Design in Public Sector Seminar Discusses Opportunities and Challenges

Forum for Social Innovation Sweden, Seminar - 2014-01-27

DESIGN IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
– OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
The 27th of January Forum for Social Innovation Sweden,
Malmö University in collaboration with Konstfack University
College of Arts, Crafts and Design, The Swedish Faculty for
Design Research and Research Education and SVID arranged
a seminar at Konstfack to discuss the future role of design in
the public sector.
Around thirty people from diverse organisations gathered to
discuss the future role of design in the public sector. The
starting point for the discussion was based on concrete
experiences from Sweden and France presented by specially
invited speakers. Stéphane Vincent who is director for La 27e
Région. Bjarne Stenquist who is project Manager at the
Environmental Department, City of Malmö. Bengt Jacobsson is
Professor in Business Administration, The School of Social
Sciences at Södertörn University and Stefan Holmlid from Linköping
University.
With reflections that have emerged in the empirical work done
in Malmö Living Labs and inspirations from several international
initiatives such as Mindlab, Nesta and DESIS several questions
where posed:
• What opportunities and implications for design in the public
sector can we see?
• How can you balance stability and dynamism within the public
sector, between managing the status quo and creating new
futures?
• How can the public sector deal with ambiguity and
uncertainty?
• Where can we locate design?
• How can we support mutual learning between work practises?


STÉPHANE VINCENT –
DESIGN IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR;
EXPERIENCES FROM FRANCE
The first presenter was Stéphane Vincent, from La 27e
Région. La 27e Région was founded by a group of people with
a lot of experience from the public sector, where some also
had been working as civil servants. They had no experience
of design but felt that they wanted to re-new the 26 regional
governments in France, “lets start the 27th region” someone
then suggested. Today they are a non-profit organisation with
seven staff members and they have a contract with all regions
to work as a do-tank or an in-house innovation lab.

“We try to set up a zone
where people within the
public sector can step out
of their everyday roles
and forget that they are
civil servants, politicians
or project managers.
During this process it’s
important to spend time
on re-interrogating and
re-framing problems and
not only to focus on
producing solutions.”

“Its good with private
design firms, but you
also need in-house
design labs, because
in the end you can
only change things
from within”.

Their core approach is called “friendly hacking” and they try to
set up a zone where people within the public sector can step
out of their everyday roles and forget that they are civil servants,
politicians or project managers. During this process it’s important
to spend time on re-interrogating and re-framing problems and not
only to focus on producing solutions.
– The public sector often spends time on building very nice
solutions in front of very bad formulated problems, said Stéphane
Vincent.
Working with this approach put emphasis not only on the
methods, but also on the relationship and that you set up new
forms of contract. La 27e Région tries to go beyond traditional
consultancy models because its difficult if you are a consultant
to re-interrogate and re-frame, rather you have to work with an
action-research partnership. Its good with private design firms, but
you also need in-house design labs, because in the end you can only
change things from within.
– We try to balance being neutral and being activists, said Stéphane
Vincent.
A strong common point in La 27e Région is that they truly
believe in the public sector, but they also believe that it has to be
modernized.
– There is a lot of innovation in the public sector, but these
innovations are in silos. Each silo makes innovation, but they don’t
take a systemic perspective, Stéphane Vincent said.
Another problem in the public sector is that they do long surveys
before doing things.
– We need the contrary, we need to do and learn from this doing,
he stated.


One of their first projects was called Térritoires en Résidences,
where they set up a cross disciplinary team within a public
organisation. During a period the team then through ethnography
tries to understand what goes on and tries to collect a variety of
ideas.The second week they co-design and prototype new possible
solutions. Finally they produce scenarios, make an exhibition and
translate this into political strategies. During these processes
politicians and civil servants also get the opportunity to do
ethnography and try to understand how well previous established
polices work (or not work) in practice.
Térritoires en Résidences have been working well to do flexible
interventions, re-framing problems and prototyping solutions. They
also have a growing collection of cases that build strategic visions
for local, regional and national top-managers. One of the problems,
however, is that there’s a huge turnover in public sector and one
of the main reasons for failure is that people often change position
within the public sector. The continuations of the projects have
therefor been very dependent on the project manager in charge.

“Many civil servants
are interested in new
solutions, but we need to
create an empathy for
how they are working.”

To deal with this La 27e Région initiated La Transfo in 2011, where
they could go deeper and during ten weeks simulate design labs
within regional governments. In these projects ten to fifteen civil
servants have been empowered with design skills.
– They will not become a designer, that’s not their job, but they will
learn to think as a designer, Stéphane concluded.
According to Stéphane many civil servants are interested in new
solutions, but we need to create an empathy for how they are
working.
– We need more humility; otherwise we have a risk that design
appears as a miracle discipline that will solve the problem of the
public sector, he added.
It’s important to think in a long term perspective but also to
work and develop this step by step, where you start from small,
concrete and not to difficult interventions and then you can later
come back and set up more complex collaborations with regional
governments that are interested. La 27e Région also tries to avoid
the terminology and practice of “excellence”. The notion of
excellence is often associated with competition, ranking and being
number one, where you then can set up expensive and huge
projects that are highly specialized and solve everything within a
silo. Instead they promote the more mundane process of “craft”
where you through an ongoing process do tests and trials and
continuously improve processes.

“It’s important to
think in a long term
perspective but also to
work and develop this
step by step, where you
start from small, concrete
and not to difficult
interventions and then
you can later come back
and set up more complex
collaborations with
regional governments
that are interested.”


During 2014 La 27e Région has established a collaboration
with the National School of Administration (Ecole Nationale de
l’Administration), through the project Re/acteur public, so that
they can include design for policy within their programs.

BJARNE STENQUIST –
DESIGN IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR;
EXPERIENCES FROM MALMÖ,
SWEDEN
Bjarne Stenquist works as Project Manager at the
Environmental Department, City of Malmö, and is also a
Research associate at the British think-tank Demos and have
been working with Charles Leadbeater and Geoff Mulgan.
Bjarne described that, although Malmö has gone through a
tremendous transformation from an industrial city to a service city,
several complex, urgent challenges have raised the need for new
approaches. One example is that child poverty is extremely high
and there are huge differences in health in different parts of the city.
Since the City of Malmö employed him, he has tried to introduce
design into the public administrations as one option to deal with
these complex challenges.
The first opportunity came when the city launched the Area
programmes where they prioritized work in five small areas and
started out from these specific locations’ needs and dynamics and
civil servants got a mandate to innovate. The focus was to work
with many different partners – in a co-creative process and focus
on testing and experimenting, models where work gradually are
scaled up.
Already in 2011 the idea of design labs where introduced as a part
of the area programs where you not only should focus on ideas
and concepts, but also on insights and understanding. Through this
structure you were supposed to be able to mobilize people locally
and facilitate experimental design processes.
However, this turned out to be very hard to embed within the
city, both regarding the terminology and language as well as the
working culture. The design labs were re-labelled into Innovation
Forums and they re-framed the design language into “See!”,
“Understand!”, “Connect!” and “Try, try, try!” According to Bjarne
it’s a huge potential in this approach, independent if you call it
design or something else. The problem is that it poses a challenge


for a system that only is used to do budget calculations, analyze,
conclude and implement.
They have also tried to emphasise to work “with” rather than “for”
citizens, but this shift has also turned out to be hard to accept
within the administration. Recently some of these thoughts has got
a renewed focus e.g. from the Commission for a Sustainable Malmö
that recommends to continue with the work in Innovation Forums.
Bjarnes final recommendations is to work pedagogical and create
a more general understanding of these processes, to take a “no” as
a questions rather than an answer, and to keep on. Time will be on
our side.

“It’s a huge potential
in this approach,
independent if you call
it design or something
else. The problem is that
it poses a challenge for a
system that only is used
to do budget calculations,
analyze, conclude and
implement.”

BENGT JACOBSSON –
BEYOND NEW PUBLIC
MANAGEMENT
Bengt Jacobsson is a Professor in Business Administration at
The School of Social Sciences at Södertörn University. He
is also active in The Academy of Public Administration. He
presented a historical overview of public sector reforms,
where many are associated with the umbrella concept of New
Public Management (NPM).
According to Bengt some of the first reforms in Sweden that
relates to NPM started already 50-60 years ago with for example
Program Budgeting and Management by objectives with a strong
focus on results. NPM also stress the importance of formulating
clear and unambiguous goals that are possible to operationalize.
You should measure outputs and effects and ascribe costs to
outputs and effects. All this should also be integrated in some
kind of control system. It has also brought forward what Bengt
termed as an audit explosion, an enormous focus on evaluation,
certification, inspection, comparison, ranking etc.
Bengt described how the general directors in public organisations
during the 70ies and 80ies looked at private companies as the
more beautiful sister, but at that time it was mostly rhetoric,
however during the 90ies this was transferred into the public
sector organisations. Today a lot of this, at least the managerial
ideas, is institutionalized and taken for granted.
– People are educated into these ideas, they think in these terms
and you have to acknowledge that if you want to change things,
Bengt said.

“NPM also stress the
importance of
formulating clear and
unambiguous goals
that are possible to
operationalize. You
should measure outputs
and effects and ascribe
costs to outputs and
effects. All this should
also be integrated in
some kind of control
system.”


“Today a lot of this, at
least the managerial
ideas, is institutionalized
and taken for granted.
– People are educated
into these ideas, they
think in these terms
and you have to
acknowledge that if you
want to change things...”

It’s basically the same managerial ideas that have been the content
of the reforms since the program budgeting in the 60ies until the
beginning of this millennium. These ideas have met the same
problem over and over again. They have never really worked and
the reason is that the reality consists of wicked problems and
enormous complexity and therefore goals have to be vague and
ambiguous. One reason that these reforms has been re-introduced
several times, although they don’t work, is the belief that it has to
do with implementation problems, for example that people is not
well enough educated, or that they haven’t formulated clear goals.
– It has always been described as an implementation problem and
not a model problem, which I believe it is, said Bengt.

“These ideas have met
the same problem over
and over again. They
have never really worked
and the reason is that the
reality consists of wicked
problems and enormous
complexity”

Bengt summed up some of the general problems with these
reforms. One relates to what he called an organisational logic
where we try to create complete organisations, not necessarily
companies (but with companies as models). Organisations have
evolved into constructions with a strong identity, hierarchy,
rationality and this opens up for all kinds of managerial ideas.
– As you know problems do not know organisational boarders, he
said.
Another problem is that these reforms have built on the
decoupling between politics and administrations.
– A lot of these ideas has been introduced by bureaucrats and
legitimized by politicians, but they have never been interested.
Politicians have found other more pragmatic strategies to move
forward and implement their ideas.

“We could move from
today’s strong focus on
control, competition,
audit, separate parts, and
compliance and instead
focus on trust, the
system, cooperation,
reflection and
innovation.”

Finally Bengt suggested that we could move from today’s strong
focus on control, competition, audit, separate parts and compliance
and instead focus on trust, the system, cooperation, reflection and
innovation.
– Actually I think a lot of people agree on this diagnosis, for
example Innovationsrådet had a similar conclusion.


STEFAN HOLMLID –
DESIGN FOR SERVICES
RESEARCH COMMUNITY
Stefan Holmlid from Linköpings University presented how he has
initiated a process to build a community of research on design for
service. The process has been commissioned by Vinnova and will
go on for 14 months. All different national initiatives that focus on
design and services are welcome to collaborate in this process.
The goal is to create a research competence centre with a set of
central actors and find ways to build something that can be long
term resilient. This is an opportunity to demonstrate that design
can contribute with something good.

DISCUSSION

“The goal is to create
a research competence
centre with a set of
central actors and find
ways to build something
that can be long term
resilient.”

BEYOND TECHNICAL
RATIONALITY AND CONTROL
The notion of technical rationality is very strong in today’s
society (where you analyze problems, conclude, decide and
implement) especially within some powerful structures such as
the Department of Finance. This is the case despite all new design
inspired approaches that emerged globally and that suggest that
we have to move beyond technical rationality. Bjarne Stenquist
suggested that it’s important to differentiate between complicated
and complex problems.
– When dealing with complexity you can’t just add and accumulate
new information into the solution. Design thinking (or whatever
we call it) is a tool to navigate in an increasingly complex reality
where models are dead, he said.
If we should be able to work with design and innovation in the
public sector the notion of control within public organisations also
have to be challenged. Bengt Jacobsson described that the most

“When dealing with
complexity you can’t
just add and accumulate
new information into
the solution.”


“The most common
approach to control in
public organisations in
Sweden relates to New
Public Management and
builds on connecting
everything to the centre
and set up systems that
provide the centre with
information. An
alternative model would
be to reduce the necessity
to collect all the
information in the centre,
and instead trust the
people and
professionals.”

“In every activity they
have to think about the
risks and deliver in a safe
way. Often because of
that, there is no space
to try new ideas and no
rewards for trying to find
new ways of operating.”

“You as a civil servant
are not supposed to talk
about what goes wrong.
We have to set up arenas
where we can learn from
these local experiments
and where experiences
and practices can be
disseminated on a
long-term basis.”

common approach to control in public organisations in Sweden
relates to New Public Management and builds on connecting
everything to the centre and set up systems that provide the
centre with information. An alternative model would be to reduce
the necessity to collect all the information in the centre, and
instead trust the people and professionals where you can delegate
and hand over issues.
– We have a lot of trust and loyalty in Sweden, but still the demand
for control has increased, this is really a paradox.
Donna Cicek from the Swedish Tax Authority explained that NPM
has lead to the fact that all activities are heavily controlled and that
the control part takes space from experimentation and ongoing
improvements. In every activity they have to think about the risks
and deliver in a safe way. Often because of that, there is no space
to try new ideas and no rewards for trying to find new ways of
operating.
This trust needs to go beyond organisational borders. David
Lindeby from Experio Lab emphasized the importance of different
kinds of ownership structures. With a mix of government,
companies and organizations we can find a resilient way of
connecting topics and goals to a long-term perspective.

TRUST AND LEARNING
If you should build trust then you also have to be able to talk
about and learn from failures. According to Stéphane Vincent this is
something that is difficult to do within the French administrations
where you as a civil servant not are supposed to talk about what
goes wrong.
Bengt further reflected on the fact that we don’t have systems
where we can learn from all these experiences. Even if we can see
many local experiments it’s often about rule following, where we
introduce the latest trends, or if it build on experiences then it’s
quickly transformed into “models”.We have to set up arenas where
we can learn from these local experiments and where experiences
and practices can be disseminated on a long-term basis.
This has to be organized and be built in to the administration and
it’s a real challenge. To get such a platform to work, you need to be
sure that people can take part in it and Stéphane Vincent described
that La 27e Région in their new project try to convince the
administrators that civil servants need to spend 5 % of their time
in such a platform.


– When they get back to their top-manager they say that, ok today
you have played with post-it and user-centred stuff, but you did not
really work. We have to re-think they way civil servants work and
having reflexivity becoming part of their normal everyday work.
Language, and pedagogical approaches is also very important. One
example that Sara Modig from ModigMinoz brought up is that it’s
essential to clarify what a user perspective stands for. Most civil
servants within the public sector would argue that they always have
been working with a user centred perspective.
– Still, it’s a paramount shift in insight when we really step into the
shoes of the user and take the perspective of the user.
Tomas Edman relates this shift to health care.
– Traditionally they have had a focus on the patient rather than try
to see and experience from the patients perspective.
Also a lot of front line staff is doing design without knowing it, its
important to acknowledge and highlight that. You don’t have to be
a trained designer and you don’t need to know all these methods,
but it’s central to have the mindset.
Carina Rislund from Hokahey Consulting AB emphasized that many
new approaches are “pushed” upon public servants and that they
often feel uncomfortable when “left alone” in these new situations.
When moving from theory and knowledge into practice then you
have to assist, coach and advise public servants.
It’s also crucial how to frame the meeting between design practices
and the everyday work that civil servants are engaged in. Tomas
Edman from Experio Lab explained that they have changed the
focus from talking about “bringing design into health care” into
emphasizing learning between the two areas.
Embodied experience is central and therefore you need to have a
focus on doing, all people in an organisation should do a patient/
user journey.

“We have to re-think
they way civil servants
work and having
reflexivity becoming
part of their normal
everyday work.”

“Most civil servants
within the public sector
would argue that they
always have been
working with a user
centred perspective.
– Still, it’s a paramount
shift in insight when we
really step into the shoes
of the user and take the
perspective of the user.”

“We changed the
focus from talking
about “bringing design
into health care” into
emphasizing learning
between the two areas.”


“You can show that many
policies don’t work,
especially if you look at
them from a user/citizen
perspective.”
“Traditional evaluation
doesn’t say much about
the impact of policy. You
evaluate the system, how
you have spend the
budget, but you don’t
have a better
understanding of how
people use or not-use a
policy. This is a failure of
NPM. Design on the
other hand is interested
in the use of things.
Design gives you a better
understanding of the real
practice.”

“The potential to involve
leaders and politicians in
the “empathic gaze”

POLICIES AND PRACTISES
It seems very hard to affect work cultures that are so strongly
established and where NPM and technical rationality is “built
into the walls”. However Stéphane Vincent suggests a pragmatic
approach where you can show that many policies don’t work,
especially if you look at them from a user/citizen perspective.
This might be used as an eye opener and by showing this you
then might be able to convince policymakers that you need a new
approach and open up the process of developing policies.
– Traditional evaluation doesn’t say much about the impact of
policy. You evaluate the system, how you have spend the budget,
but you don’t have a better understanding of how people use
or not-use a policy. This is a failure of NPM. Design on the other
hand is interested in the use of things. Design gives you a better
understanding of the real practice.
Åsa Minoz brought up the notion of legitimacy and the potential
to involve leaders and politicians in the “empathic gaze”. Like for
example the way Göran Hägglund went on a customer journey
when Experio Lab was inaugurated. Could that be used further
to build greater understanding for the importance of what design
practice can achieve amongst top leaders in organizations?


LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Stephane Vincent
La 27e Région
Bjarne Stenqvist
Malmö Stad
Bengt Jacobsson
Stockholms centrum för forskning om offentlig sektor
Eva-Karin Anderman
SVID
Jonas Gumbel
SVID
Klas Danerlöv
Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting
Marie Pernebring
Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting
Åsa Minoz
Malmö Högskola
Sara Modig ModigMinoz AB
Carina Rislund
Eur.Erg Hokahey Consulting AB
Martin Sparr Regeringskansliet
Maria Gill
Västerås stad
Donna Cicek Skatteverket
Patrik Derk
Telge Hovsjö
Stefan Holmlid
Linköpings universitet
Bo Westerlund Konstfack
Peter Ullmark KTH
Aditya Pawar
Umeå Universitet
Ramia Mazé
Interactive Institute
Brendon Clark
Marie Denward
Maria Hellström Reimer
Malmö Högskola
Pelle Ehn
Malmö Högskola
Anders Emilson
Malmö Högskola
Louisa Szücs Johansson
Malmö Högskola
Per-Anders Hillgren
Malmö Högskola
Tomas Edman
Experio Lab
David Lindeby
Experio Lab
Jaklina Strand
Malmö Stad
Caroline Wiryth
Skatteverket
Hanna Sigsjö
Malmö högskola
Lotta Solding
Forum for Social Innovation Sweden

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