The current financial, economic and social crises occurring both in the United States and Europe have placed renewed pressure on public sector organizations to radically reinvent themselves, and to generate more value for society and for citizens. Design holds massive potential as a way to achieve more significant innovation in public policies and services, but to generate real system-wide change design must also be anchored and practiced within governmental agencies.

Bason is Director of MindLab, which for more than a decade has functioned as part of the national administration of Denmark as an innovation platform for the ministries of Business & Growth, Employment, and Taxation. Its mission is to involve citizens and business in co-creating new public policies and services. Prior to joining MindLab, he led Ramboll, a leading public organization and management consultancy. He is the author of four books on leadership, innovation and change in the public sector, most recently Leading Public Sector Innovation: Co-creating for a Better Society (Policy Press, 2010).