Good question put by Plish (see comment below on previous post). I guess what makes any member of any cabinet effective: they need to be able to bring new information and inspiration to the table and then be able to get incubation and implementation. That means clever finding your way around, create some consensus along the way and still be able to maintain the new and the different. But I think the main talent of a SOI would be to get the notion of experiment into politics. Prototyping rules and regulations, doing try-outs on a smaller scale, getting lots of stakeholders involved, empowering talent. In fact being a creative person, not afraid to make mistakes in trying.
So I'm not quite sure I agree with Plish that government can't have a place for innovation. It might even be one of the essential features of modern government in the 21ste century. Putting all our faith into the businessworld when it comes to change, seems a little bit dangerous to me for some reason...
And creative people per definition like to stand on the side and just critize the system, so that doesn't speed up the proces of progress either.
Comment Plish
For Leaders of Innovation to be effective they...
1. Must be close enough to the systems involved so that they are an integral part of them.
2. will do their best work by getting out of the way and allowing the inherent creativity and innovation to come to fruition on their watch.
As such, an innovation post within a government meets neither of the above conditions.
Innovation is a function of Creativity and Risk. Where innovation has stalled, no doubt there is an aversion to risk. Again, goverment posts hardly ever create structures or enable greater risk taking.
Innovation can prosper when business leaders, entrepreneurs, and most of all, the creativty people (i.e. everyone!) who have something at stake, can be free to dream and work together to acheive those dreams.
So, what would make a Secretary of Innovation effective?
If that person began first and foremost with creating a culture of innovation within the government itself, a structure that actually brought value on multiple tiers to the citizens and industry within that country.
There is a conversation beginning here (http://tinyurl.com/b45h7x ) that is looking at just this issue. Please join in the conversation!
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