PSI in Italy:
a visibility matter.
The same funny thing always happens when I explain that my thesis is about Public Sector Innovation. First I get an extremely puzzled look, then when the person standing in front of me focus her mind on the words “public sector” a spontaneous question arises “Why?” and finally a sort of sarcastic wish of good luck.
The skepticism I receive towards the idea of working with Public administration is somewhat rooted in the Italian culture and since Italian people work in and for the PA this skepticism affects this sector to its core.
This article, as a matter of fact, explains the idea my professors and I are developing to tackle this problem with the help of service design.
My journey working with public administration started during my last year of my bachelor in Communication Design when my colleagues and I we were asked to think of new branding for the meals on wheels service for the municipality of Milano, Italy. Back then, our experience in service design was basically non-existent and the intervention we proposed in the re-design of the service was focused more on the communication side for our final project.
Even given our inexperience in the matter and in that type of context, I was struck by the realization that whenever I was on contact with the public sector and public administration I was working for the community since everybody is a citizen.
The fact that even though the client that was standing in front of us was one person, multiple users were going to be affected by our work opened a world of new questions and doubts but also of possibilities and a newfound interest.
But let’s cut to the chase for the sake of this article and let me explain the realizations that led me on the path of service design and finally on developing my master thesis about innovation in the public administration through service design that is currently in development. As Serena and I already tried to explain in our first article and it is also something that I partially experienced myself in my brief career, services are key to successful policies; in simple words, public service is the way a citizen experience government regulations. If services don’t work the government itself is perceived as malfunctioning and unsatisfying.
Unfortunately, innovation projects are often isolated cases when we are looking at the great numbers of policies, regulations, and plans issued by governments. As I discussed with my tutoring professors Marzia Mortati and Alessandra Canella we came to the realization that even when this sparks of innovation do happen they are either ignored, discharged or underestimated especially in my mother country. The incapability to innovate in the Italian public sector often seems to be more of a stereotype in the mind of the public administrator themselves than a real reflection of what is really happening on the territory. This situation not only hinders the development of government policies but also slows down the development of society and the life of the citizens.
This is the issue we are starting off with, the aim is then to design an online repository that collects public service innovation case studies coming from all over Italy and gathers all those professionals that can be included in a new category, the public innovators.
The purpose is to support the development of a larger culture of design and service innovation in the Italian public sector and give them the visibility they deserve and that can lead to foster even more innovation. The will is to fight the wrong perception of innovation as something far away from the Italian mindset, in order to unlock the full potential of the Italian public administration.
The questions we are still looking for an answer are many from a broader topic such as:
Who are the public innovators? What do we mean with public innovations? What are good examples we can look up to?
to a more focused one:
In which part of the process a service design or public innovator can intervene? What is the current relationship between service design and Public Administration in Italy?
Me and Serena are always open to a nice dialogue so comment down here or contact us if you would like to ask or answer any question!
Francesco.
