One of the first questions that an innovation team
faces is "what do we work on?" This is the central
question of government-led innovation teams since
it determines where an innovation team spends its
time and the sort of impact the team can expect
to have. Often these teams may start out working
on problems in the "low-hanging fruit" category.
This may be useful for building momentum, but
can also pigeonhole the team into certain kinds of
work in the eyes of their executive, peers, the
public, etc.
An innovation team cannot afford to be seen as
irrelevant. Rather, it should be central - not
marginal - in the advancement of the
administration's agenda and city residents' highest
priorities.
The City Accelerator cities each focus their work on
issues that are key to their mayors and to their
constituents. Louisville's innovation practice, for
example, is deeply aligned with the Mayor's
strategic plan. Its Office of Performance
Improvement (which focuses on continuous
improvement), Office of Civic Innovation (focused
on internal/ external innovation partnerships), and
its Bloomberg Innovation Delivery Team (focused
on specific substantive or operational issues) all
focus on various facets of the Mayor's 21 strategic
goals. Part of their work with the City Accelerator
is to create a clear process for bringing these
different pieces of their innovation practice to bear
around particular issues. Their substantive work
with the City Accelerator focuses on delivering
better fire protection (including in lower-income
communities) and better serving people suffering
from both mental illness and substance abuse.
Sourcing Initial Projects
Ultimately, it's important for an innovation practice
to have a robust pipeline of ideas and projects to
maximize its impact and produce a steady stream
of wins for the city. But the first projects you pick
can matter because they set the tone for the
innovation practice. So where do you start? Here
are three easy things you can do:
Go to the people. Create opportunities for
residents to be a part of determining what
good services and programs look like. Go to
community meetings to understand the issues
and to engage residents in real conversations.
Look for ways of using technology (e.g.,
social media) to encourage participation that
builds on top of (and not just instead of) the
community meeting model.
Connect with colleagues in departments that
align with the city executive's priorities. Look
for people who are fired up about what needs
to change and who have a track record of
working well with others and delivering
results.
Articulate your criteria for projects. What's
doable or not doable for you? What does
impact mean for your team? By saying your
criteria out loud or writing them down, you
help your team develop consistency around,
and continually test your hunches about,
what kinds of projects really work.
These steps are roughly what we followed as we
got New Urban Mechanics off the ground, but they
will likely look a little different in every city. That
said, if we as a field are going to break the
perception that innovation is just a buzzword, we
have to intentionally point it at the issues that
directly affect the lives of our constituents. We
can't afford to settle for easy but non-essential
wins.
0 comments:
Post a Comment