Keynote
Plan Z: A case for redesign
Marco Steinberg
'Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It’s time to start thinking.’ (Churchill)
Governments and cities across the world are facing unprecedented pressure to do radically more with radically less. Fiscal austerity, social inequality, and changing demographics are just some of the forces putting extraordinary pressures on the public sector to transform itself. The “more for less” solutions that are being sought won’t happen by improving existing solutions, but by reimagining them. This imperative for strategic improvement, has created increasing demand for innovation skills in the public sector. A call for innovation not just to deliver better services, but more fundamentally to redesign the form of government itself. A smarter government will deliver smarter solutions, so goes the thinking. But how and where will this smarter government emerge?
About the speaker
Marco Steinberg
Marco Steinberg is the Founder and CEO of Snowcone & Haystack, a Helsinki based strategic design practice focused on helping governments and leaders innovate.
For Marco, this means helping institutions better respond to the increasingly ambiguous and complex context in which they operate in.
Prior to that Marco was Director of Strategic Design at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund where he established the fund’s strategic design capability. While there, his team launched a portfolio of initiatives to address the acute need for strategic improvement in the public sector (www.helsinkidesignlab.org).
From 1999-2009 Marco served as Associate Professor at the Harvard Design School leading several significant research & innovation efforts including work on healthcare and stroke care reform.
In Marco’s other responsibilities, he is a faculty member of NESTA’s States of Change program, and was Board Member of Design Driven City (a greater Helsinki innovation fund); member of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Public Sector Reform for Northern Ireland; and advisor to many public, private, and academic organizations. He co-authored “Fostering Innovation in the Public Sector” published by the OECD: and has published extensively on design, innovation and public sector transformation. Recent books include “Legible Practises: Six stories about the craft of stewardship” (2013) and “In Studio: Recipes for Systemic Change” (2011).