Public Service Archives - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/tag/public-service/ Tue, 09 Dec 2025 15:45:29 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 From Recommendations to Real Change: How the Innovation Booster Helps Public Servants Transform Services  https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/from-recommendations-to-real-change-how-the-innovation-booster-helps-public-servants-transform-services/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/from-recommendations-to-real-change-how-the-innovation-booster-helps-public-servants-transform-services/#respond Tue, 09 Dec 2025 15:45:22 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=45089 A challenge every government faces  Every citizen has a story about a time when public services felt distant, bureaucratic, or designed for the system rather than for them. We’ve all been there — facing a form we can’t understand, an office we can’t access, or a process that seems to serve itself rather than its purpose.  Governments across the OECD know this too. That is why, one year ago, OECD countries came together to adopt the Recommendation on Human-Centred Public Administrative Services. Its ambition...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/from-recommendations-to-real-change-how-the-innovation-booster-helps-public-servants-transform-services/feed/ 0 The Devious Dozen: 12 fallacies behind innovation lab “failures” https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/12-fallacies-innovation-labs/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/12-fallacies-innovation-labs/#respond Mon, 13 May 2024 15:03:34 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=42857 Times are tough. Governments across the globe need to find ways to keep up with ever-faster changing times, move beyond the constraints of traditional approaches, and leverage innovation to improve public policies and services. One way many governments have sought to advance innovation was by establishing public sector innovation labs over the past 20 years or so. In our first post we outlined the main purposes and learnings of public innovation labs. In this post,...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/12-fallacies-innovation-labs/feed/ 0 Is innovation the natural habitat of a risk manager? https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/is-innovation-the-natural-habitat-of-a-risk-manager/ Thu, 25 Apr 2024 09:11:20 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=42654 As Head of Nido, I am constantly looking to stimulate civil servants to innovate faster and smarter. I thrive on calculated risks, ones that we have dissected and are thoroughly understood. Unforeseen mishaps are not my cup of tea. This inclination can be traced back to my previous role as an Internal Control Manager (risk manager). This experience provided invaluable insights into how an organisation structures its aspirations and operations. The public sector is traditionally...

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]]> What does it take to set up and run government communities of practice for anticipation and foresight? Part 1 https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/what-does-it-take-to-set-up-and-run-government-communities-of-practice-for-anticipation-and-foresight-part-1/ Wed, 13 Sep 2023 12:13:21 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=38276 This is Part 1 of a bolg series on Government Communities of Practice for Innovation, in which we will explore the existing research and international examples and identify the factors and start-up practices that are likely to catalyse new ideas and embed innovation in organisations and institutions. Read Part 2: “Engage, test, refine – and repeat: Designing and piloting a community of practice in Ireland“. Government communities of practice are not new. There are countless...

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]]> One must be an elephant to work in an innovation lab https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/one-must-be-an-elephant-to-work-in-an-innovation-lab/ Tue, 06 Dec 2022 08:19:32 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=35607 Looking back, this last year has once again been very challenging yet ambitious for Nido, the innovation lab for the Belgian public sector. We have racked up a number of successful and exciting achievements. Yet getting there in the face of a tenacious status quo has, all too often, required a Herculean effort from our staff. This made me reflect on how the lab and its staff should best act and react in order to move...

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]]> Designing a Public Sector Innovation Master Course https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/public-sector-innovation-master-course/ Tue, 29 Nov 2022 08:15:24 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=35560 Public sector innovation is on the rise, in classrooms and outside. As a researcher, lecturer and ex- practitioner of public sector innovation, I was pleased to deliver an executive course on Innovation and Transformation in Government as part of Brazil`s National School of Public Administration (ENAP) Masters in Public Policy. In this blog, I will reflect my experience on the course design and delivery as well as on how OECD and OPSI tools have helped...

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]]> Independent Demonstration Projects: A bottom-up strategy for innovation https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/independent-demonstration-projects-a-bottom-up-strategy-for-innovation/ Tue, 07 Jun 2022 15:38:37 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=31274 The standard advice for government innovators is:             “First make sure you have the support of agency leaders.” That’s like advising soldiers:             “First make sure the enemy has run out of ammunition.” It would be great, but if you wait for it to happen then you may never act. The Independent Demonstration Project is a strategy to innovate in government without prior approval of officials. The innovator implements their idea as a minimum viable...

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]]> Remembering the ‘why’ of innovation https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/remembering-the-why-of-innovation/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/remembering-the-why-of-innovation/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2021 09:17:04 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=26369 “We create and re-create narratives throughout our lives to make sense of what happened, to process experience, to interpret and reinterpret our view of the world as life unfolds. I believe that beautiful and difficult process is what it is to be human.” Lauren Oakes For me, significant transitions in life prompt such introspection and recreation of narratives – to reflect on key moments that have shaped who I am and how I think. Recently,...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/remembering-the-why-of-innovation/feed/ 13 Launch of Rules as Code forum for government officials https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/launch-of-rules-as-code-forum-for-government-officials/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/launch-of-rules-as-code-forum-for-government-officials/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2021 12:38:25 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=23455 Last week, the OPSI hosted a Rules as Code meet-up for government and inter-governmental organisation (IGO) officials. The meet-up was the first of several that the OPSI intends to host in support of a growing movement in public administration inspired by the promise of Rules as Code (RaC). We at OPSI believe in the promise of RaC as an emergent approach, something we explored in our RaC primer. We think that this is something which...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/launch-of-rules-as-code-forum-for-government-officials/feed/ 1 World Government Summit at Expo 2020 Dubai dates announced https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/world-government-summit-at-expo-2020-dubai-dates-announced/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/world-government-summit-at-expo-2020-dubai-dates-announced/#comments Wed, 03 Jul 2019 12:51:38 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=11783 Official dates for the next edition of the World Government Summit at Expo 2020 Dubai have been announced. It will take place in November 22-25, 2020. The event is a four-day summit that will gather over 10,000 high-profile officials, 30 international organisations and 600 experts and scholars. The World Government Summit– Expo 2020 will present new platforms and exceptional ideas to foster forward-looking government culture on a global scale. It will also offer the world’s...

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