As part of its public service innovation agenda, the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE) hosted a consultation with leading government practitioners of Social Innovation and Design Thinking in 2013. Attendees included delegates from member states such as Australia, Denmark, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Moldova, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the UK.

The consultation provided delegates with the opportunity to debate the potential, utility, and challenges in the context of service delivery and policy development and explore the question of how participating Government representatives and UNDP practitioners could adapt and apply these concepts to their area of work.

In order to ensure an experience-based facilitation and documentation of the event, the GCPSE commissioned Eden Strategy Institute to moderate the plenary sessions; conceptualize and deliver a familiarization breakout session; summarize the key messages and discussion outcomes at the closure of the event; and produce an Event Summary report after the sessions.

APPROACH

Following the opening address by the Director of the GCPSE, Eden conducted a bodystorming exercise with the delegates to visually identify their peers with varying levels of experience in Design Thinking and Social Innovation, as well as differing opinions towards approaching transformation in public service. This helped to familiarize the participants with each other, and spark off initial conversations that set a tone of collaboration for the rest of the consultation.

After a practitioner panel and policy note presentations on Social Innovation and Design Thinking, Eden facilitated a “Design Thinking Studio” with a lecture on the Design Thinking process, useful toolkits, and a prototyping challenge to provide hands-on experience for participants to practice Design Thinking in the policy and public service context. Teams introspected on their creative approach, collaboration levels, leadership styles, and analysis of design trade-offs.

On the second day, Eden brought participants through a “sense-making” session where delegates shared on their ecosystem developments, the levels of awareness of public service innovation in their respective countries, leadership, co-creation processes, and supporting infrastructure, in order to identify starting points to adapt and apply co-designed processes and innovative institutions. After forming an Innovator Support Network among the participants along key themes, participants went on a “Public Service Innovation Safari” visiting interesting installations such as Singapore’s NEWater visitor centre, the Civil Service College, and Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, and the Jurong Social Service Office to understand their novel approaches to public service delivery.

IMPACT

Participants gave feedback that they found the sessions refreshing as they might not otherwise immediately feel confident innovating when they returned to their offices, and were excited to apply these approaches to policy design to transform public service delivery around the world.