As a member of the Danish Designer’s Organization I was invited to a workshop on innovation in the public sector hosted by The Innovation Council and the Think Tank House of Monday Morning . This was an interesting opportunity to take a look at how the ‘innovation business’ is working and to network.
However the way innovation was discussed was more like a tapable resource than an attitude or activity. Innovation was not seen as a scarce resource as people working in different public organizations deliver many different ideas for innovations at a many different levels. As a union representative stated ‘innovation on the floor can be a new ideas of where to place the buckets for cleaning the floor’ and surely this type of employee-oriented innovation is both relevant to focus on and able to save money in production costs. On the other end of the scale SKAT – our IRS – has created web-based services that make it so much easier to pay your taxes (with a smile). The newest example of IRS innovation is their new office in Second Life. (It would truly be a great innovation if the Danish IRS is able to get everyone in SL to pay our modest Danish taxes.)
So INNOVATION takes place at all levels. The problem seems to be managerial – how is the innovative process supported, encouraged, filtered, sustained etc.? .