Some recent developments and articles of interest:

• Family by Family, the first co-designed social solution out of The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI), has been recognised as Best in Category in Service Design at the 2012 Australian International Design Awards. Congratulations to the team at TACSI!
• A recent report on the US Federal Government Public Service found mixed results about the culture of innovation across US Government Agencies but identified that you don’t need an exciting mission to foster innovation. ”While one would expect agencies like NASA to rank high on the innovation scale, the Partnership noted that the high innovation scores at the Surface Transportation Board illustrate that an agency does not need an exciting mission and history to create a culture of innovation. For example, board leaders at the STB encourage employees to make suggestions during a weekly open door meeting and honor the best proposals with the agency’s ‘genius’ award, presented at an annual ceremony.”¹
• Some insights from innovation author Scott Berkun on innovation in the workplace. “The most common practice is taking a small slice of a culture from a successful company (Apple, Google, etc.) without studying the larger context, and trying to jam it into their own culture. It’s organ transplantation surgery done with a butter knife. There is great hubris in assuming that making a poor copy of something that is not well understood will have instant positive effects. Typically the thing being poorly copied is then blamed as ‘not working’ and the cycle continues with the next fad.”²
• An interview with philanthropist/investor Esther Dyson provides an  interesting look at how healthcare may change in the future. “If we look ahead to the next decade, it’s worth wondering whether the way we think about health and healthcare will have shifted. Will healthcare technology be a panacea? Will it drive even higher costs, creating a broader divide between digital haves and have-nots? Will opening health data empower patients or empower companies?”³
• Michael Schrage looks at the trend towards using ‘predictive performance analytics’ in education and how that might spill over to performance management in companies. How does this relate to innovation? If the trend continues, how might the public sector use such tools in assisting customers and clients, or maybe even patients? “The best way to understand the trajectory of your high performance career tomorrow is to look at what’s happening to college undergraduates today. The Amazonified, Googlefied and Big Data-soaked — enriched? — nature of educational advice and assessment will increasingly define how you and your colleagues get hired, fired and promoted. Even if — perhaps especially if — you work at a smaller, entrepreneurial organization, you’ll find your professional relationships algorithmically evaluated to help assure you really are worth that retention bonus or extra training investment.”⁴

As always, please feel free to identify any other recent developments or articles of interest in the comments below.