• Sandra Geelhoed
  University of Applied Sciences
• Hayley Trowbridge
  People’s Voice Media
• Sarah Henderson
  People’s Voice Media
• Lauren Wallace-Thompson
  People’s Voice Media

Changing the Story: An Alternative Approach to System Change in Public Service Innovation

Abstract:

Storytelling is a powerful instrument for system change. Telling stories of lived experience, listening to them, and sharing them contributes to a culture of trust based on dignity, mutual respect and shared values. In this paper we draw attention to public service innovation and co-creation with the people the service is meant for. In the past years, public service innovation was result-and output driven, targeting technological and managerial innovation. Stories of service users revealed the unintended negative consequences of such innovation policies and opened new perspectives for conversations of change based on shared values leading to innovations based on human development and dignity.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ppsr-2021-0012

Full text:  92_DOI_12 (PDF / 189.73 kb) 

Keywords: storytelling, system change, dignity, narratives, action research, user voice, social innovation, service innovation, public services, personalization, human development, culture of trust, cocreation