The UK Government has launched One Big Thing, an innovation programme that aims to inspire civil servants to make small, impactful changes that spark innovation across departments.
The programme runs until 14 February 2025 and will provide 470,000 civil servants with the tools, skills, and motivation to generate and experiment with new ideas.
The Government is partnering with scaleup Wazoku on the initiative, using its innovation platform to enable civil servants to collaborate, track progress, and share innovations across departments.“One Big Thing 2024 is about using our combined creativity to improve how we work and how we serve the public,” said Joe Torjussen, Head of Innovation, Civil Service Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office.
“Focusing on small, actionable changes creates a safe environment where civil servants can experiment, learn, and grow, and we create a more innovative and ambitious Civil Service as a result."
The 2023 People Survey revealed that less than half of civil servants (42.6 per cent) believe they have the knowledge and skills to turn ideas into something impactful. The AI functionality in Wazoku’s platform ensures that all ideas — whether successful or not — are captured, shared, and celebrated as learning opportunities.
Civil servants will start by completing the Innovation Masterclass, a structured online course that teaches practical steps for ideation and innovation. Teams will then gather to share ideas and agree on a “small change” to implement, with the platform facilitating those conversations and tracking progress.
The third stage will encourage teams to experiment with their chosen change, monitor its impact, and reflect on the outcomes. Wazoku's platform enables them to submit case studies and share successes and learnings across departments.
“One Big Thing is about building and fostering a culture of continuous improvement across the entire Civil Service, and empowering civil servants to be bold and creative is at the heart of how we improve service and operational delivery,” continued Joe Torjussen.
“Using a platform like Wazoku will help with that. Being innovative is not limited to certain fields or roles, and we all need to creatively respond to the challenges we face in our teams, functions or departments and as a Civil Service.”
One Big Thing is now in its second year. Last year’s kick-off programme delivered more than half a million hours of data learning to 212,000 civil servants, and 2024’s initiative aims to involve the entire UK Civil Service.
Wazoku works with government departments, including MoD and HMRC, and private sector companies such as Sanofi, A2A, and Asda.
"Governments know the value of innovation, and One Big Thing is one of the biggest innovation programmes any government has undertaken,” said Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku.
“By harnessing the collective knowledge of the Civil Service in this way, the government can drive positive change and scale the best ideas to transform departments.”
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