Current Concepts
Policy Lab — a grip on wicked problems
A Policy Lab can be held at various stages of a policy and strategy process and may have a focus on both a maturing of the organization's strategic culture and accelerating shared prioritized strategic efforts.
.jpg)
What is a Policy Lab?
A Policy Lab can be held at various stages of a policy and strategy process and may have a focus on both a maturing of the organization's strategic culture and accelerating shared prioritized strategic efforts.
A Policy Lab is a 4-hour laboratory for policy development based on the themes and challenges that concern you locally. However, it is particularly relevant in relation to wicked problems that cut across and require co-creation based on citizens' perspectives and challenges.
We bring together municipal and regional politicians with other key players and renew the interaction and cross-cutting cooperation between disciplines, policy, and external partners.
The purpose is to develop a common policy understanding and strategic approach to selected challenges — across!
You set the goal...
This may be working towards a comprehensive welfare policy or coordinating cross-cutting policies, strategies and interventions. This may, in addition to broad political participation, require the participation of municipal union leaders, regional partners, as well as key interest organizations, local civil society actors and citizens — depending on your local needs.
Experiences with Policy Lab
Steno Diabetes Centers, the Sund By Network, Halsnæs Municipality and Resonans have tested Policy Lab as a methodological step in cross-sectional prevention in spring 2023.
The focus has been on the health, well-being and education of children and young people based on the vision: Halsnæs in Motion.
The process has provided strengthened common traction and focus among politicians, professionals and in the local community. Concrete results of the course are a common data-based challenge picture and a cross-cutting strategic management document with success criteria.
Why a Policy Lab?
Municipalities and regions work every day to develop and deliver welfare and a good framework for a healthy life to citizens and patients.
Often this work becomes a balancing act between tough economic priorities and competing agendas.
A work that calls to such an extent:
- Political agreements on balances, political priorities and finances
- Common understanding of core challenges that call for new solutions and ways of working together
- Common strategic alignment with involvement and ownership across disciplines, functions and organisations
- Knowledge sharing about what the organization already does well, pointing in the right direction
- Co-creation of success criteria with all involved stakeholders focusing on both the short and long term
Activities in the concept
1. Focusing, Preparing and Setting
We facilitate a series of meetings with top management and key academic stakeholders about the setting for the Policy Lab event. The citizen's perspectives and the nature of the challenge are mapped in parallel.
2. Hosting the Policy Lab
We prepare and facilitate the event itself, gathering priorities, political agreements, cross-sectional collaborations, partnerships and success criteria
3. Follow-up
We present the findings with a designated steering and working group focusing on the further process and the completion of a strategic one-pager.
4. Experiments and realization
We design and facilitate a co-creative realization process with the development of concrete action plans and trial actions with the community.
Prerequisites
The following elements influence the effectiveness of a Policy Lab in terms of change:
- Maturity in co-creation and partnerships with local communities, citizens, associations and business and educational institutions
- Cross-committee policy-making and prioritisation
- Interdisciplinary cooperation centrally and decentralized
- Strategic basis in the organization e.g. vision, strategy and core task formulation
- Readiness for innovation and the desire to experiment
Contact Us
We always tailor our concepts to suit your needs.
Contact us if you want to hear more.
Anne-Mette Scheibel is partner at Resonans. For 15 years she has worked as a consultant in the public sector in KL and Resonans focusing on translating complex frameworks into pratical actions.
Over the past 8 years, David Jul has helped numerous organisations realise their ambitions by focusing on their common strategic goals and what it takes to achieve them.
Every mind into the game!
Traditional management and organisation models often do not support the ambitions inherent in vision and strategy. It takes something else and more to succeed today and in the future. There is a need for more flexible forms of organisation, cross-border cooperation, leadership and actions that cross sectors and create new partnerships.
We challenge our clients, both public and private, to bring their customers, users, citizens, boards and political actors into both the development and realization of visions and strategies. It creates new ideas across the board and ensures the necessary and crucial ownership that is the prerequisite for action and acceleration of result creation. Every mind into the game!
In Resonans, through our approach and cooperation with our customers and partners, we contribute to solutions to wildly complex problems such as labour shortages, the green transition and health inequalities and insecurity.