Webinar 4: What does it take to build learning systems in government?
Thursday 24 November
In complex environments it can be hard for governments to know the ‘right’ thing to do.
In situations of uncertainty and complexity - the situations that governments constantly operate in - we do not know what the ‘right' thing to do is. It’s necessary to constantly iterate and adapt, and create emergent learning environments and practices. However, it’s often difficult to learn when confronted by the siloes of government, the pressures of delivery, and the fear of failure.
Join us as we discuss how those working in and around government might coordinate and collaborate effectively to build a culture of learning, using real-life case studies and insights.
Speakers:
Angie Tangaere (Kaitohu Tangata Whenua, Auckland Co-Design Lab)
Nyadol Nyuon OAM (Lawyer and Human Rights Advocate)
Olli-Pekka Heinonen (Director General, International Baccalaureate Organization)
Facilitated by:
Adrian Brown (Executive Director, Centre for Public Impact)
Materials Hub
To take our webinar further, we’ve collated a wide range of material exploring legitimacy, and rebuilding trust in government. Scroll below to explore:
The Webinar
Watch the webinar, and read more about what our community is saying.
The Theory
Dive more deeply into this topic by learning more through blogs, articles and reports.
“The Palgrave Handbook of Learning for Transformation” features contributions from scholars and practitioners from a diversity of backgrounds that builds upon existing theory and breathes new life into transformative learning theory.
In “Learning: an anthro-complexity perspective”, Dave Snowden discusses how you can create an ecosystem where the cost of learning is less than the cost of ignorance.
In this presentation, “Disrupting Learning Partnerships”, Angie Tangaere and Penny Hagen share examples and reflections from their work at The Southern and Western Initiative around the value of disruptive learning partnerships, and why they are an important part of enabling equity and wellbeing in place.
In this blog post, “Rethinking monitoring and evaluation in complex systems — when learning is a result in itself”, Søren Vester Haldrup from the UNDP’s Strategic Innovation Unit discusses the need to develop new ways of doing monitoring and evaluation that privilege continuous learning and adaptation.
In this lecture recording, Linda Tuhiwai Smith reflects on her seminal book Decolonising Methodologies and its continued relevance 20 years after its release.
This scoping paper from Fiona McKenzie, “Building a Culture of Learning at Scale” explores the question ‘what would it take to build a culture of learning at scale?, focusing on systems-wide learning that can help to inform systems change efforts in.
In this blog post “Measurement for Learning” John Burgoyne explores how governments can move beyond top-down reporting to measures that drive learning and improvement.
In this article “Building a culture of learning at work” Adam Grant explores how leaders can create physiological safety in order to enable risk taking without fear of reprisal.
“Human Learning Systems, a practical guide for the curious” from CPI explores the practical actions they will likely need to plan, organise, and undertake to apply Human Learning System principles in government.
This report “A brief introduction to Policy experimentation” from CPI explains how governments are using experimentation as a way to learn and innovate.
The “Learning from Failure” webinar from the 2021 ANZSOG x CPI Reimagining Government Series explores how governments can create a culture of innovation that allows them to learn from failure.
In Practice
We’ve collated case studies and material to illustrate what these ideas look like in practice, and offer frameworks and tools to support experimentation with a similar approach in your work.
This article from the OECD Observer describes “Experimental Finland”, an initiative that began in 2015 in the Prime Minister’s Office to encourage experimentation at different levels of government. Read more about Experimental Finland here.
This case study “Learning in Complex Settings” from the Auckland Co-Design Lab profiles a three-year collaboration called the Health Homes Initiative - Auckland Co-design: testing ideas to make homes warmer and drier.
In this recorded community of practice event hosted by the Auckland Co-design Lab “Whānau-led design – what does it actually take?” Angie Tangaere reflects on what she learned about whānau-led innovation and about the system, and what it means to navigate the space in between.
This article from TACSI “Learning about lives through design research” explores how design research taking place in context with small sample sizes can help us learn about the reality of people’s lives.
In this case study “Learning from Gateshead” Mark Smith from Gateshead Council (UK) describes the what, why, and how of taking a Human Learning Systems (HLS) approach in practice. Explore the HLS Case Study Map to learn about more applications of HLS from across the world.
This blog “What is action learning?” explores examples of how CPI have implemented Action Learning and what it looks like in practice.
In this blog “Learning as a strategy to improve national education”, CPI spoke with Olli-Pekka Heinonen from the Finnish National Agency for Education about co-creating a learning culture.
The “D.C. COVID-19 Responsive Collaborative Toolkit” published by CPI in 2022 provides a step-by-step guide to building a peer learning network that is capable of responding to complex challenges related to COVID-19 in schools.
Join our community
Our Community of Practice is a forum for conversations over the course of the webinar series, and a great way to build new relationships with like-minded people, passionate about reimagining government. Content in webinars will be brought to life, through events, workshops, conversations, and networking opportunities.
Register below, and join us as we reimagine government.