Government is often thought of as a place where good ideas go to die. We who work in local government know this is not true. We also know, however, that cities’ current set of approaches and solutions won’t be enough to address our most pressing challenges. We need more and fundamentally different ways to deliver public value, and to understand and address wickedly complex problems.
This guidebook is intended to give local leaders a practical, action-oriented framework for breakthrough innovation: a set of approaches and practices out of the startup and municipal innovation worlds that help practitioners break out of deeply embedded assumptions about how government is supposed to operate and open new possibilities for problem-solving and impact. Breakthrough Innovation:
- Establishes an organisational culture that is primed for taking big leaps forward in the quality and kinds of services and programs that are delivered
- Focuses a city’s attention on the priorities, needs and experience of the city residents as “users” of the city
- Creates a culture where city employees can experiment, take appropriate, strategic risks, and collaborate effectively within and outside city hall, including with private sector companies and communities, and
- Treats innovation and out-of-the box thinking as a day-to-day activity, rather than a standalone practice to be implemented by specialists.
