Jonathan Kestenbaum
Today I attended a lunchtime discussion on the hot topic of innovation in local government. It was held at NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. It was on the launch of a booklet, More than Good Ideas; the power of innovation in local government. The speakers were:
- Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO, NESTA
- Cllr David Parsons, Chair, Local Government Improvement Board
- Lucy de Groot, Executive Director of IDEA
- Kim Ryley, CEO, Hull City Council
The talks were concise and direct – here are some of the key messages that I noted:
JK – Risks are needed for radical innovations but innovation has become just another buzzword. We are in a perfect storm in local government with increased demands, rising expectations and financial contstraints. The antidote to the storm is bottoms up innovation. There is risk capital available from NESTA for innovative initiatives.
DP – Local government is the most effective part of the whole public sector. It faces severe and diverse challenges such as youth crime, obesity, social housing and climate change. Regional improvement and efficiency partnerships and the public sector innovation laboratory (at NESTA) can be part of the innovation solution.
LDG – We need to be less afraid and more confident about innovating in the public sector. We must fight the ‘not invented here’ syndrome. The unfavourable economic climate makes the need for fresh thinking imperative. If we do not become more innovative we will fail our stakeholders. We need to find better ways to share ideas. We have find new ways to explain to citizens about choices and risks.
KR – We need to move away from the obsession with data and targets towards intelligent risk taking. We should expand our networks of innovators – horizontally and vertically. The goal in local government should be quality of life – not quality of service delivery, which is what is currently measured. We need to find new ways to prioritise since we will not be able to provide all the services that are requested.
A couple of other comments I heard in the discussions were:
- We have watered the tree for some time, now we will have to prune the branches.
- The inspection regime in local government inhibits innovation and leads to uniform mediocrity.
The booklet makes interesting reading and it is available as a download from the IDEA site here.
Paul Sloane
