Leading public design discovering human-centred governance

269 Pages·2017·3.224 MB·English

by  Bason, Christian

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“Leading public design is a welcome addition to the growing field of public sector design thinking. d
Bason does an excellent job of explaining how the introduction of design principles can lead to more i
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people-friendly government services. His practical observations from real case studies and the
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conceptual frameworks he develops will be informative and helpful for public administrators around
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the world.” u
Paul Macmillan, Partner, Deloitte Consulting, Canada b
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“Human-centred service design – the discipline of being cross-disciplinary, of empathetically c

seeking to understand everyone’s perspective – is changing how social science is taught in our d
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universities. Read about the state of this new art from Christian Bason, one of its foremost pioneers
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for over a decade.” i
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Nicholas Gruen, Lateral Economics, Australia n

“This new book by Christian Bason is a compelling read for both senior leaders and those on the
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frontline of the public sector. Bason makes it clear that leading public design is an ongoing journey
driven by curiosity and a sense of purpose. I can warmly recommend his book to anyone involved in h
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the challenging but ever inspiring task of making innovation a daily practice in government.” i
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Huda Al Hashimi, Assistant Director General Strategy + Innovation, UAE Prime Minister’s Office t
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a
n
This powerful new book provides a clear framework for understanding and learning an emerging

management practice, leading public design. B
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Drawing on more than a decade of work on public sector innovation, Christian Bason uses his s
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extensive practical experience and new doctoral research conducted among public managers in the n
UK, the US, Australia, Finland and Denmark to explore how public organisations can be redesigned
from the outside in, shaping policies and services that are truly experienced as useful and
meaningful to citizens, and which leverage all of society’s resources to co-produce better outcomes.
Through detailed case studies, the book presents six management practices which leaders in
government can use to involve citizens, staff and other stakeholders in innovation processes.
It shows how managers can challenge their own assumptions, leverage empathy with citizens,
handle divergence, navigate unknown territory, experiment and rehearse future solutions through
prototyping, and create more public value.
Ultimately, Leading public design provides a pathway to a new and different way of governing public
institutions: human-centred governance. As a more relational, networked, interactive and reflective
approach to running organisations, this emerging governance model promises a more human yet
effective public sector.
Christian Bason is CEO of the Danish Design Centre, former head of the Danish government’s innovation team
MindLab, and a doctoral fellow at Copenhagen Business School.
PUBLIC POLICY / SOCIAL STUDIES
ISBN 978-1-4473-2558-1
www.policypress.co.uk
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PolicyPress @policypress
090116_BASON_Leading public design_PBK (1).indd 1 1/9/2017 4:13:40 PM
LEADING PUBLIC DESIGN
Discovering human-centred governance
Christian Bason
i
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by
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University of Bristol Policy Press
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All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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Cover design by My Buemann, Danish Design Center
Front cover: image kindly supplied by Christian Bason
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CMP, Poole
Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print partners
For Malene, with love.

Contents
List of figures and tables vi
Foreword viii
one Introduction: design as a vehicle for exploration 1
Part One: Complexity, design and governance 19
two The public sector and its problems 21
three The changing nature of design 33
four In search of the next governance model 53
Part Two: Leading design for public innovation 71
five Design practice in government 73
six Exploring the problem space 89
seven Generating alternative scenarios 121
eight Enacting new practices 143
nine Design for public value 159
Part Three: Towards human-centred governance 177
ten Catalysing change in governance by design 179
eleven Towards human-centred governance 207
twelve Take the curvy path: leading change by design 223
engagement
Glossary 235
References 239
Index 253
v
List of figures and tables
Figures
5.1 Three design dimensions and related methods 82
5.2 Management engagement with design 84
6.1 Citizens’ roles in shaping public services 93
6.2 User journey mapping of an industrial injury process 103
from a citizen perspective
6.3 Field research in practice: photographic 114
documentation in the Rigshospitalet case
6.4 Field research in practice: video-filming in the 115
Lewisham case
6.5 User journey development by staff at Skansebakken 117
7.1 Using visuals to stimulate creativity and engage staff 128
7.2 Selecting ideas and developing concepts in the 136
Stenhus Community College project
9.1 Graphical and visual expression: the communication 164
tree ‘Georg’ at Skansebakken
9.2 Before/after redesigning public space for patients at 165
Rigshospitalet
9.3 Before/after redesigning public space for 165
Homelessness Services in Lewisham
9.4 New digital solution for registering a business 166
9.5 Connecting ‘seeking’ and ‘sharing’ families in 166
Adelaide
9.6 Citizens empowered to design and sell their own 167
commercial products
10.1 Pathway to human-centred governance 182
11.1 Cycle of governance (context), management 221
(agency) and innovation (change processes)
vi
List of figures and tables
Tables
3.1 Ladder of citizen involvement in decision making 41
3.2 Changing definitions of design 43
3.3 Paradigms of design management 45
4.1 Competing paradigms: changing ideological 56
conceptions of governance and public management
4.2 Convergence of public management and design 67
5.1 Case studies overview 75
5.2 Ambitions, expectations and hopes for the creation 77
of value through design
5.3 Management engagements, design dimensions and 85
design approaches
8.1 Prototypes versus pilots 146
9.1 Significance of design across cases for catalysing 161
change
9.2 Outputs of design processes 164
10.1 Reframing the problem towards new relations 186
10.2 Defining characteristics of human-centred 205
governance
11.1 Contrasting bureaucratic and human-centred 217
governance
11.2 Performance factors of bureaucratic governance 218
vs human-centred governance
11.3 Emerging paradigms: variations over the next 219
governance model
12.1 From decision making to future making 232
vii
Foreword
This book is the culmination of a journey over the past decade,
starting in 2005, where I have become increasingly intrigued
by the contribution of design to public sector innovation. This
journey has been professional, personal and academic.
Professionally, I have authored a number of books on
innovation and leadership in government, where design
methods have featured an increasingly central role; I have led
the Danish government’s innovation team MindLab, which
employs professionally trained designers; I have served on the
European Commission’s (EC) Design Leadership Board and been
Chairman of a subsequent EC expert group on public sector
innovation (European Commission, 2012; 2013b). My present
job, since 2014, is to run the Danish Design Centre (DDC), a
government-funded institution that aims to strengthen the use
of design by business and society, nationally and globally. Across
these professional activities, I have developed a deep personal
interest in and curiosity about what design might offer to
public organisations and public managers such as myself. As a
public manager, what does it really take to engage with design
approaches to enact change, not only in discrete projects but also
on a wider scale? What are the implications and responsibilities
for public managers, and the meaning and sense with which
they conduct their jobs? This curiosity has finally led me to an
academic journey, where since 2010 I have conducted a PhD
project to explore in detail the significance of design work for
public managers and for the future of public governance.
This book builds on all of these three journeys. In it, I propose
that design approaches can contribute in powerful ways to
innovation in the public sector and, potentially, transform how
public organisations are governed.
viii
Foreword
With this foreword I wish to thank the many people who have
accompanied me on the journeys and in numerous ways have
inspired me to pursue what ultimately has become this book. First
of all I wish to thank my thesis advisor at Copenhagen Business
School, Robert Austin, who has guided the development of the
project from the start. Also, I am indebted to co-advisors Rafael
Ramirez of Oxford University’s Saïd Bsuiness School, Banny
Banerjee at Stanford University and Dick Boland at Case Western
Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. Also
a warm thank you to Eduardo Stazsowski at the New School’s
Parsons School for Design, with whom I conducted a visiting
scholarship. Along my academic journey I have also been
extremely grateful for inputs and ideas from Richard Buchanan,
also at Case Western, from Sabine Junginger at the Hertie School
of Governance and from Daniel Hjorth, Dorthe Pedersen and
Lotte Jensen at Copenhagen Business School.
A range of people in my professional network have been
instrumental in supporting and catalysing this work – with
ideas, suggestions and opportunities to interact. Geoff Mulgan
at Nesta has been an inspiration, as have David Halpern of the
UK’s Behavioural Insights team, and Ann Mettler and Peter
Droell, both at the European Commission. Stephane Vincent and
François Jegou of La 27e Region have been great collaborators.
Martin Stewart-Weeks, Tom Bentley and Nina Terrey have, from
their vantage points in Australia, provided many opportunities
to present and discuss the work leading up to this book. Charlie
Leadbeater, author and speaker, has always provided fresh
perspectives and ideas. I must also mention Giulio Quagliotto
who has recently challenged my thinking on the intersection of
experimentation and design.
This book and the research behind it have depended on the
professionalism and world-class work of my former colleagues
at MindLab, where many of the networks and relations leading
to this book were established. Not least Kit Lykketoft, then
Deputy Director, was amazing in the day-to-day running of
the organisation during research-intensive periods. Today I am
supported by an incredible team at the DDC, where Chief of
Staff Anne Christine Lyder Andersen makes sure everything runs
smoothly, and COO Sune Knudsen takes care of day-to-day
ix