Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

Issue

Divergence

Engagemultiple

perspectives

Creative

Empirical

Research

Expert

Participatory

Legacy

Frame

Current

Frame

Probable

Futures

Preferable

Futures

Plausible

Futures

Possible

Futures

Traditional

Approach

AgileApproach

Planning

OptionsDevelopment

OptionsAnalysis

Options

Evaluation

NPU

Implementation

Lines ofBusiness

ECT



Evaluation

Arewe doing things right?

Arewedoing the right things?

RapidPrototyping

CorePrinciples

SystemsThinking

EmbraceDifference

Co-creation

ReflectivePractice

Team Learning

SystemicDesign

StrategicForesight

/ Canadian Government Executive

// June 2016

culture while engaging departments on

their most complex and ambiguous chal-

lenges. Its “Capacity” strategy is to “create

capacity, not dependency,” by building

reflection into all practice and providing

training opportunities for civil servants.

Finally the “Networking” pillar mandates

connectivity across government, nation-

ally and internationally. Alberta CoLab

aims to build a network of labs in Canada

to foster mutual learning, share resources,

and promote change from inside and out-

side government at the same time.

tween the public service and citizens by

providing access to government data and

information, listening, and openly engag-

ing with citizens while strengthening the

collaborative culture within the Govern-

ment of Alberta.” The Open Government

case has led to implementation plan con-

sisting of:

• Open Data: publicly releasing govern-

ment raw data to encourage citizens

and agencies to build services with in-

novative uses of data.

• Open Information: Making information

routinely available and easy to find in

order to encourage informed discussion.

• Open Engagement: the process of bring-

ing more, and better informed voiced

into the discussions necessary to im-

prove outcomes.

CoLab’s Systemic Design

Process

Alberta CoLab has established an engage-

ment approach based on systemic design,

integrating strategic planning, system

mapping and design thinking, with an ori-

entation to long-term viability using fore-

sight techniques. The process is based on

a design action research model as shown

in Figure 3.

CoLab has already had a considerable

impact on the way the Government of

Alberta develops policy and strategy. It

promotes a theory of change based on

three pillars: Projects, Capacity, and Net-

working. The “Projects” promote a “show

don’t tell” approach, working to change

The steps in the process allow for a

stronger design approach for traditional

policy planning:

• Projects start by researching a client is-

sue, drawing on creative and empirical

methods. A collaborative approach to

research engages technical experts and

participatory workshops.

• A strategic foresight phase builds on the

findings, a process that generates prob-

able, plausible, and possible futures in

collaboration with stakeholders.

• The current system is mapped by knowl-

edgeable teams, to understand legacy

and historical roots of current issues. A

preferred future approach is then de-

signed.

• Engagements proceed toward either a

traditional government policy track or

an innovation lab prototyping process,

depending on outcome and need. (The

traditional planning process and options

analysis is shown in the bottom loop of

the diagram.)

• Innovative projects opt for an agile, pro-

totyping approach to implementation,

which creates rough and small scale

mock-ups to be tested in a real world

context.

• Rapid prototyping provides a model that

can be deployed for iterative feedback

from stakeholders, to learn from front-

line user feedback before committing to

large-scale structural changes.

• Both options require an evaluation cycle

to assess design quality and whether the

right problem is being solved. The test-

ing cycle may generate new issues that

require a new engagement.

Alberta CoLab already serves several les-

sons for aspiring innovation labs across

Canadian government:

•

Recruit outsiders and insiders.

Out-

side experts elevates the lab’s status

and accelerate learning. Outsiders are

essential to question and challenge or-

ganizational patterns that insiders take

as given. Good insiders bring an under-

standing of organizational culture. They

know how to move files through the

bureaucracy and know where the land-

mines are.

•

Show, don’t tell.

As with many labs

there is a strong process and a belief in

its effectiveness, and it’s common for

labs to fall into proselytizing. It’s more

effective to demonstrate how an ap-

proach adds value by starting with a

small collaborative project. Results will

speak for themselves. Once good results

are known and shared, other people and

departments will add demand and be-

come supporters.

Design

Figure 2.

Alberta CoLab Open Government Workshop

Figure 3.

Alberta CoLab Systemic

Design Process