The Importance of People in the Innovation Process 

In many governments across the world, the notion of innovation sounds almost counterintuitive. After all, government agencies are usually large, bureaucratic and usually slow to act. Whilst the pandemic showed that governments can innovate when required, it often comes in short bursts and for short periods. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Brianna Verhelst, the Executive Director of the Office of Planning, Performance & Improvement at the Ministry of Finance in the Government of Saskatchewan, says that innovation in government can thrive when we don’t underestimate the importance of people to the practice of innovation.

As part of that, the public service largely exists to execute the direction of our elected officials, who are of course elected by the people. When it comes to innovation therefore, the first thing to consider is whether you are trying to solve a real problem, and is it on the radar of the people who are in charge? Being innovative in government can be an uphill battle, so having the support of your elected officials is critical. This is even more necessary if your project is public facing, since any changes or innovations – good or bad – may reflect on the government of Saskatchewan. Moreover, it is a very good idea to have your leaders championing the project actively and removing any barriers. For internal innovations there is more latitude, but having the right people on board is still important. 

For both internal and external innovations however, having a mix of people involved is essential. It is ideal if they are from a number of backgrounds, a number of different areas of expertise, and that they each bring something different to the table. Governments are used to having cross-functional teams, but for innovations, this is absolutely necessary. One of the reasons why it is so important is because the customers of government – the citizens – have different cultures, different values and different languages, and this should be reflected in the team. On top of that, an important component of innovation is testing, so understanding the people and their cultures makes that process much easier. It is also not uncommon to find that some communities know what their problems are, and they know what they need to solve them. They just need government to support them and lead the wayWith a cross-functional team, this will be much easier. 

Creating a Culture of Innovation 

When it comes to innovation, there are often barriers, but these are likely to be less about the process steps and more about the things that are seen as intangible. One of those, which may or may know be intangible, is culture. For instance, having an innovative culture means having leaders who actively champion your projects. It also means being okay with risk, taking on risk and genuinely being okay with failure. In innovation, failure will happen and is the only way to learn. In fact, good leaders know that some good ideas can be bad. Sometimes they don’t add value, or sometimes they are being implemented when the targeted audience isn’t ready for them. A good leader can set parameters for innovation and can monitor how things are tracking.

“With these tangible and practical steps, you can make sure that you have a culture in place that allows the innovative ideas to bubble up from our staff, and to have the opportunity for them to be tested and implemented.” 

Brianna Verhelst, Executive Director – Office of Planning, Performance & Improvement,  Ministry of Finance, Government of Saskatchewan 

At the same time, it is important to know when to be excited about an innovation, and when to keep it quiet. In that sense, though innovation inherently is about experimentation and not knowing the outcome, it is important to not have any surprises. This means planning and preparing for all (or almost all) of the possible outcomes of the testing phase, and it means de-risking the situation so that there are no leaks. The last thing that anyone wants – which happened in Saskatchewan – is for a Minister to leak a project on Twitter before it was ready to be announced. This caused a bit of a kerfuffle and needed to be managed.