ADVANCING GOVERNMENT INNOVATION

Government teams can score quick “innovation” successes by focusing on the issues that the public is most vocal about and that are easiest to turn around. These may relate to public services that need improvement.  They may not necessarily be the issues that need immediate attention, but they could be the ones that the public considers to be important.

Selecting which problems to address first is a highly strategic decision as the outcomes can have repercussions on subsequent organizational ‘flow’. It can motivate staff, build confidence in government services and boost commitment towards innovation.

Solving customer-centric issues first is a great place for government entities to start, and then work afterwards, or in tandem, on other operational and systemic issues that need attention, resources, and time.

The quickest way to discover public pain points is to involve service front liners as customer desk staff who interact directly with customers can give quick unfiltered insights. Solutions that are easy to execute may require some experimentation and incremental changes, and the possible involvement of multiple stakeholders.

There will always be failed projects, and the best way to manage these is to emphasize the value of learning over outcomes – encouraging staff to continue to experiment and assure them they have safe cover if they fail.

The challenge is to delicately nurture innovation while mitigating risk and balancing accountability over public assets. This requires enlightened leadership to navigate.