1. Innovation in 19.5 Minutes NRPA Congress, New Orleans 2017
Barbara Heller
Heller and Heller Consulting, LLC

2. Innovation
What is it?
What’s required?
Examples

3. Every organization needs one core competence: innovation.
Peter Drucker

4. What is Innovation? Change based on customer requirements
Creativity is about coming up with ideas; innovation is about putting those ideas into practice
Competitive advantage
Taking a look at the organization through a different set of lenses
Continuously improving processes
Disrupting practices

5. Embedding Innovation
Establishes an organizational culture that is primed for taking big leaps forward in the quality and kinds of services delivered.
Focuses an agency’s attention on the priorities, needs and experience of residents.
Creates a culture where employees can experiment, take appropriate, strategic risks, and collaborate effectively within and outside city hall, including with private sector companies and communities.
Treats innovation as a day-to-day activity, rather than a standalone practice.
Nigel Jacob, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics

6. Breakthrough Innovation Guiding Values
People first: people over bureaucracy
Open Innovation: ideas from everywhere
Public Entrepreneurship: pilot, experiment, new ways of thinking
Culture of Innovation: empowerment and encouragement

7. Workforce Capacity and Competency
What’s Required
Innovation
Voice of the Customer
Voice of the Employee
Leadership System
Innovation Process
Workforce Capacity and Competency
Strategic Alignment

8. What’s Required: Innovation Roadmap
Voice of the customer
Needs assessment
Engagement
Inclusiveness
Customer knowledge
Voice of the employee
Empowerment
Ideas from all levels
Cross functional teams
Leadership system
Diffused power
Eradicate the status quo
Who is in charge?
Measurement

9. Innovation Roadmap Innovation Process Workforce Competency
Idea generation
Assessment
Who is in charge?
What is the process?
Workforce Competency
System alignment
Developing talent
Technology and data
Redistribution of labor resources
Strategic Alignment
Part of strategic direction
Trends process
Organizational culture

10. The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of good ideas.
Linus Pauling

11. Idea Generation Organizational Conditions Open/diverse
Decentralized/participative culture
Structural looseness
Environmental Impact
Increased access to knowledge and information
Lateral communication
Empowerment
Multi-level participation

12. Innovation in Action
Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics civic innovation group that pilots experiments
Makerspace: community members design, prototype and manufacture items using tools that would otherwise be  inaccessible
--3-D printers, digital fabrication machines, laser cutters, computer-aided design software
CIO
--Cleveland, Philadelphia, Austin, Chicago, Louisville
I-teams: MD National Capital Parks and Planning Commission

13. Innovation in Action Smart phone apps Technology
Remote sensors, 3-D printing, robotics
Smart phone apps
finding available parking
park inspections
paying parking tickets
street bump
seeclickfix
self-guided tours
Performance Management Systems
CitiStat, OpenGov, SOOFA

14. Innovation in Action
Virtual Reality for public engagement opportunities
Denmark Mindlab, public sector innovation center
Cross departments
Burden hunting
Philadelphia Citizen Engagement Innovation Summit
Online community engagement
Open innovation

15. Innovation in Action Gainesville, FL Department of Doing
Minneapolis Park Board: Government Alliance on Race and Equity
NYC Parks interactive map showing tree inventory, type of tree, bark health and location
Produce park in Louisville, urban orchard
Active design principles: Center for Active Design
Flywheel’s tablet devices that let riders stream classes at home
WeWork interior design

16. Innovation Ideas Ask new employees for ideas Job swap days
Create an idea room
“What if” board
Idea challenge of the month
Design workplace to create random opportunities for employee conversations
Reward smart failure
Listen to ideas and immediately put in place
Training in innovation, idea generation
Job swap days
Mentorship program for creativity
Mindmapping/ brainstorming teams
Book club
Technology free day once/month
Meet in unusual places
Innovation Hoshin

17. Thanks for Attending! For more information, contact Barbara Heller: