Si Governance Hub

We are really looking forward to hosting our first conference in London in just under two months focusing on systems innovation in the public sector in collaboration with Si London Hub. The lineup of speakers is taking shape, take a look at this slide to see who is coming. You can find full event info and booking here: https://lnkd.in/ezzistvx Mariell Juhlin Isaac Reilly Toby Lowe Rowan Conway Maarten Lens-FitzGerald Joss Colchester Florian Schwendinger Benjamin P. Taylor Karen den Hertog Louis Klein Dr Rachel Lilley John Mortimer Tim Hobbs About the event: Systems Innovation Public Sector Conference will be a unique in-person one-day gathering for systems thinkers, innovators, and change-makers in the public sector taking place in London on Feb 14th.     Through a combination of presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and open spaces hosted by people working on systems innovation in the public sector, the event offers the opportunity to connect, discuss, and learn about the state of systems innovation in government today. Who should join     The conference is for anyone working in or around government at all levels from local to national to international and across all departments for you to learn about a new set of ideas and approaches for tackling wicked challenges, while also making valuable new connections.     This event is hosted by the Si Governance and London hub as we believe these "systems approach" now offer huge potential for really changing the way we do things in the public sector at a scale relevant to the most significant challenges we face as civil servants.

A key skill of systems leadership in the public sector - when "confronted by radical uncertainty is to organize action around a reference narrative while still being open to both the possibility that this narrative is false and that alternative narratives might be relevant" Systems leadership in the public sector is one of the topics we are explaining in our hub: https://lnkd.in/e8y2_aMQ

The UK Government has put together a set of resources for civil servants to adopt and apply systems thinking their work, here they are: https://lnkd.in/esBWY6vj Why is systems thinking important for Civil Servants? Government faces many challenges. Some of these are simple, where the objectives are clear, stakeholders’ motivations align and possible solutions are relatively easily evaluated and implemented. However, many challenges, such as Levelling Up, can be difficult to define and understand, and ways of influencing them to improve outcomes are hard to design, evaluate and implement. Such challenges and opportunities involve many people and organisations with competing priorities and have a bearing on many adjacent policy areas. The success of an intervention often relies on collective action taken across boundaries. No single individual, agency or department can tackle a complex problem alone. Nor should they have to. Civil servants need different tools and approaches to deliver desired outcomes in these complex situations – a systems thinking approach. 

Moving from piecemeal cooperation to real systemic collaboration requires us to start to see the interdependencies, the networks that connect across and between public institutions - for us to evolve toward more networked forms of organizing. Graphic from Business Illustrator: https://lnkd.in/eapHyi_r

Innovation for place-based transformations https://lnkd.in/eb9ZYV39 Addressing complex challenges requires different tools, mindsets and approaches from those traditionally used, which contributed to create some of these challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, raising inequalities.  Innovation for place-based transformations. ACTIONbook, practices and tools is published by the Joint Research Centre and the European Committee of the Regions and is the result of a co-creative effort with territories, experts and policymakers. This report is a comprehensive hands-on resource set to empower local, regional and national stakeholders across Europe to drive societal well-being and climate-resilient development through strategic partnerships and purpose-driven actions. ‘Innovation for place-based transformations. ACTIONbook, practices and tools’ consists of three documents: the ACTIONbook, a collection of practices, and a set of tools. Came to use via Cristian Matti and Joss Colchester

What words do you associate with governance in complexity? An excerpt from this report introduces 'governance in complexity', an approach designed to respond to sustainability challenges by appreciating their uncertain and complex nature. Key principles underlined in this approach include experimentation, systems thinking, participation, precaution, anticipation, and care. You can find the paper produced by the European Environment Agency here: https://lnkd.in/eKNkf3yK.

This great graphic from Virpi Oinonen illustrates the illusions created by linear thinking in the public sector and the need to shift to a new paradigm that is more reflective of the reality of the messy challenges we have to work with. You can find this and more of Virpi's graphics here: https://lnkd.in/d_NR-JXU Mariana Mirabile Maarten Lens-FitzGerald Mariell Juhlin John Mortimer Benjamin P. Taylor

Great advice from Donella Meadows on how to overcome policy resistance to change...

People-centred and participatory policymaking - From Policy Lab UK The table below provides a summary of selected participatory methods, their value and current use in central government. https://lnkd.in/gahuS9YQ