Trust and Innovation - Making the Match

Trust in public services and innovative capacity are vital to making progress and improving services at this time when: a) public resources are more stretched than ever and b) public expectations are high. The paper gives data on which countries have higher/lower levels of trust and discusses effective teams. It also models trust levels in organisations with their capacity to be innovative. Cases from the UK public sector are also included. In essence creating psychologically safe workplaces and an innovative culture from the bottom up are essential routes to improving and maintaining public services. The UK public sector has challengingly low levels of trust that need to be raised.