Driving Change in Government
Driving Change in Government
Launching an Innovation Program
Other ways to engage: watch the webinar, listen on Spotify
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Thank you to our panelist Lorena Molina-Irizarry of the Census Open Innovation Labs (COIL) and our facilitator Ashley Touchton of Orange Sparkle Ball for joining us for an Evolve Innovation Network conversation around launching an innovation program. In this conversation, Lorena discusses her experience driving change within the Census Bureau and structuring a team for success in innovation. Replay the webinar now, listen to the podcast, or see below for selected highlights from this conversation.
Innovation in Government
There are barriers to innovation in every industry, but as one can imagine, in the red tape laden bureaucracy of the government it can be particularly difficult to enact change. In Lorena’s experience at the Census Bureau, she has worked to bring in methodologies like design thinking, human centered design, and ideation to their projects. She advocates for engagement with stakeholders and subject matter experts in problem areas and asserts that involving all stakeholders throughout the design process, especially early on, is the key for a successful innovation program.
Census Open Innovation Labs
At the Census Open Innovation Labs, Lorena’s team begins by “looking outside [their] own walls” and bringing together people to address problems that any one group can’t tackle alone. The Opportunity Project began with the goal of bringing stakeholders to the table and helping teams use federal open data to build solutions to our nation’s toughest challenges. It’s extremely difficult to have these conversations informally within the government, and TOP is trying to lower that barrier to entry. To try to understand problem spaces of national importance, TOP identifies subject matter experts and learns from the source what is the major challenge being faced. TOP then invites any and all stakeholders relevant to the problem to join in the conversation with the hope that together, between the government and industry, they can figure out a solution.
Crowdsourcing Stakeholders
In complex government projects, Lorena stresses the importance of human-centered design thinking as it grounds the process and refocuses the team on their core objective. Lorena explains, “The government serves people, so the only way to actually understand the end user’s needs on any given challenge or problem is to engage them in the process.” To get stakeholders involved, the value they will receive through their participation in the project must be clearly communicated. Their knowledge and perspective are invaluable to the project, and in return, they get access to data experts that would otherwise be extremely difficult to connect with. This also gives end users the opportunity to be a part of the process during co-creation rather than after the fact and invites them to be a part of a valuable, carefully curated network. The outcomes of the partnership are communicated as a value proposition that is both mutually beneficial and instantly beneficial, and Lorena concludes, “This innovative process brings in a different view of what product and technology development could look like between industry and government and between government and communities themselves.” Those involved experience the power of this approach and the results it can produce.
Demystifying Innovation
Some may resist innovation and its daunting, unfamiliar buzzwords because people are scared off by the idea of change and become skeptics. Three strategies that help Lorena introduce innovation into the culture of the Census Bureau are focusing on the moveable middle, instilling a human-centered design mindset, and using storytelling. This includes human centered design training to expose managers to this type of work, shifting meetings to be more open and co-creative, and providing tools and resources needed to create space where risk and failure is okay and necessary. This allows for people to see and experience the benefits of open innovation for themselves. Using storytelling is another key component of showing success for The Opportunity Project. It helps Lorena’s team prove that the open innovation model actually works, and by creating a story around the use case in a “show and tell” manner, the end results speak for themselves.
Finding a Common Language
Another significant challenge of open innovation across the board is getting all stakeholders on the same page, speaking the same language. This can be extremely difficult with each segment using their own, highly technical language, so Lorena and her team often serve as translators between government and industry stakeholders. Due to the difference in terminology, Lorena explains, “they might be talking about the same thing but really not having a conversation because the asks and the terminology are so different.” In this instance, the role of translator evolves into the role of matchmaker to align the needs on one end with the capabilities on the other. From there, it’s a matter of choosing the right language to tell the story to those outside the project.
Writing by Hannah Ranieri, Design Strategist at Orange Sparkle Ball, Inc.