Design in the Public Sector: An insider’s view – Part III

Devon County Council is part of the latest cohort in the Design in the Public Sector programme hoping to learn how to better engage staff and find innovative new ways of working.

Having completed the initial two-day intensive workshop (which you can read about here), the members of the team took some time to reflect on what they’d already learned.

Kevin Gillick, Strategy, Policy and Organisational Change team

It’s been a couple of weeks now since the first Design in the Public Sector days took place.

We had a great time looking at behaviours and going to a betting shop for the first time, which really highlighted a different way of looking at the challenge and being people centred; talking to expert guests on the first evening was really interesting and we now know how useful a Wetherspoons pub can be for people research. Having the Design Council’s Framework, Process and Method explained brought the whole thing together.

I am forever surprised how new ideas emerge from this kind of process – should I be? I’m not sure. I’m thinking this comes from a combination of placing focus and energy on the challenge and letting go of previous ideas, to then come up with something new that contains everyone’s idea. There are still some bits of the letting go I find difficult and exhausting.

A great way to kickstart us off; it will be great to see where this takes us.

Carl and I could hardly talk on the way back on the train – something that would surprise our expert guests on the first evening! Getting back into the office really made me feel that my working environment is not designed for this kind of work and made me question what we could do to change it – where’s my project space?

All in all a great way to kickstart us off; it will be great to see where this takes us.

The second stage of the Design in the Public Sector programme takes place in September. Devon County Council will continue to blog about their experience and you can keep up to date here.