Rumi Shivaz Innovation Blog

Public Sector Innovation - A New Wave

It’s almost 2 years since I started to focus on public sector innovation.  At that time, there was very little interest or good quality reference material on this subject. However, things have changed for the better, and interest on this topic is increasing, both in New Zealand and around the world. 

 In my view, here are some key reasons for this change.  (New Zealand context)

• Change of government … prime minister and number of key ministers with entrepreneurial backgrounds.
• Directive from Treasury to chief executives of government agencies … to cut their operating budgets, think outside the box and deliver more value for money.
• Increase of high calibre people joining the public sector … number of previously self-employed professionals and private sector employees have accepted senior management positions in public sector.  
• Demand from ‘smart citizens’ to improve level of service … we are getting used to extraordinary service level’s from private sector organizations and we want public sector organizations to lift their game.

Expecting a whole government agency to become innovative is wishful thinking.  However, it is possible for this to happen at a business unit level.  Once a business unit start to think and work like a close-knit entrepreneurial team and create a few ‘wow’ services to their customers, over time, that energy and creativity is likely to spread to other parts of the organization.

While there are a number of ingredients required for a public sector team to embrace an innovative culture, the key ingredient is an “innovation champion” with the following attributes.  

• Someone who believes his/her organization could be so much better
• A genuine desire to fulfil customers articulated and latent needs
• A ‘yes – let’s figure out how’ attitude rather than ‘no – here are the reasons why’ attitude
• Willingness to tap into external networks to complement capability and capacity of internal team
• Courage to engage and work with ‘smart citizens’ to co-create public services

As a nation, New Zealand desperately needs more ‘innovation champions’ in the public sector, who are prepared to re-imagine the future, go the extra mile, uncover hidden opportunities & create services that can add huge value to its customers and the economy of New Zealand

Public Sector Innovation & Service Design

I have been focusing on the public sector innovation opportunities for the last two years.  At the start, most people (including me doubting my own intuition) felt trying to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in a slow moving, hierarchical, process driven, public sector organizations would be an utter waste of time. 

However, I’m grateful to all the people who have given me an amazing amount of support and encouragement to pursue this “road less travelled”.  A special thanks must go to Deryk Whyte from NZTA (NZ Transport Agency),  who had the vision and courage to become my first client,  without his support,  I would have struggled to get this idea off the ground.

Government agencies around the world spend most of the operating budgets to maintain status quo.  I’m urging chief executive’s in government to allocate a small percentage of funds, even as tiny as 1% from their operating budget to foster a culture of innovation. 

Most of the ideas fail not because we don’t have enough money, but we fail to attract the right talent.  It is extremely important to get a balanced team to drive your innovation initiatives, which must be made up by internal and external players.  While there is a truckload of published material on this topic,  a great starting point is two books from Tom Kelly,  “The Art of Innovation” and “The Ten Faces of Innovation”.

The other key ingredient required by people in public sector is to develop a “Servant Leadership” culture.  Without this, you will never be able to create the kind of service innovation that is required to meet the high level of “service experience” expected by today’s discerning citizens. 

The following video clip is a great example of service design & innovation. I urge you to pass on this link to every person you know that is holding a leadership role in a public sector organization.