NC 2.0 Viewminder. CC BY-NC 2.0
To improve productivity and generate positive outcomes need to innovate
Innovation Social innovation Adoption of innovations that work
ccarlstead, CC BY-NC 2.0
ShawnOster , CC BY-NC 2.0
JKFID, CC BY 2.0
Fiery Spirits Community of Practice
MattjHerring, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Source: Rogers, E.M. (1963) ‘Iffusion of Innovators.’ Third ed., p.247. New York: Free Press.
Harnessing power of digital for social challenges
http://manuelherrador.blogspot.co.uk
How can we support public sector innovation?
Expectations on public services increasing
JodyDigger, CC BY-SA 2.0
urbantimes.co
HM Treasury, CC BY-SA 2.0
Why it’s hard Barriers• Departmental silos• Budgets and financial flows• Episodic - driven by politics• Lack of champions• Lack of dedicated budgets,
teams and processes• Targets and performance
management processes• Reward and incentive
systems• Attitude to risk and failure
limits experimentation
Complexity• Contradictory and
multifarious demands• Trade offs • Need to respond quickly• Transparency and
accountability• Need for security and
continuity
But conditions are ripe
• Economic: renewed incentives for efficiency as demand increased and public revenue falls
• Political: decentralised decision making and openness to new solutions
• Cultural: community, ethical consumption, collaboration, co-creation and partnership working
• Technological: enabling different relationships, interaction, participation
Evidence
Promoting public sector innovation
Adoption & Exit
Experiments
Scaling through: Regulation, Procurement, Commissioning, Investment
Structures & cultures: teams funds and labs, promoting risk, harnessing motivation
More & better ideas: ideas factories, open calls, prizes
Systems change
Structures and cultures
Designing teams, funds and labs
Transforming the processes, skills and culture of government
• Focus on transforming the way that government approaches innovation,
• Uses consultancy services and training, secondments and placements, to develop skills and mind-sets
• Educate and provide insights and knowledge needed to empower others inside government to innovate..
Achieving wider policy and systems change
• Focus on achieving wider policy and systems change and bringing about transformation,
• Look beyond specific interventions
• to the wider policy context and complex systems that need to change,
• Architects, creating the designs and blueprints that others can follow
Creating solutions to solve specific challenges (CEO)
• Focus on solving high priority problems, and developing usable and scalable solutions, Collaborate with colleagues in government agencies.
• Developers and creators of innovations.
Engaging citizens, non-profits and businesses to find new ideas
• Focus on opening up government to voices and ideas from outside the system,
• Open innovation and challenge-led approaches
• Strong communications and engagement strategies.
• Create conditions for innovations from outside government to thrive.
• that others can follow
4 types of
Promoting risk and making failure safe
Rain Rabbit, CC BY-NC 2.0
Supporting skills development
https://openworkshop.nesta.org.uk/
More and better ideas
TRIZ
Brainstorms
“The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away.”
menssanaresearch.com
Encouraging ideas
Dr Linus Pauling, American chemist and bio-chemist
22
Using ideas factories
http://ideafactory.com
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/6y5RfS-v3wo/maxresdefault.jpg
Using open calls
http://www.nesta.org.uk/project/innovation-giving-fund
Using prize competitions
Experiments
26
Design tools
By conducting rigorous experiments
Evidence
By making evidence useful
29
Standards of evidence
Adoption and Exit
Copying and adopting what works
31
http://allthingsd.com
Adoption of drugs by GPs
Research on championing the superadopters
Source: Thomas, E., Bennett, F. and Westlake, S. (2013) ‘In Search of the SuperAdopters: What Open Data tells us about GP Prescribing Practices.’ UK: Nesta
By decommissioning
J. M. W. Turner, The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838
Growing, scaling and spreading
Regulation - promoting spin-outs and using procurement for social outcomes
By using procurement
By using commissioning
Commissioning for outcomes
homeless.org.uk
Through crowdfunding
Peterborough Social Impact Bond launched 2011 with the goal of reducing reoffending amongst a 3000 cohort of male prisoners
Through Social Impact Bonds
http://www.socialfinance.org.uk
http://www.secondowelfare.it
Systems
New technologies, products and services
New policies and regulations
Recalibrated markets
Behavioural change, social
movements
Through whole system approaches
Photograph: Graphic, The Guardian
Learning how to change systems
Where next for public sector innovation?
Accelerating
Co-ordinating
Building capacitySpreading
Deepening
Where next?
Focus needs to be on…