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Satsuko VanAntwerp

Top 3 Co-production Aha! Moments

By February 1st 2012

What is Co-Production and why should we care about it? As NESTA put it, “Co-production means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours. Where activities are co-produced in this way, both services and neighbourhoods become far more effective agents of change.”

 In other words, Co-production empowers citizens to become active participants in the delivery of public services. Exciting stuff!

 Below are my top three “aha” moments of Co-production:

 1. The Timing is Right
The added pressure of recent economic hardships has catalyzed innovative grassroots co-production solutions that not only function better than the status quo but also save time and money. Among my favourite examples is Youth Court of DC, a youth reintegration program where Peer Jurors interrogate and sentence first time juvenile offenders in the District of Columbia, USA. As individuals who were once in the same position as the offenders, Peer Jurors are empathetic and able to connect with Offenders in a way that governments alone could not. This innovative program has reduced the recidivism rate from 30-40% down to 10%. Such co-production bright spots show us that it is possible to adapt to the growing economic and social pressures while improving service and saving resources.

2. New Media Advantage
New media creates opportunities for co-production in the public sector by creating faster and more direct communication with individuals and communities. As we saw in Barack Obama’s 2008 US Presidential election campaign, facebook, youtube and blogs are incredibly powerful tools in connecting, relaying information and mobilizing citizens. These tools are already widely used by citizens and many are free. Directly engaging with citizens is at the core of co-production; thus incorporating new media tools into public service is a great starting point.

 3. Mutuality
Co-production works best when both civil servant and beneficiaries/citizens become equal partners in the delivery of the service. The benefits of this mutuality go beyond getting added “buy-in” from both parties. By operating in this way, both civil servants and citizens receive timelier information and are able to build a relationship based on transparency, trust and respect. Citizens are empowered to reach out in their community, identify issues early, prevent escalation and help each other, ultimately relieving strain on the public service system and creating more self sufficient and robust communities.

 The timing is right for Co-production; we have the tools and we know where to start.

 Satsuko VanAntwerp is an International MBA Candidate at Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Canada who worked at MindLab during an exchange semester at Copenhagen Business School. As an Associate at Venture Deli, a firm that builds and capitalizes social ventures, Satsuko brings a strong background in social entrepreneurship. She also runs a blog, thinkthrice.ca, exploring ideas for social innovation and systemic change.

Christian Bason

Why is innovation a terrible word?

By July 12th 2010

I’ve had my government-issue HTC smartphone for a while, but it wasn’t until recently that I noticed that the phone maker has written ‘htc innovation’ with miniscule letters on the side of the unit. As if the company wanted to make really sure that I realise I am holding an innovative piece of technology. Probably the wording was slashed on last-minute by the marketing people. ‘It can’t hurt’, they might have been thinking. Who doesn’t want innovation?

Innovation is everywhere, and everyone is claiming it. From my phone maker to producers of washing detergent to space agencies and national governments, innovation is something many people agree is somehow important, but few can really express how. ‘Innovation’ becomes a panacea for any problem because, in essence, it expresses that whatever the challenge is, it is being dealt with successfully. But like a wet bar of soap, ‘innovation’ somehow eludes a firm grip. Paradoxically, we want it, but can’t really express it. That is why, when we at MindLab drafted our communication strategy three years ago, it stated that “‘Innovation’ is a terrible word. But there’s nothing wrong with its content”.

How does innovation become a terrible word? In organisations that are not used to working in new ways, which do not enthusiastically embrace new ideas, and which do not necessarily thrive on on-going change, innovation can become a diffuse, abstract and perhaps even dangerous term. Innovation may be perceived as  anything from wild creativity, ‘letting your hair down’, to a management fad, or to loosing control to risky experimentation. No wonder that some people, and in my experience in particular people in government, dislike the word.

However, if ‘innovation’ wasn’t part of our vocabulary, we’d have to invent it. Innovation is the only term we have that captures the notion of creating something new that works. It embodies the dialectic of inspiration (generating the new ideas we need to create the future we want) and execution (the practice of getting things done to create value).

As opposed to ‘creativity’ or ‘invention’, innovation is therefore, and perhaps surprising to some, highly practical. The best of  the (vast) literature on innovation not only offers extremely useful perspectives on strategy, leadership and organisation. It offers a set of professional approaches, tools and methods which can help make the process of creating the new solutions we need, whether it be a new product or a public service, conscious, strategic and systematic.

Because the concept and practice of innovation offers us something valuable, or even essential, we need to take very seriously those who dismiss it. Rather than just slapping the word on everything we, as scholars and practitioners, say or do, we must take care to give it the meaning and content needed for the sceptics to become curious and, eventually, embrace it.

But to place the practice of innovation more squarely at the heart of government, we need to continue to show what it is, and how it works in practice. That is why we at MindLab spend so much time documenting and sharing our cases with others within the ministries we are part of, and beyond — online and in person. To be convincing, innovation has to be concrete.

As for my phone? Well, it works OK. But honestly? There are more innovative models out there.

Christian Bason

Must innovation labs be value-driven?

By October 25th 2009

On Oktober 12-13, 20 leaders of innovation labs gathered with academics and policy experts from the European Commission to formulate a vision for labs in Europe by 2020. The challenge was to show how innovation labs might help solve complex social, environmental and economic challenges through sustainable, human-centered and democratized innovation. See Stepháne Vincents photos from the event, which was held at MindLab, here.

Lots of topics were discussed, drawing on insights from the practical work taking place at diverse organisations like NESTA Lab and the Innovation Unit of the UK, la 27e Region of France, and Medialab Prado of Spain. One of the most fascinating aspects of the conversation was the question whether innovation labs are value-driven? Because if a particularly strong sense of mission and purpose is crucial for labs to be effective, what does that mean for the potential of labs, and what are the implications for how to create, lead and grow them? To shape relevant future policy, might we first have to better understand how values are selected and cultivated in a ‘lab’ enviornment?

The discussion made me think back to early 2007, when we started on the journey towards the second generation of MindLab. One of the first things we did in our newly assembled core team was, in fact, to formulate a set of common values. Through a creative process, we arrived at the following five value statements, which have proven to be, in fact, central to our daily work:

Challenge. We challenge traditional thinking and bureaucracy

Communication. Our communication is inspiring and straitforward

Cooperation. We challenge each other’s thinking

Atmosphere. We drink black tea and green coffee

Results. We experiment with the objective in mind.

We often refer to these values when making key decisions: Who to join the team, which projects to take on, how to relate to the barriers we encounter, how to treat each other, who to collaborate with externally. (Ohh, and what kind of coffee to drink!).

Our values are, in many respects, of greater operational importance than our strategy.

So, yes, MindLab is value-driven. And perhaphs innovation labs have to be, in order to maintain a strong sense of purpose and direction in the midst of a chaotic, complex and difficult reality.

I would therefore like to extend an invitation to our fellow innovation labs around the globe to join the conversation here on MindBlog:

What are your values, and what do they do for you?

Because perhaps by understanding the role of values better, we can also learn how to create effective innovation labs that can help shape the future we desire.