If an innovation is successful, an agency should examine how it can be integrated and embedded into the organisation’s operations. Often, it will be necessary to work to sustain a new idea or way of working, and not assume that that it will continue of its own accord once it has been implemented. Resistance to it may take time to mobilise, or the innovation may falter after its champion or sponsor moves on.
The below offers some guidance on approaches to help embed an innovation.
Approaches to the sustainability of public service innovations1
- Choose visible goals for the innovation that you know will be met early on and which will reinforce to staff its effectiveness.
- Create organizational subsystems to support the innovation after its initial introduction and which do not rely on one or two individuals alone for their sustenance.
- Ensure a wide spectrum of organizational staff and stakeholders receive credit from the innovation.
- Take personal responsibility for mistakes rather than blaming them on, and discrediting, the innovation.
- Provide regular ‘breathers’ for staff to catch up with the pace of change and assimilate the implications of the innovation for themselves.
- Ensure that an innovation-friendly culture is engendered and which exists beyond the initial period of innovation, and which can allow lessons to be learned and further innovations to be engendered.
- Provide an evaluation mechanism from the outset which is about learning positive lessons and supporting innovation, rather than being negatively oriented and concerned with blaming individuals for mistakes.
Source: Osborne and Brown (2005, p. 211).
- This material is not covered by the Creative Commons licence or Commonwealth Copyright. From Osborne and Brown 2005, Managing change and innovation in public service organizations, Routledge, London ↩
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Hi Hin Oey
Apologies for the delayed reply. I don’t beleive we have looked at this issue across Australia recently. As you may know, police and firefighters in Australia sit under state and territory jurisdiction so reports into innvoations in the emergency services are often done at that level.
For example, the Queensland Police recently published a case study on using social media in disaster management which is worth a read if you are interested in this topic http://www.police.qld.gov.au/Resources/Internet/services/reportsPublications/documents/QPSSocialMediaCaseStudy.pdf
This is certainly an area where innovation has a role to play and would have very visable impacts on the community.
Have you lloked into the field of societal security (as oposite to defense), i.e innovation towards police fire fighters. I know you have had (in 2005 or so) a PMSEIC report in this field.