Designing environments for experimentation, learning and innovation in public policy and governance

Abstract

There has been much debate about the contribution of ‘design thinking’ to the fields of public policy and governance. This article makes an empirical contribution to this debate by examining the Organised Crime Field Lab ‐ an environment for experimenting with, learning about and innovating in collaborative governance. The study involved working with 18 different multi-agency collaborations involving over 160 professionals as they developed novel approaches to fighting organised crime. Combining quasi-experimental and action research methods, our analysis offers valuable insights into how an environment can be designed that creates the conditions to support collaborations in overcoming the most common challenges in their design process. In particular, we find that a specially designed environment including a structured but flexible problem-solving space, an inclusive facilitative process and a custom-made accountability structure can support collaborative design processes.

A model for choice infrastructure: looking beyond choice architecture in Behavioral Public Policy

“…The effective evaluation of choice infrastructure may therefore need to combine several approaches that combine evidence of measurable success with evidence for potential course-corrections (Lewis et al, 2020): for the former, by designating measures for individual improvements that can be captured by more traditional evidencebased mechanisms, and for the latter, through a set of characteristicsboth qualitative and quantitativethat capture attributes of desired system outcomes that can indicate relative progress toward longer-term goals (Schmidt & Stenger, 2021b). Measuring and determining the efficacy of new choice infrastructure may, for example, include the use of indirect modes of evaluation in the form of 'weak signals' (Ansoff, 1975), feedback loops, and leading metrics to supplement more traditional lagging ones (Schmidt & Stenger, 2021b) and prototyping solutions on smaller scales, less to formally evaluate them than to identify opportunities for improvement (Waardenburg et al, 2020).…”

“…It also reveals a critically important understanding of users' incoming operational mental models, which can highlight situations in which proposed policies may cause significant frustration if misaligned with actual system functions. In addition, design-informed approaches such as collaborative governance have shown potential to help practitioners institute change in civic settings that may otherwise resist efforts due to stakeholder inertia and a desire to control power dynamics, in part through creating conditions that are conducive to supporting this kind of design problem-solving (Ansell & Torfing, 2014;Waardenburg et al, 2020), which is itself a form of choice infrastructure.…”

Collaborative Governance Dalam Program Riset Teknologi Kendaraan Listrik

“…Di dalam collaborative governance tidak harus menggunakan sistem pendekatan bersifat top-down untuk menghasilkan solusi yang inovatif, karena inovasi harus melalui proses eksperimen atau belajar sambil melakukan (learning by doing) (Waardenburg et al, 2020). Kondisi tersebut sesuai dengan dinamika permasalahan publik dan tantangan kelembagaan.…”

Co-Creation for Sustainability

“…To facilitate collaborative design and problem-solving, platforms often need to be aligned to the local policy context (Waardenburg, Groenleer, & De Jong, 2020). The political embeddedness of platforms in local communities is important and platform leadership must therefore be sensitive to political and social context (Biekart & Fowler, 2018).…”