Hacking bureaucracy from the inside

Lab Notes - June edition

The June edition of Lab Notes brings together inspiring news, publications and other resources for public sector and social innovators around the world, including how to hack bureaucracy; free public transport in Estonia; tools for policy innovation and more ...

This month's key lab picks

1. What does it take to hack bureaucracy from the inside? The Bureaucrat Hackers leadership programme is trying to build a mass movement of civil servants willing to challenge the system and innovate from within.

2. Estonia is making all public transport free in a radical effort to make individual transportation less attractive. Regina Schröter outlines the lessons for other cities.

3. Canadian innovation Lab MaRS describes how to distinguish between innovation and improvement in policymaking, while a new report from the Brookfield Institute summarises practical tools, techniques and approaches for successful policy innovation.

4. Pulse Lab Jakarta shares some of their views on the different types of “impact” that a data innovation lab should have, and how to go about measuring it.

5. What kinds of evidence have the most influence on local decision makers? This example from Guatemala demonstrates that involving local communities in generating and presenting evidence has a far greater effect than more rigorous evidence-collection methods.

6. Nesta was commissioned by Chile's national innovation lab Laboratorio de Gobierno to review their innovation capacity building programme for civil servants, Experimenta. The report outlines why it’s an example of a high quality innovation learning programme and what the lessons are for others.

7. A new McKinsey research paper, which was based on a survey of 3,000 public officials across 18 countries, identifies five disciplines that could triple the success rates of government transformation efforts.

8. On empathy in policymaking: Kit Collingwood-Richardson writes how policy that looks absolutely fine on paper can be a disaster in practice if we don’t understand the humans we’re designing for.

9. The Open Government Partnership’s new report includes over 100 best-practice examples from around the world on how countries are improving participation and co-creation standards, and comes with a toolkit to help innovators implement their own initiatives.

10. How can we create more realistic expectations about the uses of blockchain in international development? An essay from the Center for Global Development helps practitioners identify a much clearer purpose for the technology, while a blog from GovLab gives further guidance and practical examples.

Author

Theo Bass

Theo Bass

Theo Bass

Senior Researcher, Government Innovation

Theo was a Senior Researcher in Nesta's Research, Analysis and Policy Team

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Matt Stokes

Matt Stokes

Matt Stokes

Senior Researcher, Government Innovation

Matt was a senior researcher working on the collaborative economy and digital social innovation.

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