7 Country Teams Experimenting With a New Approach to Public Service Delivery

How do we make experimentation the norm in our government?

The United Kingdom was the first of seven countries to set up a Cabinet Office What Works Team in 2013, to test and evaluate new approaches to public service delivery. In 2019, Canada, the US, Finland, Australia, Colombia, and the UAE have adopted the same and leverage these teams to generate and use new evidence in policy decisions.

Key Insights:

1. Joint trials: For teams, joint trials across departments can overcome barriers preventing more experiments from taking place.
2. Pooling expertise: Leveraging expertise, advice and support from elsewhere can increase quality and confidence.
3. Open-by-default approach: To raise the profile of experimentation, demonstrate its value and build understanding, setting up websites, blogs, events, published reports and social media can help showcase activities, enable transparency and encourage learning.