If we are getting specifics, let me mention that last month, the leaders in the public sector of innovation actually gather to discuss the many ways of crowdsourcing all the new solutions to long-standing problems. In this guide, I will be talking all about government innovation and some of the main challenges it faces. There is a lot of diversity because of the FDA, and the United States Coast Guard presented the best practises when it comes to creating actionable change in the government. Every single organisation, no matter what their exact goal is, whether they are changing the employment policy or whether they are working on solar costs, has to be looked to the crowd for guidance and also all kinds of collaboration when it comes to problem-solving. Only a few of them actually look towards the citizens for partnership or even problem-solving help. No matter what the goal exactly is, the department, the public sector organisation or the program, they all face similar challenges, and they also overcome all of these with barriers with a lot of similar strategies. I will not be discussing some of those challenges.
Let’s talk about regulations. There are a lot of limitations to who you can actually communicate with and how you do the communication and who offers the solutions. It is essential that you stay very current to all of the settings and practises when it comes to innovation and aligning these regulations.
We should also keep in mind that collaboration can happen online and offline. It is essential that the people are completely able to communicate in multiple ways. They should gather all of the feedback, and they should also invite participation with the help of the internet and also they should start some ideation. It should also happen in real life. It should be balanced. Not everyone can be on the internet at all times.
We should always keep in mind that the resources are limited. The crowd is definitely key when it comes to overcoming these challenges. The individuals who are completely interested can actually spare a few extra hours in a day to ask and answer questions. They can brainstorm new ideas and then get back to the rest of their work. After the brainstorming is done, they can implement the ideas. A customer can actually teach the crowd how to be a good moderator and then give some feedback.
You should also know that the incentives are always limited. Even in the government, there are things that you can do without actually impacting the budget. You need to know that things move really slowly in the government and people celebrate every single milestone along the way, because it is needed.