innovation ideas with impact
TRANSCRIPT
Innovation: Ideas with Impact
Ramona McDowell
Employment and Social Development Canada
World Association of Public Employment Services
May 7, 2015
UNCLASSIFIED
IRBV
2
Outline
A demanding new environment
A response - Blueprint 2020
The innovation imperative
Testing the Lab approach
What we did
What we learned along the way
Things to think about
3
Demanding Environment for Governments
TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT
Increasing globalization, issue complexity
and interconnectedness
Accelerating technological change
Changing demographics
Demand for efficient and transparent
results
Public servants’ shifting expectations
CHALLENGE FOR PUBLIC SERVICES
Engaging actors with varied interests,
values on roles that in the past only
governments played
Meeting expectations for e-enabled
services on clients’ terms
Providing more customized services
Making relevant information available to
stakeholders
Offering employees efficient tools and
technologies, flexible ways of working
4
A Canadian response - Blueprint 2020
CANADA’S BLUEPRINT 2020 VISION
An open and networked environment that
engages citizens and partners for the public
good
A public service workforce that embraces
new ways of working and mobilizes a
diversity of talent to serve evolving needs
A whole-of-government approach that
enhances service delivery and value for
money
A modern workplace that makes smart use
of technologies to improve networking,
access to data and customer service
CHALLENGE FOR PUBLIC SERVICES
Engaging actors with varied interests,
values on roles previously played by
governments
Meeting clients’ expectations for e-
enabled services
Providing more customized services
Making relevant information available to
stakeholders
Offering employees efficient tools and
technologies, flexible ways of working
5
Becoming a Higher Performing Organization (HPO)
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) translated the Blueprint 2020
into concrete HPO commitments, including:
Cultivating a culture of continuous improvement
Enabling employees to spearhead change
Innovating though policy, program and service improvements
Learning from organizational evidence
Innovation = Continued Relevance = Survival
6
Reality Check – change is rarely easy
There is a 70% failure rate for change
initiatives in both the private and public
sectors*
Change often focuses on the concrete:
software systems, organisational structure,
processes
The people and cultural aspects of
implementing and sustaining change are
more difficult
Public sector budgets mean limited funds
are available to support transformation
* Research by McKinsey and Company
7
Innovation from within - on a budget
Small incremental changes can have a big impact
Crowdsourcing innovation
– Statistics Canada’s Innovation Channel web platform crowdsources employee-
generated ideas, allows for voting and ranking the best
– ESDC includes stakeholders in policy development online through the National Call
for Concepts on Social Finance
Virtual collaboration with external partners
– Social Development Canada (part of ESDC) uses social media for collaborative
dialogues with stakeholders on policy issues
Change Labs to generate, shape and move forward innovative ideas
– Canada Revenue Agency emphasises behavioural economics and “nudges”
– ESDC focuses on new approaches to bridge policy, program and service
perspectives in solving client problems
Change Labs respond to several Blueprint 2020 and HPO commitments –
embracing new ways of working, mobilizing talent, engaging employees
and policy and service innovation
8
Changes Labs – some inspirations
A Change Lab creates an environment that fosters collaboration, creativity and innovation
An approach to problem solving that bridges knowledge gaps, establishes connections
among actors and uses experimental techniques to develop policies, programs and client
services
MindLab (Denmark)
Cross-governmental innovation
unit brings together government,
citizens and businesses to create
solutions that reflect the reality of
end-users
CoLab (Alberta Canada)
Government social innovation lab
taking a multi-stakeholder
approach to policy design,
development and implementation
9
Why an ESDC Change Lab?
Break down silos
Reduce risks associated with new initiatives
Bring multiple perspectives to policies, services
Build innovative capacity on complex issues
Foster use of innovative policy tools, e.g., nudges
Enable employees to lead change
“Put in place a constant feedback loop between policy, program and
service delivery, including frontline services.”
10
Using the Change Lab to develop new approaches
Challenges for ESDC employment programs:
Connecting Canadians with available jobs
Aligning the training system with the
employment needs of businesses
Ensuring flexible and responsive services for
Canadians
Policy objectives:
Effective skills utilization - fewer gaps
Greater employer engagement
Increasing workplace training
Not unique to Canada - Public
Employment Services around the
world are developing approaches to
cope with skills gaps
11
Labs: A method and a process
TEST DEPLOY DESIGN
LEARN AND ITERATE
ASSESS AND ACT
Challenges - time constraints around the planning process, lack of common problem
definition, incomplete evidence, improving value of existing research, lack of
mechanisms to support horizontal work
Approach - combine elements from design thinking, complexity science and cognitive
science, draw on other sources of knowledge to generate evidence, rapid prototyping,
“safe to fail” experiments to reduce risks
12
Getting started
An enthusiastic change agent
Including the right people (facilitator, participants, resource people), broad diversity
Working out a process that could be completed in weeks
13
How can we increase employer-led training?
Examining the evidence:
• OECD country reports
• Additional reading
• Group discussion
• Interviews
Identifying patterns of good
practices
Visualising the “problem”
Selecting design elements
Developing “low resolution”
prototypes
DESIGN
14
Using “safe to fail” testing to refine prototypes
Challenge by external
partners
Ritual dissent by the team
Challenge by internal
decision makers
Reworking prototypes
TEST
15
Examples of our prototypes
“No more excuses”
“Getting to Work” “Great Work!” Awards
-Helps meet demand for
workers in tight labour
markets
-Addresses recruitment and
retention issues
-Funded by subscription
-Crowd sources workplace
training practices
-Nudges future efforts by
employers
-Increases evidence on
bottom-line impacts
-Repurposes existing
employer-led network
-“No worries” support for
businesses hiring and
retaining workers with a
disability
16
Next steps - making ideas reality
DEPLOY Assigning champions
Forming task teams that
include operational and
evaluation perspectives
Integrating into suite of
policy responses
Following up to evaluate
success
17
What worked
1. Created new networks between participants
that will support future horizontal
approaches
2. Knowledge gained through real-life on the
ground can fill research gaps around
cause-effect
3. Greater openness to non-traditional
approaches, even among sceptics
4. Rapid restocking of policy options at a
critical time
5. “Work can be fun”
18
Things to think about
1. You are not alone – other countries are dealing with the same messy real-
life problems
2. An expert facilitator is critical to early success and to build internal capacity
3. Look for patterns of elements rather than complete programs to adapt
4. A dedicated space is helpful, communication technology is vital
5. Timing is important – there is no bad time for good ideas, but some
moments are more opportune
6. Engage all the “problem-owners”, but identify a clear champion to
implement solutions
