Talk at MaRS in Toronto on the need for public sector innovation, based on my book Agents of Change

1. Public Sector
Innovation
September 16th, 2013
MaRS
@fnauta

2. 1
Agents of Change

5. Social Innovation =
attempts to transform the way
societies address social problems and
produce public goods and services

10. Results 2011
• students attending low-performing schools
dropped from from 67% to 34%
• Only city US gap between African American
and white students narrowing
• 78% students attend charter school
• Drop out rate -60% since Katrina

12. Three strategies
1. Crafting the case for change: 'The art of
getting started'
2. Managing Meaning: 'The art of making sense'
3. Prompting progress: 'The Art of Moving
Things Forward'

13. 1 Crafting the case for
change
• Challenge the status quo
• Leveraging evidence of
(future) success
• Social Construction of
Credibility
'The art of making a start'

14. 2 The art of making
sense

15. Alzheimer Cafe

16. 2 The art of making
sense

17. Alzheimer Cafe

18. 3 Prompting Progress
• Managing the Leap of Faith
• Finding Opportunity in
Critical Events
• Constructing an Irreversible
Path of Change
'luck is where opportunity meets
preparation'
'The Art of Moving Things Forward'

19. 2
Leveraging
Agents of Change

21. The amazing thing

22. 1 Create fierce
competition for best ideas
• Mechanism to make management say 'No'
• In order to kill 97% of all new ideas
• So we can focus scarce resources
• In a way that keeps people motivated
• So we can accumulate lessons learned

23. 2 Have their back
There is no more delicate matter to take in
hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor
more doubtful in its success, than to be a
leader in the introduction of changes. For
he who innovates will have for enemies all
those who are well off under the old order
of things, and only lukewarm supporters
under those who might be better off under
the new.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

24. 3 Institutional support
• Introduce an efficiency funding reduction for
agencies of 1% every year
• Reward instead of punish mechanisms for
efficiëntly run public organizations
• Obligatory innovation management reporting
for public organizations

25. 4 Public Accelerator

26. Thank you for
your attention
@fnauta