How do you scale up and sustain design thinking initiatives and solutions in the public sector?

In the public sector, especially for organisations that are looking into strategy to overcome challenges over the next 3-5 years- we apply the Design Thinking methodology that really support strategy. Strategy Thinking is based on 5 steps: Diagnose- Understand the trends / context & landscape Frame and Forecast- Frame the challenge and forecast the situation Strategize- Strategize ways to overcome challenge Decide- Decide and evaluate the right strategy Implement- Implement strategy and evaluate success This framework will help to scale up strategic goals in the public sector.

Public Sector has a unique set-up unlike Private sector, where we could easily define a business case it's not that straight forward in a public sector. At times the strategic goals and priorities of the organization might not be aligned or it's off-tangent. We might need to conduct a Strategy Audit to cascade their initiatives and how it hones to their Organization goals and priorities. Upon doing the Cascading we might get signs of opportunity on where are we suppose to align the Strategic Goals using Design Thinking.

?? Identify Priorities: Clearly understand the strategic goals of the public sector organization and ensure that design thinking initiatives are aligned with these priorities. This helps secure buy-in from leadership and ensures resources are allocated effectively. ?? Integrate into Planning: Embed design thinking into the strategic planning processes, making it a core component of problem-solving and innovation. This integration helps in prioritizing initiatives that contribute to long-term goals. ?? Showcase Alignment: Continuously communicate how design thinking projects support the achievement of strategic goals. Use data and case studies to demonstrate the impact of these initiatives on organizational objectives.

Unlike many other approaches, you don't need a SMART goal to start design thinking process. The good point of using design thinking is to discover what goals are worth solving. You can start with an overall theme eg. Improving bus commuting experience, reduce pickpockets in the local community. So be open for possibilities!

Scaling up and sustaining design thinking initiatives and solutions in the public sector requires a strategic approach that addresses the unique challenges and constraints of government organizations. Here are some key strategies to achieve this: Build Leadership Support: Secure buy-in and support from senior leadership within government agencies by demonstrating the value and potential impact of design thinking on improving public services and outcomes. Engage leaders in design thinking workshops, presentations, and pilot projects to showcase its benefits firsthand.

Fostering a Culture of Innovation in a Public Sector is not an easy task. We need to have a strong Leadership who can bring change to the team. We need to inculcate a different mindset to foster Innovation. To begin with the Mindset of "Ok To Fail" . Is the Public Sector ready for this? That's why it's an uphill battle. At times the politics in the Public Sector, doesn't allow this to happen. Unless and until we have a strong Leadership, it's a difficult task.

Sometimes the concept of innovation can actually create fear in those who hold the purse strings or make decisions. It's often thought to be costly or to involve transformations that will be disruptive to the status quo. It's fine to explain that innovation can be iterative. Start with the small changes until they feel more confident about it, then work your way up.

What does your team do when the bosses aren't looking? Are they improving current internal / public-facing processes? Are they speaking with the communities to empathize? Are they generating new ideas to solve diff problems? Are they testing ideas with the communities? Are they investigating bottlenecks to great public service experience? ↑ Are they doing these without being told to do them? ?? If yes you have a strong innovation culture.

Fostering a culture of innovation is crucial to scale up design thinking initiatives in the public sector. This can be achieved by 1. Having leadership which is committed to design thinking. 2. Building and training the core team with the relevant skills 3. Creating a structured process which can be followed across various initiatives across departments 4. Use the right toolkits and resources. 5. Involve all stakeholders in the process creating a sense of co-creation and transparency. 6. Measuring the Impact created through these activities 7. Encouraging this by reward through recognition programs and incentivisation.

Creating an environment that encourages innovation is crucial for sustaining design thinking in the public sector. ? Build Capacity: Invest in training programs and workshops to build skills in design thinking among employees. Encourage cross-functional teams to collaborate and share knowledge. ? Encourage Experimentation: Promote a culture where employees feel safe to experiment and take calculated risks. Recognize and reward innovative thinking and solutions, even if they fail initially. ? Leadership Support: Ensure that leadership actively supports and participates in design thinking initiatives. Leaders should model innovative behaviors and provide the necessary resources and autonomy for teams to innovate.

Collective imagination practice is a great way of fostering trust and gaining grass roots insight into the problems you're trying to solve as an organisation, from the perspective and PRIORITY of stakeholders. As a collective you use a range of exercises to imagine what the future solution could look like. You then reverse engineer to a starting point that provides 'quick wins' then iterate and build upon those wins; getting you closer to the desired outcome for both stakeholder and organisation.

Here is where things becomes sticky. Engaging stakeholders in the Public Sectors that has too many red tapes and protocols can be really messy. In certain Public Sector set-up, this need to be done tactfully. Before bringing in the customers, employees and other stakeholders, we need to ensure legally everything is taken care of. Communicate well in advance with all the top leadership, so that we get buy-in before starting any projects. We don't want anyone to pull out the plug, in the midst of engaging the stakeholders and users.

Successful design thinking initiatives rely on meaningful engagement with stakeholders and end users. ?? Engage key stakeholders, including policymakers, community members, and other relevant parties, early in the design process. This ensures that their needs and perspectives are considered and that there is buy-in for the solutions developed. ?? Involve end users in the design process through co-creation workshops, interviews, and testing. This user-centered approach helps create solutions that are practical and relevant to those who will be using them. ?? Keep lines of communication open throughout the project lifecycle. Provide regular updates, gather feedback, and adjust initiatives based on stakeholder and user input.

Use co-creation to involve citizens and community leaders in the process of developing new public services and policies. It can be as small as polls or as organized as a workshop. I don't see politicians doing this often, but those few that I've seen doing it are able to engage, align, get buy-in, build trust (and therefore political influence) with their stakeholders.

If you want to engage with a sustainable, you'll first need to prove your frameworks' value. The 1st step will be to educate your stakeholders on how it can lead to more effective and efficient services, better user satisfaction, and, ultimately, better products. The next step is to link the framework with your organization's vision. Think about how and where it's better to fit—this is not an initiative but a revolution! You want your organization to make it part of its core. Finally, prioritize. Look at your projects and find the ones that will most benefit from your new approach. You want to make a big impact!

Ongoing evaluation & learning are vital for sustaining and scaling design thinking initiatives ?? Develop clear metrics to evaluate the success of design thinking projects. This could include user satisfaction, efficiency gains, or improvements in service delivery. Use these metrics to assess the effectiveness and impact of initiatives. ?? Foster a culture of continuous improvement by regularly reviewing what worked and what didn’t. Use these insights to refine processes, tools, and methods. ?? Create a knowledge-sharing platform or repository where insights, lessons learned, and best practices are documented and made accessible to others in the organization. This promotes learning and helps scale successful initiatives across departments.

If there's one thing public sector can take away using design thinking to improve public services - it's the ability to create highly iterative feedback loop between citizens and authorities. Empathize, build, deploy, repeat. This is what gets MPs the votes they need.

Design thinking, innovation and problem solving need to be embedded within the organisational culture. In the same way as health & safety is everyone's role, so should creativity and reflection be.

Evaluating and learning from your design thinking initiatives in the public sector is crucial. Measure impact, use data to validate assumptions, and continuously adapt solutions based on user needs and changing contexts. How do you ensure continuous improvement and adaptability in your projects by leveraging lessons learned and data-driven insights?

One thing I've found helpful, is that we need to evaluate and learn fast. We don't even wait until the midway. It's important to make mistake and learn faster. In order to do that we need to push the Prototype as soon as possible. There are a lot of people who are stuck in the research part. And that is actually time consuming. Conducting a Field Research will speed up the process and make you get into the Prototyping faster. Doing it in a structured manner is crucial and don't get stuck with perfection.

Design thinking in public sector is more challenging than private sector due to scale and complexity, and 'doing well by doing good' is the mantra, so... 1) Enhance cross-departmental collaboration to break down prevalent silos. 2) Gain high-level government support for commitment and resources. 3) Develop solutions attuned to the varied public needs, involving more stakeholders than in the private sector. 4) Provide specialized training for civil servants on public service design. 5) Encourage community participation for inclusive, democratic solutions. 6) Continuously reassess and modify initiatives to stay in sync with evolving public policies, a unique aspect of the public sector's dynamic nature.

I often see a challenge in implementing design thinking for public services - mainly because city councils and other govt agencies fail to recognize that lots of their public-related issues are wicked problems and are systemic. So they implement incremental improvement on systemic problems - the problem would then become worse or moves to other parts. There are lots of opportunities to innovate and make nations a better place to live.

To scale up and sustain design thinking initiatives in the public sector, you need to secure leadership buy-in and establish cross-functional teams to champion the process. By developing clear frameworks and training programs, you can embed design thinking into the organisational culture. Continuously gathering feedback, measuring impact, and adapting strategies also ensures long-term success and responsiveness to changing public needs.

Start small, Start Below. If we could empower the executives in the public sector in looking at their processes and systems and improve those processes through a Design Thinking approach, that could empower the working departments on the benefits of Design Thinking. If they could build and implement some of the process improvements which doesn't require interventions from the managements and if they could proudly design, prototype, reiterate and implement small changes at their scope. That would spread like wild fire.

Design thinking mindset is a transformative journey! Empathy Mapping: Engage with end-users to understand their needs and pain points deeply. ????? Prototyping: Encourage mock-ups to test ideas quickly and gather feedback. ????? Cross-Functional Collaboration: Bring together diverse teams to leverage different perspectives and expertise. ???? Mindfulness Practices: Help teams stay focused and reduce stress. ??♂???♀? Celebrate Small Wins: Recognize & celebrate progress, no matter how small. ????