Public Sector
The 2017 Public Sector for the Future Summit
Citizen-Driven by Design
When & Where
June 13-15, 2017
Harvard University | Cambridge, MA

A Report, reflecting on and summarizing the sessions and insights that occured at this Summit, is now available for download.

Download Report

About the Summit

Overview

Citizens around the world are demanding more responsive, more impactful, and less costly government. From the recent U.S. elections, to “Brexit,” to growing populist movements in Europe and across the globe, the burning platform for leaders now is making government better, faster, cheaper, and ultimately—citizen-driven by design.

Surging to the top of citizen-driven solutions is the intersection of behavioral economics, data and analytics, and design-thinking. When combined, these emerging strategies position leaders to better understand the needs of citizens, design better services, and leverage “nudge” solutions that have been proven to not only make services more beneficial for citizens, but also generate improved outcomes and public value.

Savvy leaders are already putting “nudge” strategies to work. Initiatives such as the U.K. Behavioral Insights Team, the U.S. Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, the Qatari Nudge Unit, and an array of state, local, and regional efforts around the globe are using simple and cost-effective tools to reduce costs and improve results in services such as education, consumer protection, tax collection, transportation, health, and beyond.

Yet even with this progress by early adopters, most public sector organizations are unsure how to proceed. Government historically has been control-driven by design—and redesigning government to be citizen-driven by design runs headlong into established policies, structures, systems, and processes. Thus, as leaders look to the potential of citizen-driven design and “nudge” strategies, they find themselves grappling with challenging questions:

  • Where and how can citizen-driven design and “nudge” concepts be readily applied to policy development, citizen-facing services, and back-office solutions?
  • How can data and analytics be leveraged to better understand not only where behavioral insights can be applied, but also how to redesign public services?
  • What are the cultural and political implications and effects of “nudge” solutions on an organization, and how should leaders prepare their stakeholders?
  • How can leaders develop their human capital capabilities to harness the potential of behavioral insights, data and analytics, and design thinking?

To address these critical questions and to help leaders move forward, Leadership for a Networked World, the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, and Accenture, are convening the 2017 Public Sector for the Future Summit: Citizen-Driven by Design. This eleventh annual Summit will build on the Public Sector Uptake and Edge Matrix by not only helping participants implement near-term innovations, but also guiding their design of long-term strategies that improve evidence-based government, optimize the enterprise, create citizen-centric services, and develop the workforce of the future. To do so, participants will be immersed in a hands-on experience using data, analytics, behavioral economics, and design thinking to address current challenges and to support citizen-facing and operational innovations.

Who Should Attend?

Summit attendees are senior-level, public-sector and education executives (CEO, COO, CIO, CDO, Mayor, Secretary, Executive Director, Minister, Commissioner, etc.), who aspire to improve performance in the near term and redesign public institutions for the long term. Regardless of title, all Summit attendees are “Chief Transformation Officers” in practice—leaders who work across traditional boundaries (organization, jurisdiction, sector) to create public value.

Admission & Participation

The Summit is an invitation-only program for senior public-sector and higher-education executives. Other applicants will be reviewed and accepted on a case-by-case basis, depending in part on available space. We typically receive more applications than we can accommodate, so apply for your seat as soon as possible. This event is supported by the hosting and collaborating organizations, so there is no tuition fee to attend. Travel and hotel expenses, however, are the responsibility of individual participants.

The Executive Leadership Group

Hardik Bhatt
CIO
State of Illinois
Leslie Brunelli
VP and CFO
University of South Carolina
Stu Davis
CIO and Assistant Director
Ohio Department of Administrative Services
Sid Johnson
Public Service Faculty
Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia
Chris Liu
Director
State of Washington Department of Enterprise Services
Matt Massman
Commissioner
Minnesota Department of Administration
Sharon Minnich
Secretary, Office of Administration
Pennsylvania Office of the Governor
Bob Oglesby
Commissioner of the Dept. of General Services,
State of Tennessee
Scott Pattison
Executive Director
National Governors Association
Mike Teller
CIO
Idaho Tax Commission
John Traylor
Executive Deputy Comptroller for Operations
New York Office of the State Comptroller
Sean Vinck
CIO
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Previous Reports

Citizen-Driven by Design: A Report from 2017 Public Sector for the Future Summit

Go to Report

Citizens around the world are demanding more responsive, more impactful, and less costly government. From the 2016 U.S. elections, to “Brexit,” to growing populist movements in Europe and across the globe, the central challenge for leaders now is making government better, faster, cheaper, and ultimately—citizen-driven by design.

Surging to the top of citizen-driven solutions is the intersection of behavioral economics, analytics, and design-thinking. When combined, these emerging strategies position leaders to better understand the needs of citizens, design better services, and leverage “nudge”1 solutions that have been proven to not only make services more beneficial for citizens, but also generate improved outcomes and public value.

Savvy leaders are already finding that nudge-based strategies increase the likelihood of accomplishing programmatic objectives more cost-efficiently and effectively than other strategies. Initiatives such as the U.K. Behavioral Insights Team, the U.S. Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, the Qatari Nudge Unit, and an array of state, local, and regional efforts around the globe are using simple tools to reduce costs and improve results in services such as education, consumer protection, tax collection, transportation, health, and beyond. Adding nudge-based strategies to the excutive toolkit is becoming an imperative as governments face resource constraints and citizens demand better outcomes.

Yet even with this progress by early adopters, most public sector organizations looking to implement nudge-based strategies find themselves grappling with challenging questions:
Where and how can citizen-driven design and nudge concepts be readily applied to policy development, citizen-facing services, and administrative functions?
How can analytics be leveraged to better understand not only where behavioral insights can be applied, but also how to redesign public services?
What are the cultural and political implications and effects of nudge solutions on an organization, and how should leaders prepare their stakeholders?

To address these critical questions and to help public sector leaders move forward, Leadership for a Networked World, the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, and Accenture, convened the 2017 Public Sector for the Future Summit: Citizen-Driven by Design from June 13 – 15 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This eleventh-annual Summit brought together innovative government and higher education leaders, along with leading academics and industry experts, to learn and share ideas.

This report distills the key findings from the Summit. In particular, it features insights developed in partnership with Summit attendees that highlight how leaders can harness data and analytics, capitalize on lessons learned from behavioral economics, and understand and apply design thinking concepts. It also contains three practical examples—one on Illinois’ Innovation Incubator, one on Georgia’s Department of Administrative Services and statewide procurement, and another on California’s Department of General Services and greening fleet vehicles—that highlight how public sector organizations have embraced nudges, data and analytics, and design thinking as part of broader initiatives to improve citizen services and back-office operations.

Designing Public Services for a Digital World: A Report from 2016 Public Sector for the Future Summit

Go to Report

There is no debating the digital future is here—and it’s impacting government. Citizens want public services 24/7, mobile, anticipatory, personalized, and simple—just like they get from other service organizations. In fact, research by Accenture shows that nearly three quarters (73 percent) of U.S. citizens hold government to “the same or higher” standard as their commercial providers.1 In other words, they want their government to be as smart as their smartphone. They want their government in their pocket. They demand a government that is ready and available when they are.

The central challenge for public sector leaders is this: Design government organizations for this new digital world or lose public support and legitimacy.

We have redesigned governments before in the face of such massive change. The last great redesign came at the beginning of the 20th century when we needed to address corruption and to scale services as the nation and economy grew. We needed a design that focused on accountability, transparency, equity, and fairness—and we successfully created it. Yet in today’s digital world, we also need the agility, speed, and flexibility that citizens demand.

Leadership from Invention to Impact: A Report from 2015 Public Sector for the Future Summit

Go to Report

Government leaders are developing bold strategies to increase public value. Yet with citizen trust in government waning, the public sector needs more than new visions; leaders need to drive structural change by identifying high-yield strategies, bracing stakeholders and workers to endure an evolving and unpredictable operating environment, and gauging how much structural change is necessary to sustain progress.

Creating the Agenda: A Report from 2014 Public Sector for the Future Summit

Go to Report

Leaders in the public sector have worked hard to respond to the major structural and social challenges of this new era. Facing technological, societal, and political disruptions, they have developed new operating models such as shared services, lean business processes, and cross-jurisdiction collaboration that have made great headway in driving government efficiency.

Yet more ideas and strategies are needed. Changes in the economy, demographics, technology, legislation, and more are forcing leaders to be more creative and collaborative, and to adapt and innovate. They must not only to do more with less, but also build public trust and value.

To address these questions and create an agenda for change, Leadership for a Networked World, the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, and Accenture convened public sector leaders for The 2014 Public Sector for the Future Summit: Creating the Agenda. This first annual Summit, held at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., brought together top practitioners, industry luminaries, and Harvard faculty, fellows, and researchers to explore these topics.

In Collaboration with

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 394,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com/publicservice. Nike

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