This is a post from our colleagues Brant Smith and Helen Bailey at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Imagine if you could solve your problem by simply asking a question? Chances are that one of your colleagues or someone outside your department already has the solution to your problem or is willing to work with you to find an answer.
This sort of collaboration is the basis of a model called ‘open innovation’ and it’s the future of innovation. That’s what we heard and discussed at the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) Dynamics of Innovation conference in Spain in June.
Open innovation involves sourcing and combining ideas from both within and outside an organisation. It makes sense because it avoids reinventing the wheel—it connects businesses with people who have already developed, or are developing, the technologies or systems needed.
Many of the private companies at the ISPIM conference are already using a type of open innovation, called ‘crowdsourcing’. They post their problem on the internet and teams or individuals (the crowd) compete to solve it. The company and crowd vet the solutions and determine a winner who is rewarded in some way, often financially.
The open innovation examples mentioned at the conference dealt with developing products, such as more comfortable airline seats or foldable shoes for tired feet, but this model can be applied in the government sector as well. For example, we could crowdsource internally to find solutions to issues within our agencies. Or, external stakeholders could be invited to contribute to discussions about how to improve systems or processes within the government.
We were lucky enough to meet, hear and discuss the research and experiences of the 350 academics and private industry innovation practitioners at the conference. We found out what motivates innovators, ways to measure innovation, and how companies of all sizes encourage and manage new ideas.
In the spirit of collaboration, we’re happy to share the information we gleaned from the conference.
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What a great wrought Brant…a trip to spain to talk about collaboration. If you were serious about it you would not have flown across the planet on the taxpayers grace.
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Just a reminder that this platform is for civil and respectful discussion.
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It actually does raise a question which does relate to Innovation particularly in the public sector.
I’ve touched on it before and its the fact that as the public sector we do have responsibility for tax payers money and Innovation is inherently risky.
The public attitudes and perceptions of how that money is spent is one of the biggest risks, I believe, to innovation. If the public are not able to recognise that an innovative trial of say a new way of delivering services may fail then the backlash would be tremendous. How can the public sector manage the expectations of the public with relations to finances?
My only other comment is that international collaboration is vitally important to the movement of Australia from “being the worlds quarry” to the introduction of an information and technology economy. That is not just collaboration at a political level but also through ...
... to our universities and research centres. Rather than being a waste of money (if indeed the trip was funded by a department rather than individually) we should be encouraging this collaboration at all levels of society and in turn host our own conferences which draws an international crowd.
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Im interested in your comments about using open questions as a way of generating innovative ideas. I’ve been exploring a website with an approach called Better Questions Are the Answer which is based on the principle of using questions to develop personal and professional competencies and its fantastic. Its great to know its being tried in innovation. Asking the right questions opens up a whole world of possibility
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I hope someone from the Department of Innovation was there?
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There was not an attendee from our area, but as you can see Brant and Helen have been only too happy to share their insights and lessons from the event.
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I hope it takes off too. The ‘innovation’ innovation is the first thing I have seen in the public service that lets in fresh ideas. People can be creative and ‘heard’. That’s important to all of us – so is responsibly using tax payer’s money to get the best for all Australians.
Let’s hope though, that there are enough people who will remind us that it shouldn’t become another avenue for some to simply tick boxes on performance development requirements. Rather, that innovation really becomes a tool for bettering all government services. Wouldn’t that be great!
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I would really like this to take off. There must be plenty of good ideas in people’s minds just waiting to be shared. I think there is a general mood to share more too along the lines of creative commons. As public servants, we work for the whole government, not just our individual departments and agencies. What might not work in one area might be perfect for another.
Thanks for sharing your article.
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