Transforming Government

Why Innovation Now | The Innovation Hub Strategy | Hub Key Objectives | Public Service Innovation | Transforming Government

'Innovation flow depends on
responsiveness and proactive
support for innovation, on
transforming government,
especially in policy-making
and on current practice and
on cultural and behavioural
change in departments.'
Ursula Brennan (Ministry of Defence)
and Natalie Ceeney (National Archives)

Creating the conditions for innovation calls for a more open and innovative government

Creating the conditions for innovation calls for transformational government and new models of innovation flow. Generic models tend to portray the stages that particular innovations go through before becoming widely accepted. This journey tends to reflect stages of ideas, early and later adoption and then embedding in the mainstream, which usually demands more receptive corporate strategy and functions.

However, those involved in innovations do not know how the journey will proceed and who will support them before they embark on it. New ideas and practices are adopted by those who are receptive to them, creating a flow or process of diffusion; innovation rarely follows a linear or predictable path. This is because the diffusion of new practice is determined by innovators, who respond to opportunities presented to them and the obstacles they encounter. Innovation diffusion, when in practice, looks more like a 'delta' than a 'pipeline'.

Although each innovation on reflection goes through stages, the reality of practice at the time is that each context and innovator determines the trajectory and pace of innovative diffusion in different and diverse ways.

The challenge for government is that creating the conditions for innovation involves creating space and time for emergent conversations and practice - giving room for development and later auditing on the basis of impact rather than predefined process.

A model of open innovation will help those throughout the Public Sector attempting to support service and government innovation.

Open innovation is characterised by:

• a convergence or alignment between those with a shared interest in innovating
• a journey involving many people who share, collaborate and adapt practices according to their particular challenges
• curious, open and flexible attitudes to problems and more regard for customers, staff, partners and stakeholders
• network forms of organisation
• an acceptance of diversity - new ways of working emerge when people from many backgrounds come together to address a common problem and forge new solutions whether they be in the form of system re-design, new services or products or paradigms.

The web and new technologies have dramatically improved the opportunity to connect with people; this has enabled companies to spot new ideas and involve a wide range of people in design.

Open Source and social networks

In order to create a new landscape, new mechanisms for communicating with staff, partners and, in particular, service users and the public, are required. Open Source techniques have been used by Lego, Linux, Peugeot and a growing number of companies, and they are also being adopted across the Public Sector - for instance there are 'communities of practice' in education and health, and obvious to see in most social movements like the plastic bag campaign and webbased blogs such as Facebook and YouTube.

'User-led design' was a phrase coined by Eric Von Hippel as a way to connect better to customer and service user experience, a move to more open learning about what people wanted. This model has become known as open-sourcing and is now widely adopted by business and many public bodies as a way of moving beyond 'consultation'.

Technologies can be the platform for innovation and for improving service efficiencies - but it is the connection between people that drives the innovation insight and process of adaption.

Over the last two years, innovation has been recognised as a priority for the Public Sector and senior civil servants. A focus on innovation is critical to addressing current and future challenges. The question for policy makers is how to incentivise innovative behaviour and public servants who are agile, adaptive, collaborative and less risk averse. Transforming the Public Sector demands a new type of professional and an alignment between local and frontline innovation and those in government.