Public sector innovation Prof. Adrian C. Cole Contact Knowledge Exchange & Birmingham City University A presentation given at Innovation Day, 19 th March 2009. This presentation forms part of the Observatory’s ongoing State of the Region dialogue between policy makers and researchers on the theme of innovation.
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Public sector innovationProf. Adrian C. Cole
Contact Knowledge Exchange & Birmingham City University
A presentation given at Innovation Day, 19th March 2009.
This presentation forms part of the Observatory’s ongoing State of the Region dialogue between policy makers and researchers on the theme of
innovation.
Public Sector Innovation
Prof. Adrian C. ColeContact Knowledge Exchange
&
Birmingham City University
Public Sector Innovation
Some Best Practice Observations…..
“Strong innovation management and leadership that provide encouragement and support at all
staff levels within the organisation tends to encourage an innovative culture”
Chief Exec
Senior Management
Senior Management
Senior Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
“Strong innovation management and leadership that provide encouragement and support at all staff levels within the organisation tends to encourage an innovative culture”
Middle Management
Team Leader
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Leader Team LeaderTeam Leader Team Leader Team Leader
“The existence of ‘committed key individuals’ within senior management, is seen as the most important internal
factor supporting innovation”
Chief Exec
Senior Management
Senior Management
Senior Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
“The existence of ‘committed key individuals’ within senior management, is seen as the most important internal
factor supporting innovation”
Middle Management
Team Leader
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Leader Team LeaderTeam Leader Team Leader Team Leader
“Recognising and nurturing good ideas that emerge from the service delivery staff can be as powerful as the top
down initiatives”
“Recognising and nurturing good ideas that emerge from the service delivery staff can be as powerful as the top
down initiatives”
Chief Exec
Senior Management
Senior Management
Senior Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
Team Leader
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Leader Team LeaderTeam Leader Team Leader Team Leader
Great Idea !!
“Reducing the personal consequences of failure and wider recognition of delivery success, through for example external
validation, might help improve the pace of innovation”.
“Reducing the personal consequences of failure and wider recognition of delivery success, through for example external
validation, might help improve the pace of innovation”.
Chief Exec
Senior Management
Senior Management
Senior Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
Middle Management
Team Leader
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Leader Team LeaderTeam Leader Team Leader Team Leader
Innovation Leaders
Approved Deliverer
Quality Approved
Excellence Award
“Early (and wide) stakeholder commitment is an important factor in increasing the likelihood of success.”
“Excessive efforts to collaborate at all stages can result in initiative dilution, delay and sporadic implementation”
“Early (and wide) stakeholder commitment is an important factor in increasing the likelihood of success. Excessive efforts to collaborate at all stages can result in initiative dilution, delay and sporadic implementation”
Delivery Team
Stakeholder
Delivery Team
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
“The ‘thick soup’ of bureaucracy can frustrate fragile innovative ideas before they are allowed to be fully
explored to an extent that they may not even emerge from the department or group where they were
conceived”
“The ‘thick soup’ of bureaucracy can frustrate fragile innovative ideas before they are allowed to be fully
explored to an extent that they may not even emerge from the department or group where they were
conceived”
Great Idea !!
Great Idea !!
Great Idea !!
Great Idea !!
“Those ideas that survive ‘infant mortality’ face an uphill battle as they seek wider adoption and recognition often
against unfounded prejudice and fear”
Can’t be
done
Fear for
Jobs
“Rather than occasional ‘breakthrough’ innovations the public appear to most value almost incremental
improvements in service customisation and quality”
“Rather than occasional ‘breakthrough’ innovations the public appear to most value almost incremental
improvements in service customisation and quality”
Ser
vice
Qua
lity
Ser
vice
Qua
lity
Ser
vice
Qua
lity
Ser
vice
Qua
lity
Service
Qua
lity
Service Q
uality
Service Quality
Service Quality
Service Quality
“Business as usual but only better”
time, effort, money
Public Sector Innovation
Some Discussion Provocations …..
Using interrogation techniques to fully understand how a service is actually used can provide a credible innovation ‘launch platform’.
Mapping techniques that include analysing stakeholder experiences at all stages of the service can provide a valuable insight for the need for innovation.
1. Gathering Evidence for Innovation Demand
Researched analytical insights or drivers that
provide an evidence based understanding of stakeholder priorities, engender an early collaborative environment
and provide sound points of reference that will support the
innovation delivery team.
1. Gathering Evidence for Innovation Demand
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Learning what innovative ideas work and learning about the actual processes of innovation would seem to be good steps to help innovation to occur ‘naturally’ from within public sector organisations.
2. Learning
Using Ideas Emerging From…. Tools & Processes for the Mechanics of Innovation
Systematic Innovation
3. Reducing the Risk
It is possible that both the stigma of innovation failure
and the personal consequences of potentially wasting public money that are seen as the greatest
risks to career advancement.
3. Reducing the Risk
Adoption of wide spread and routine innovation
experimentation at all levels would perhaps make innovation
more the norm and so help make the few failures less likely
to ‘make the headlines’.
‘Brave’ managers would have to be less ‘brave’ as they would be encouraged to continuously pursue a number of innovative
pilots rather than the occasional single idea.
Innovative experiment
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Innovative experiment
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Innovative experiment
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Innovative experiment
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Innovative experiment
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Innovative experiment
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
StakeholderStakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
4. Accelerate Innovation Diffusion
Excellence Award
The rate and efficiency of innovation ‘roll out’ or diffusion is a concern......
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Innovation Pilot
Innovation Leaders
External and independent recognition of the successful implementation of innovation pilots through awards and certification etc. could provide a stimulus to encourage
greater diffusion rates and also ensure implementation quality is kept at
appropriate standards.
Quality Approved
Approved Deliverer
5. Seeking Outcomes not Prescribing Methods
The tendency for a target and cost driven public service has in the past
almost certainly had a positive impact on the quality and value for money of
those services.
There is now a recognition that the over prescription of these targets can have a constraining effect on those
who are asked to deliver the service (ask any teacher about the impact of the SATs).
5. Seeking Outcomes not Prescribing Methods
Having a prescriptive approach to programmes that involve third parties from
the private sector will have the same constraining effect and so ‘squeeze out’
the innovation potential that such partnerships could yield.
Focusing on desired broad outcomes rather specific statistical measures will
enable innovative solutions the chance to ‘breath’ and so reduce the temptation to focus on selective narrow targets at the
expense of the whole.
5. Seeking Outcomes not Prescribing Methods> Step back from over prescription – particularly when involving third parties
4. Accelerate Innovation Diffusion> Establish or use existing external quality verification and excellence award structures to motivate roll out and reduce dilution
3. Reducing the Risk> Establish innovation experimentation as the norm.> Seek third party funding to support experimentation> Praise delivery success and acknowledge (but don’t punish) failure
2. Learning> Establish working groups that actively seek out innovation best practice. > Develop innovation enabling skills for all.
1. Gathering Evidence for Innovation Demand> Adopting recognised interrogation processes and routinely using them
The Discussion Provocations …
Contact details
Prof. Adrian C. ColeTechnology Innovation CentreBirmingham City UniversityE [email protected] www.tic.ac.uk
Brian MacAulaySenior Intelligence AnalystWest Midlands Regional ObservatoryE [email protected] +44 (0)121 202 3247Web www.wmro.orgBlog http://wmro.wordpress.com
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