Category Archives: Innovation Theory

Towards a unified theory of ‘shiny new things’ for the public sector

What does design offer that we don’t already have in the public sector? How does design fit with what we already do or with other ‘new’ trends and techniques? In the public servant’s tool-set, when and how should design be used? These are some of the questions that have come […]

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Using Randomised Control Trials to Evaluate Public Policy

How can we in the public service best assess whether a specific intervention has worked – or has worked better than what is already available and is also cost-effective? On Thursday 31 January, the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education and the Department of Education and Workplace […]

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Design through Coursera – Week 8 and wrap-up

This is the fifth and final post in a series about the Coursera course ‘Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society’. In the last lectures of the course, Professor Ulrich looked at supply chains and the need for designers to understand the costs and steps of the supply chain (and that the […]

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Design through Coursera – Week 4 (and 5, 6 & 7)

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the Coursera course ‘Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society’. So, despite best intentions, my aim of recounting each of the weeks of the Coursera design course separately has fallen afoul of other priorities. However, for those of you who are interested, here is […]

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Design through Coursera – Week 3

This post is the third in a series about the Coursera course ‘Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society’. You can read about Week 1 and Week 2 on the blog. So far the course has covered the basics of design and an overview of the design process (Week 1) and  understanding and […]

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Design through Coursera – Week 2

This post is the second in a series about the Coursera course Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society. You can read about my overview of Week 1 of the course here. In Week 1 the course covered the basics of design and an overview of the design process. Week 2 […]

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Design through Coursera – Week 1

Recently some of us at Centre for Excellence in Public Sector Design (as well as others across the public service plus many more around the world) signed up to do ‘Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society’ through Coursera, a massive open online course. The eight week course is taught by […]

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The ‘How to’ of Design

At the Australian Centre for Excellence in Public Sector Design we are seeking to understand what is the nature of the design eco-system and the tools and methodologies being used. In this post I thought I would share with you the results of some of that work and to seek […]

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Can innovation be routine?

The recent Innovation Week events gave me a chance to meet a lot of people and hear almost as many view points about innovation. Some of the conversations made me wonder, do we sometimes put innovation in a special box? For instance, what do the following statements relate to? ‘It’s […]

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Innovation Week 2012 – Lecture by Professor Sandford Borins

Is the ability to tell stories, to use narrative to communicate rather than just evidence, given enough attention in the public service? Do we rely too much on dry data to make the case for change? On Wednesday 6 June Professor Sandford Borins from the University of Toronto tackled these questions when […]

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