Developing a Culture for Public Innovation

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Phil Wilkerson
August 12, 2024

Public sector organizations, government or non-profit, maintain a depth of constituents in providing broad services for society. These institutions consist of employees, leaders and governance boards that comprise the makeup of internal stakeholders who emphasize commendable services and find themselves constantly evaluating actions through ethical principles. Stakeholders at each level receive copious amounts of pressure from constituents, policy makers and from one another. Bound by rules-based obligations and often led by traditional management styles, public organizations tend to perpetuate a risk-aversive culture. Whereas private businesses and corporations tend to reward creativity and risk that contribute to sustainable innovations, public administrators normally find themselves responding to the emergency at with the resources available at the time. This reality may be impacted by the merit-system stability for career employees, manufacturing consent from the media and a general influx of varied perspectives in public opinion.

In addition to inherent cultural tendencies, internal members may resist change for a variety of reasons. Public managers have the ultimate responsibility in facilitating and garnering support from public employees. Facilitating change involves a variety of actions which might include persuasive encouragement on the need for change, offering an acceptable/believable plan, combating resistance, offering psychological support, incentivizing participation, garnering external support, providing resources and must construct necessary organizational change. Though turnover and inconsistency among top-tier public management can be a major deterrent to successful organizational change, so too can be complacency from middle management and career service members. Additionally, organizational change requires a variety of resources that may be difficult to fund for most public agencies.

For improvement in delivery of public goods and services, bureaucratic managers should consider facilitating a shift in organizational culture that might address:

• reluctance to change among frontline employees
• proper alignment of skillsets and tasks among organizational members
• development of feedback loops from constituents and external stakeholders
• improvement of bottom-up communication
• assured alignment between mid-level and upper-level management

Perhaps the quickest route to victory in substantiating necessary organizational changes may be in adopting practices from our private sector counterparts. While we may quickly identify concerns over entrepreneurs who become politicians through promising private world applications, only to be met with a steep learning curve of governmental accounting and constitutional requirements, operational outcomes stand to benefit greatly from bureaucratic and corporate collaborations. For a proper fit, public agencies should consider cooperating with entities that might strengthen technological applications, offer managerial wisdom and support improvements without reinventing the wheel or combating the organizational mission. A partnership approach differs from outright privatization of an operation, but nurtures positive outcomes for both a private and public organization.

Among options for a productive collaboration include the establishment of a proficient public/private network for sharing practices and solutions. The public/private network approach offers bureaucratic agencies the opportunity to source ideas from successful ventures and alleviate the pressure to create new ideas. Formal networks can align knowledge building and development of expertise for public administrators that are not thwarted by the bureaucratic process. When applying collective input to identifying future problems and trends the external partners, citizens and public employees must hold a stake in selecting what ideas to follow or cultivate. And as citizens may be proficient in describing problems or frustrations, they often lack an ability to clearly articulate the issue or provide clarity in possible resolution. This reality necessitates a need for administrative interpretation or discernment in seeking practical solutions or improvements. Ideally, the networks strategy will prompt input from highly skilled and creative community members who aid implementing substantial plans and applications to public service. Additionally, when absorbing a breadth of information and detail from outside sources, senior and middle managers must be in the loop with the citizens they serve. Networks approach efforts may also generate social media discussion that further educates the public and drive greater discourse. Through establishing a mechanism for translating ideas into viable solutions, private partners come to gain a better understanding of public policy and constitutional constraint while public managers acquire a priority for simple yet effective methods of delivery. Successful networks identify tension among members and work to modify conflicting perspectives. This can be addressed when the public agency develops a needs list and connects with external creators or aligns with suppliers for the creation of application. Or agencies may pursue open networks that offer a broad invite to connecting with skilled contract partners, connect with highly skilled retirees with sound experience or broker a technology transfer. Such efforts in collaboration can effectively offer best solutions to problems, perpetuate continual idea sharing, aggregate information across diverse communities, connect mindfully with citizens and consumers and take advantage of existing knowledge at an acceptable level.

Another approach to innovative public culture may be found in the open-source model. This method can provide critical benefits such as repositories of ideas or tools that are shared freely without delay over copyright issues or costly updates; continuous improvement practices generated from the broader community, discovering problems and how to fix them; customized solutions at minimal costs without compromising performance or responsiveness, government agencies can gain valued solutions without detrimental investment;  attracting specialist contributions that would otherwise be difficult to obtain or facilitate, tapping into resources outside of the organization for minimal time consumption or costs; and allows governments to engage citizens in increasing social welfare by supporting their ability to innovate. These beneficial solutions can greatly impact specific sectors. Innovative repositories can greatly benefit the educational industry, for secondary and post-secondary learners and educators. Continuous improvement mechanisms could be applicable to consulting firms, information exchange, education and various quality assurance venues. Low-cost customized solutions is particularly beneficial for government agencies that collect massive amounts of data or information that is often never analyzed, so the shared creativity aspect is beneficial for consultation or analysis from highly talented professionals who would contribute to democracy. Resource-challenged departments might gain specialist contributions that might not be affordable otherwise, allowing agencies to thrive while also promoting notoriety and recognition for talented individuals who want to apply their knowledge to environmental benefits.

Occasionally, significant transformation is crucial even within public sector institutions that traditionally thrive on established procedures and routines. Although public organizations tend to prioritize caution over risk, favoring gradual rather than abrupt changes, the demands of innovation may require a quicker pace of adaptation than usual in our ever-evolving challenges in public administration. 

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Author: Philip K. Wilkerson can be reached at [email protected].

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