Transforming Governance, Enhancing Innovation Introduction to the Sunrise Conference October 29-31, 2012 Jacob Torfing Roskilde University

Sunrise Conference   Idea is to highlight and boost a new and upcoming research area with a potential societal impact   Obvious choice for Roskilde University, as we aim to take a problem-driven approach to studying and doing research   At this conference we will: – –Address the many complex and unsolved problems in our societies and the need for innovative solutions – –Explore how we can transform public governance to enhance public innovation – –Engage students, public decision-makers and researchers in this exploration

Why public innovation?   In Denmark and many other Western countries, there is an increasing focus on public innovation   Three main explanations: – –Cross pressure between rising citizen expectations and limited public resources – –Global competition that produces winners and losers depending on their innovative capacity – –Wicked problems that can neither be solved by standard solutions or sending more money

What is innovation   Creativity is to get a new idea, but creativity only becomes innovation when the new idea is realized   Innovation is change, but not all change is innovation   Innovation means breaking with established practices and common wisdom

Can the public sector innovate?   People from the private sector are skeptical, but the public sector is more dynamic and innovative that its reputation   Private firms and public organizations are bureaucracies and, therefore, face similar barriers   The public sector has some specific barriers   But also some unique drives

Transforming governance   In order to enhance innovation the public sector need: – –A common language about innovation – –Concrete strategies, procedures and tools – –A culture supporting curiosity, experimentation and learning – –Courage to do so and political will to implement and upscale new bold solutions – –Interaction across organizational and mental silos – –Involvement of private stakeholders   In short: we need to transform public governance in order to spur public innovation

Shifting governance paradigms   After the Second World War bureaucracy became the preferred way of organizing the rapidly growing welfare states   The bleak diagnosis of the Trilateral Commissions report from 1975 problematized public bureaucracy   From the 1980s onwards the public sector was reorganized around the principles of New Public Management: – –Enhanced competition – –Strategic management – –Increased user orientation

Towards a new governance paradigm?   NPM has led to many good thing, and there is still some unfinished business   Several unfulfilled promises and a number of unintended negative effects   There is a growing frustration and people are asking themselves: what comes after NPM?   Many contenders to the thrown   Call for a strengthening of the internal motivation for the public employees, drilling hole in the silos and enhancing collaboration with external actors   Adding a new layer on top of OPA and NPM can be seen as both: – –Continuity: Uni-, bi-, multilateralism – –Discontinuity: From competition to collaboration

Our bold ambition   Set the agenda for governance reform in order to spur innovation that can help us to tackle the crisis, improve services and break policy deadlocks   Bring students, decision-makers and researchers together in a constructive exchange   Agree on a manifesto that sums up our findings and will be passed on to the government

Three streams   We will all benefit from keynote speeches, roundtables and plenary discussions   Tomorrow, we will break out into three parallel streams: – –Researchers will discuss the conditions for enhancing innovation and transforming governance – –Decision-makers will explore and seek to remove barriers to public innovation – –Students will compete to craft innovative solutions to wicked problems   Plenty of room for networking and cross- fertilizing dialogue: – –Lunch, coffee breaks and receptions – –Newsroom tomorrow – –Presentations from streams on Wednesday – –Endorsement of manifesto

Enjoy the Sunrise Conference   When I am done, please take a minute to reflect on what you hope to get out of the conference, … and make sure you get it!   Help us to have a stimulating discussion that will inspire us to act differently tomorrow

Thanks to the partners