Public Sector Futures in The Connected Republic I

At this year’s Public Services Summit @ Nobel in Stockholm in December, we will be running a specialist session that looks at the future of the public sector. 

Part of the discussion will be a ‘futures’ session in which participants will get the chance to explore some of the big questions confronting the public sector into an uncertain future.  What is the purpose and role of the public sector in a more connected world?  How does the public sector’s role and function shift in line with changes to the role and function of government itself, impacted increasingly by dramatic changes in technology, the nature of work and changing expectations from citizens themselves?  How does the public sector deal with the growing tangle of ‘wicked’ policy issues crowding onto the public agenda – climate change, poverty, rapid urbanisation, lifting education standards and opportunity and providing accessible and affordable health and social care services for all?

In a related discussion, participants will come face to face with some of the immediate and practical implications for the workforce and workspace of the new public sector.  Where will the next generation of smart, committed public servants come from?  What kind of work will they be doing and what kind of work culture can they expect to find when they arrive?

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting a series of short pieces designed to stimulate some thinking and debate, initially around the ‘futures’ discussion that will form the first part of the Nobel Summit specialist session.

The purpose of these posts will be to put some ideas into the mix as a lead-up to the session in Stockholm.  Everyone is encouraged to respond, to add their thoughts and ideas, to agree or disagree and to offer personal insights and perspectives.  This will only add to the quality of our discussion.  None of this will be the last word on the issues.  All they will offer is a first word that, I hope, will prompt people to become involved in the conversation.

As people register for this session, they will be directed to the site so they can see, and hopefully contribute to, the discussion before they get to Stockholm.

We will keep the discussion here going during and after the Summit too. That way, even if you are not going to be at the Summit, you can stay in touch with the conversation and can keep adding ideas and reactions as the discussion moves forward.

The intention is to use the ideas and insights that are developed in this space, together with the outcome from our deliberations in Sweden, as the basis for some new thinking and writing from the public sector group in Cisco’s IBSG team.  In that sense, we are embarked on an endeavour of co-creation, putting some of the instincts of collaboration and social networking to work in pursuit of what we hope will be a provocative contribution to a crucial discussion about the role, purpose and performance of a 21^st century public sector.