KANO Eiji | APU RESEARCH SEEDS - Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Creating an ecosystem to enhance the problem-solving skills of public institutions and realizing innovation in public administration through the development of human resources for the civil service

Government agencies and other public institutions are facing an increasing number of complex and diverse issues that transcend conventional boundaries. On the other hand, their budgets and staffing are limited, and the situation is growing increasingly severe. Conventional operational improvements and simple digitalization efforts are no longer sufficient to deal with this situation, and this trend is likely to intensify going forward. What is required from now on is for each and every employee of public institutions to acquire the ability to accurately perceive issues and creatively solve them— in other words, to increase the productivity of problem solving.
I, the principal investigator in this study, came to feel that there was a need to improve the problem-solving skills of employees of public institutions from my wide-ranging experience, including policy making at a central government agency, consulting at a think tank, and conducting practical research at the Institute of Administrative Information Systems, I have continued to engage in concrete activities to this end.
Based on my awareness of this issue and my related activities, I released the “Problem-Solving Toolbox—Frameworks and Practical Examples of Administrative Operation and Service Transformation” (hereinafter, “Problem-Solving Toolbox”) in cooperation with the national government, local governments, and the private sector. Available for anyone to use, this is a platform that provides methodologies and frameworks that can be utilized by the employees working on the front lines in public institutions.
This platform is not just a collection of tools, nor is it the end goal of an R&D project. Using this platform will create a cycle of actual practice, verification of effectiveness, and development of new methods, which will support the growth of the employees who use it. This is the starting point for new practices, development, and research.
The aim of this research is to create a new human resources development ecosystem for employees of public institutions that combines both practice and research.

The Toolbox is full of wisdom distilled from actual practice, including tools for solving problems and actual examples of solutions. This site was developed and is operated as part of a joint research project between the Institute of Administrative Information Systems and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU).

Click here for the Problem-Solving Toolbox website

A groundbreaking initiative that supports employees of public institutions in improving their problem-solving skills and promoting sustainable growth

It’s not that no initiatives have been undertaken to date to help employees of public institutions solve problems, but most of these tended to be limited to the introduction of cases. Although they introduce the issues that were solved (the “what”) , they lack discussion of how those issues were solved (the “how”), not to mention the specific tools for doing so. This makes it difficult to put these cases into practice and replicate them in other public institutions.
The feature of this research is that it provides the "how" as a series of frameworks via the Problem-Solving Toolbox platform. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that various problem-solving methods used in the private sector have been redesigned so they can be practically utilized by employees of public institutions. For example, I provide methods, such as persona analysis and customer journey mapping, that are customized for government work.
The Problem-Solving Toolbox is a groundbreaking initiative that systematizes knowledge and tools that previously only existed in fragments and provides these all in one place, with the aim of encouraging employee growth and problem-solving skill development. It is also a practical tool that allows users, that is, the employees of public institutions, to feel that they can actually solve problems by using it. At the same time, it is a platform that goes beyond problem solving to promote growth and skill development.
These unique features arose from my research stance, which attempts to establish a methodology that combines knowledge gained from my professional experience with an academic approach in order to support the growth of government employees in a practical way.

The "Journey Map for Government Agencies" is one of the frameworks in the Problem-Solving Toolbox. It is a highly useful tool that has been brushed up after being practically applied many times in training sessions on DX and design thinking for government employees.

By getting more people to participate, the ecosystem centered on human resources development in public institutions will continue to grow

The aim of this research is to develop a system to support the sustainable growth of employees in public institutions. Based on the platform, I am attempting to establish organic, mutually enhancing relationships between and among practice, research, and education.
The first step in this process is practical collaboration with local governments. I am already working closely with several municipalities, and for example, the knowledge that I have developed in the course of running training sessions for municipal officials has taken the form of one of the frameworks in the Problem-Solving Toolbox. Most of the content is very practical, having been created by employees of public institutions themselves or in collaboration with them.
Going forward, I would like to expand upon these collaborations by establishing a cycle of where more public institutions implement the frameworks, I receive feedback from them and improve the toolbox, and then I have public institutions implement the frameworks again.
The findings from these practical applications will also be systematized as policy research. I am exploring more effective ways to develop human resources in cooperation with central ministries such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and international organizations such as the OECD. The research outcomes generated from these efforts will be once again fed back to employees on the frontlines by way of the platform.
Furthermore, this ecosystem also takes advantage of the unique features of APU as an educational institution. I collaborate with local governments where APU is located, like Oita Prefecture and the town of Hiji, so that local government employees and university students can work together to solve problems. These initiatives provide practical problem-solving opportunities for local government employees as well as invaluable learning experiences for students. At the same time, we utilize this experience to continuously improve the platform.
In this way, with the platform as a starting point, both employees of public institutions and the systems supporting them will continue to grow together. This is the future vision I have in mind for this research. This ecosystem should demonstrate even more potential with the participation of more business professionals, researchers, and educational institutions, in addition to local governments and central ministries.