Learning Systems in Public Innovation
From Incident Signals to Institutional Learning Systems
What if the true test of public innovation were not simply the ability to create new solutions, but to understand what happens when they fail?
The Lisbon Declaration on Public Innovation states that innovation requires the creation of systems capable of transforming errors, incidents and deviations into structured institutional learning.
In healthcare, the World Health Organization estimates that one in ten patients experiences harm while receiving care, that unsafe care contributes to more than three million deaths each year, and that more than half of this harm is preventable (WHO, Patient Safety, 2023).
The question is not simply whether the right instruments exist, but whether they are used effectively. Systems learn when they capture reliable information, analyse it rigorously, distinguish occurrence from causality, and translate that knowledge into effective organisational adaptation.
Conceptual References™
WHO - Patient Safety (2023)
Lisbon Declaration on Public Innovation (2023)
Institutional learning systems
Quality and governance literature
