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Solving Public Problems: A Practical Guide to Fix Our Government and Change Our World
How to take advantage of technology, data, and the collective wisdom in our communities to design powerful solutions to contemporary problems
“Bursting with sage, practical advice for public sector officials and civil society actors who want to engage citizens and give them more power.”—Glen Weyl and Henry Farrell, Boston Review
The challenges societies face today, from inequality to climate change to systemic racism, cannot be solved with yesterday’s toolkit. Solving Public Problems shows how readers can take advantage of digital technology, data, and the collective wisdom of our communities to design and deliver powerful solutions to contemporary problems.
Offering a radical rethinking of the role of the public servant and the skills of the public workforce, this book is about the vast gap between failing public institutions and the huge number of public entrepreneurs doing extraordinary things—and how to close that gap.
Drawing on lessons learned from decades of advising global leaders and from original interviews and surveys of thousands of public problem solvers, Beth Simone Noveck provides a practical guide for public servants, community leaders, students, and activists to become more effective, equitable, and inclusive leaders and repair our troubled, twenty-first-century world.
“Bursting with sage, practical advice for public sector officials and civil society actors who want to engage citizens and give them more power.”—Glen Weyl and Henry Farrell, Boston Review
The challenges societies face today, from inequality to climate change to systemic racism, cannot be solved with yesterday’s toolkit. Solving Public Problems shows how readers can take advantage of digital technology, data, and the collective wisdom of our communities to design and deliver powerful solutions to contemporary problems.
Offering a radical rethinking of the role of the public servant and the skills of the public workforce, this book is about the vast gap between failing public institutions and the huge number of public entrepreneurs doing extraordinary things—and how to close that gap.
Drawing on lessons learned from decades of advising global leaders and from original interviews and surveys of thousands of public problem solvers, Beth Simone Noveck provides a practical guide for public servants, community leaders, students, and activists to become more effective, equitable, and inclusive leaders and repair our troubled, twenty-first-century world.
- GenresNonfictionEconomics
448 pages, Hardcover
Published June 22, 2021
20 people are currently reading
260 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 30, 2021
I resonate with this book more because I work closely with communities to implement projects that directly benefit them and it's such a powerful read because it highlights the social challenges, policies and laws that affect them and how it's not just one institution to change, but a whole system.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
August 30, 2022
Beth Simone Noveck's book addresses the challenges of public sector delivery and problem solving; how the public sector mentality needs to change to be ready to solve the challenges the society is facing now which are very different from 20 years ago. There are pockets of this 'new' approach to delivering public services, but it definitely needs to be more wide spread.
As Noveck states: "We cannot expect to tackle tomorrow’s problems with yesterday’s toolkit."
Noveck sets out the challenges in a clear and concise way, and also presents approaches on how to make the public sector more agile, more problem focused and more welcoming to input from those living in the 'real' world that public sector policy teams are creating policies for.
Noveck points out that to succeed policy teams must spend time to understand the problem, to define it properly, BEFORE starting to find solutions, rather than jump straight in to solve it. The risk of a 'quick approach' is that a solution is created for a problem that never even existed. Involving the general public is critical for success. In its simplest form, this can be done by an online survey and there are lots of cheap (or even free) tools available online.
Thank you for an immensely inspirational and easily accessible book on this new way of working for the public sector; in many cases the private sector is already using this approach. I wish that this book, or the course mentioned above, were made mandatory for our civil servants / public sector workers in the United States, United Kingdom and beyond.
As Noveck states: "We cannot expect to tackle tomorrow’s problems with yesterday’s toolkit."
Noveck sets out the challenges in a clear and concise way, and also presents approaches on how to make the public sector more agile, more problem focused and more welcoming to input from those living in the 'real' world that public sector policy teams are creating policies for.
Noveck points out that to succeed policy teams must spend time to understand the problem, to define it properly, BEFORE starting to find solutions, rather than jump straight in to solve it. The risk of a 'quick approach' is that a solution is created for a problem that never even existed. Involving the general public is critical for success. In its simplest form, this can be done by an online survey and there are lots of cheap (or even free) tools available online.
Thank you for an immensely inspirational and easily accessible book on this new way of working for the public sector; in many cases the private sector is already using this approach. I wish that this book, or the course mentioned above, were made mandatory for our civil servants / public sector workers in the United States, United Kingdom and beyond.
September 24, 2021
Disclaimer: I lived in Hungary and left the country exactly because I stopped believing the government was interested in solving public problems.
I picked this book up because I started thinking about how unhappy in my job I was and I am thinking about how to actually achieve change. This was the perfect read, the language is easy understandable while it explores complex topics. The structure is great, can be followed easily.
I wish there would be "key points" sections at the end of the chapters next to the to dos, as there are points I know I'll want to reference and it would be easier.
There are points though which made me uncomfortable, for example when they talked about collecting data without the people's knowledge.
All in all it is amazing handbook, it made understanding and thinking about important but complex topics.
I picked this book up because I started thinking about how unhappy in my job I was and I am thinking about how to actually achieve change. This was the perfect read, the language is easy understandable while it explores complex topics. The structure is great, can be followed easily.
I wish there would be "key points" sections at the end of the chapters next to the to dos, as there are points I know I'll want to reference and it would be easier.
There are points though which made me uncomfortable, for example when they talked about collecting data without the people's knowledge.
All in all it is amazing handbook, it made understanding and thinking about important but complex topics.
June 5, 2023
Disclaimer: I lived in Hungary and left the country exactly because I stopped believing the government was interested in solving public problems.
I picked this book up because I started thinking about how unhappy in my job I was and I am thinking about how to actually achieve change. This was the perfect read, the language is easy understandable while it explores complex topics. The structure is great, can be followed easily.
I wish there would be "key points" sections at the end of the chapters next to the to dos, as there are points I know I'll want to reference and it would be easier.
There are points though which made me uncomfortable, for example when they talked about collecting data without the people's knowledge.
All in all it is amazing handbook, it made understanding and thinking about important but complex topics.
I picked this book up because I started thinking about how unhappy in my job I was and I am thinking about how to actually achieve change. This was the perfect read, the language is easy understandable while it explores complex topics. The structure is great, can be followed easily.
I wish there would be "key points" sections at the end of the chapters next to the to dos, as there are points I know I'll want to reference and it would be easier.
There are points though which made me uncomfortable, for example when they talked about collecting data without the people's knowledge.
All in all it is amazing handbook, it made understanding and thinking about important but complex topics.
February 21, 2023
All in all, I think this was a very good toolkit. Some of the tools or frameworks might not be new to people already exposed to civic tech, but I think it’s a good holistic summary for people like me who need more guidance about how to go about whatever vision they might have about public problem solving! I also appreciate that all of the key points and tools are summarized on their website with actionable templates, hence making this a practical book for learning. Some sections were out of my area of interest / capacity to make change in, but it shows how everything is interconnected in this system of making change.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews