Innovation Tips and Tricks

by Brian Weberg

Innovative state legislatures.  An oxymoron some might say.  But not here in San Diego this weekend at NCSL's Senior Management Leadership Seminar where staffers from 20 legislatures are imagining new ways to apply their skills, talents and creativity to our institutions of representative democracy.  By Saturday, participants here will be reporting their ideas about how staff can respond to new challenges facing state legislatures.   

Today SMLS participants broadened their perspective on innovation in a day-long workshop with Lisa Bodell, CEO of futurethink.  There is not enough room here in The Thicket to provide a comprehensive report on the day's events, but I do want to share one portion of the workshop.  Lisa asked the group "Where do you find what's next?" and then followed with futurethink's "Innovation Tips and Tricks," which I share here with her permission.

• Look to different organizations and businesses for inspiration--research a topic you know nothing about.
• Create an Advisory Board for Innovation
  --pick at least three people from outside your organization
  --set up an online forum to centralize discussion
  --create a "topics calendar" to fuel the interaction.
• Look for the "weak signals" (events and trends out on the horizon)
  --read Innovation Watch
  --check out the speculation at Long Bets.

[For more innovation tips and tricks, continue reading after the jump.]

• Visualize trends and avoid the "familiarity gap."--see how this is done at Ten by Ten.
• Identify Rules to Break--challenge employees to identify "stupid" rules or processes that fail to satisfy clients.  See if you can kill a stupid rule or two.
• Google the future--try Googling a topic and year such as "digital media 2020" or "government technology 2015" and see what you get.  You might discover some interesting reading.
• Find a Younger Mentor--learn about their world, their technology and their "communities."  What can you learn about places like YouTube, Facebook, Second Life and other virtual worlds that will expand your horizons and help you understand the environment and perspective of new employees and younger members of the legislature?
• Put some diversity into your reading list
  --pick three diverse new publications, resources or websites to tap
  --join discussions of passionate groups on blogs, networks, wiki-sites to get the pulse of these communities.  Some favorite resources at futurethink are Ten by Ten, PopUrls, Endgadget, WorldChanging, and Gizmodo
  --schedule 10-15 minutes each day or week to scan new resources.  Make it a habit.
• Be the Accidental Tourist by visiting a new store, taking a new route or method to work and back or doing something out of the ordinary to discover the extraordinary.

Lisa asked each participant at today's session to write down three things they would do tomorrow to begin to innovate.  How about you?  Maybe this list is a starting point for many of us.  I'm headed to Ten by Ten right now to start my exploration of what's happening outside my normal realm and comfort zone.  Oh, and I'll be looking for a younger mentor to help me sort it all out.  Along with all the staffers here at SMLS this weekend, I invite you to join in the adventure.

Comments

[Tim Rice]

Good summary of a long, full day, Brian. One of my major take-aways from today is to stop using working in the public sector as an excuse. Too often I've allowed the constraints of this environment to limit my vision and my actions. I'm often jealous of the innovation opportunities in private sector situations. The reality is every environment has constraints, and the challenge is to do one's best within or even despite those constraints.

Good, good stuff today. I'm looking forward to building on it tomorrow.

[Brian Weberg]

Thanks for the insight, Tim. That might be one of the most important take aways we can generate here at SMLS this weekend. For many years, NCSL has looked for ways to bring lessons from the private sector to legislative application. I remember in the days of the Total Quality Management craze a session we did with trainers from Eastman Kodak. It was amazing and the particpants who entered skeptics left believers (for the most part). One could say that TQM was a fad, but it contained elements of good management that had staying power. The point is, there are lots of ideas out there in both the public and private sectors and the trick is to be open to those ideas when we might rather discount them. Personally, I think there is tremendous opportunity to innovate within legislative staff organizations. It happens everyday but maybe you're right suggesting that we all too often lean on an excuse that the public sector is too constrained to allow us to really spread or innovation wings.