From Small Innovations to Social Transformations
Two Practical New Guides on Innovation in the Public Sector
Panel discussion presenting two new publications on innovation in government sponsored by the Doing What Works project of the Center for American Progress on July 1, 2010 in Washington, D.C.
Center for American Progress
The Doing What Works project launched by the Center for American Progress (CAP) , supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, has produced two practical new guides on innovation in the public sector. The first report, “Capital Ideas: How to Generate Innovation in the Public Sector,” explains how to create the conditions needed to foster powerful innovation in government agencies and provides a menu of 24 examples from the public sector. The second report, “Scaling New Heights: How to Spot Small Successes in the Public Sector and Make Them Big,” discusses how successful innovations can be implemented on a much wider scale.
Capital Ideas
How to Generate Innovation in the Public Sector
EXCERPT:
When we think of innovation, most of us think of the private sector. And that's hardly surprising since private-sector innovation accounts for more than 85 % of economic growth in the United States.
But innovation is needed just as much in the public sector . Some of the impetus for innovation comes from new challenges such as childhood obesity, or climate change. Others come from public demands--public services can easily become stuck with outdated and ineffective approaches. And still more urgency emerges from fiscal pressures: as money gets tighter, public agencies will have to find more efficient ways to conduct the census or administer social security, improve workplace safety, or tackle crime.
Download full report: Capital Ideas
Scaling New Heights
How to Spot Small Successes in the Public Sector and Make Them Big
EXCERPT:
The question of scaling is a great issue for any progressive government—how to find and foster small pockets of brilliance. It's particularly an issue in the fields of social policy, education and health. There are promising pilots, social enterprises, and community projects in each of these sectors that inspire everyone who visits them. But it's usually much harder to sustain their success at a larger scale. This report explores why that is and sets out recommendations to assist the scaling process.
Government can learn important lessons in this endeavor from commercial markets, where scal;ing is natural. No other country in history has been as successful as the United States at reaping
economies of scale--in manufacturing with firms like GE, insoftware with firms like Microsoft, and in retail and logistics with firms like Walmart. Economists estimate that innovation --brilliant ideas that bedome large-scale products and services--accounts for as much as 85% of the United States' economic growth.
Download full Report: Scaling New heights
Watch the entire panel discussion on strategies for fostering innovation in government that took place on July 1, 2010 in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Center for American Progress' Doing What Works project.