LGA / IDeA / Leadership Centre Innovation Conference

Just back home from the LGA/IDeA/Leadership Centre Innovation conference.  Here are a few points from it (not representative, or even the best – some things are hard to summarise – like a very powerful video from Ruth Kennedy of ThePublicOffice, http://www.thepublicoffice.org.uk/index.aspx, of a family’s difficulties with a daughter with learning difficulties – real ‘customer insight’).

 

·        Some inspirational trips of children abroad – Serbia, South Africa – but often rubbished by the press.  Some of the best ‘social cohesion’ activities are very simple, though – Lewisham young mayors scheme, Newham community planting days, Harrow Divali celebrations – which all bring people together.

·        Mike Freer, Leader of Barnet, talked about innovative work on commissioning, behaviour change and ‘conversations with the community’.  Also noted that targets and performance management are good for stable issues but not so much for complex problems like obesity, where you need a trial and error approach

·        Simon Tucker, Young Foundation. 

·        Complaints choirs sing their complaints to the council (it works apparently).  Started in Birmingham, moved on to Helsinki, Budapest and elsewhere. 

·        You would expect 1% spending on R&D and innovation – we don’t have figures for UK local government, but most likely nowhere near that.

·        If you’re doing innovation, you may fail, so ensure your stakeholders know that.  If you’re going to fail, try and make it early and small.  Have a portfolio of innovation, so even if you fail sometimes there are also successes.

·        Young Foundation are developing a toolkit of innovation methods with Nesta.  Intending to share and develop through a wiki on the Nesta website in the next month or so.

·        Innovating requires different skills than running services, so it’s often helpful to have intermediaries to help (it’s a market that needs building)

·        Charlie Leadbeater –

·        entertaining example of a YouTube video of a boy playing his guitar in his bedroom that got 51 million hits and comparing that to what would have happened if he’d tried to broadcast that through old media (going to ITV commissioners saying you want to broadcast a 5’21” video of me playing my guitar in the bedroom …)

·        It’s quite a delicate process that determines when a social networking initiative will take off.  Key factors include: a core that others can gather around; the tools and motivation to contribute; lateral, not centralised communications; collaboration.

·        Comment – to make best use of social networking, we councils need to accept we’ll have to lose control.  CL – but you’re not in control!  These things are already happening without you!

·        Jonathan Kestenbaum, despite being a former venture capitalist and now Chief Exec of Nesta (http://www.nesta.org.uk/) reminded us that innovation isn’t easy and even the ‘experts’ can get it wrong.  You need carefully selected partners – people who can make things happen.  Involve your commissioners early.  Easy to get the timing from prototyping to scaling up, wrong.  Useful to have money separate from mainstream budgets so not subject to the same accountability and risk management.  Multidisciplinary teams talk very different languages and take time to get to work.  You need a problem for them to tackle; don’t just bring them together and hope.

·        Sir Michael Bichard, had 10 things innovative leaders should do.  Lead by example.  Reshape the incentives (rewards for innovative people). Build capacity (including skills in tools of innovation).  Increase energy (cut paper work and meetings).  Manage risk and failure.  Revisit structures (not hierarchical and introspective).  Reduce narrow targets.  Build partnerships (within and beyond the organisation).  Connect with the front line (and clients).  ‘Nurture’ before ‘audit’ (give ideas time to grow).

·        We’ve got the wrong balance between accountability and innovation at the moment and need to rebalance it.

 

There were lots of ideas generated during the conference – many made their way onto an ‘innovation wall’.  Due to be made available more widely at some point (hopefully through these communities of practice?).