This book could not have been written without the energy, efforts and dedication of my colleagues at MindLab and in the three national government departments we are part of: the ministries of Economic and Business Affairs, Taxation and Employment. Key insights and a number of the case examples in the book are drawn from our experiences there. Special thanks to Niels Hansen, who prepared our internal evaluation research, to Jakob Schjørring, and to PhD fellows Jesper Christiansen and Nina Holm Vohnsen, who have provided much of the input to the chapter on citizen-centred research. I am indebted to my former colleague and co-author Sune Knudsen for showing me the value of design thinking, and to Kit Lykketoft for managing MindLab while I wrote much of the book. Helle Vibeke Carstensen deserves a special mention for constructive critique from the particular vantage point of tax administration.

The wider national and international network of public innovators, scholars and government officials that I have drawn on and who have contributed in one way or another to the book are numerous. I think most of you know who you are, and will find your work in some way reflected in the following pages. However, I want to especially mention David Hunter, Martin Stewart-Weeks, David Albury, Geoff Mulgan, Valerie Hannon, John Bessant, Sophia Parker, Brenton Caffin, Tonya Surman and Justine Munro for exposing me further to developments in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, for inspiring conversations and for concrete inputs to the work.

Leading Public Sector Innovation also draws on my earlier work on innovation in government, including a research project that I headed at the consultancy Rambøll and two books I wrote on the topic in Danish, published in 2007 and 2009. Some sections are directly or indirectly inspired from these books.

During my writing, I have noted that innovation in government is gaining momentum. From being an interest mainly of academics a few years ago, public sector innovation is quickly becoming a focus of public top executives and politicians and, more importantly, of the middle managers and project leaders who can get innovation off the ground.