In 2019, I led the NZ government multi-million dollar Innovation Fund, supporting a multitude of initiatives. The experience highlighted the immense potential and (surmountable) challenges of growing innovation in the public sector.

Key insights

Though diverse in nature, most of the successful bids had strong strands of commonality including:

• Incessant user-centricity: Successful projects, like the integrated services delivery initiative, demonstrated the power of focusing on existing and emerging user needs.
• Measurement matters: Strong contenders valued and promoted the importance of quantifying innovation efforts across the public service in an ‘open and often’ manner.
• Rapid prototyping: We learned that quick hypothesis testing and user validation were crucial for maintaining momentum and fostering creativity.

With a successful round of funding complete for this year, some key takeaways for me included thoughts around:

• Democratising innovation: By moving beyond (perceived or real) isolated hubs to integrate innovative thinking across all functional units, including HR, Legal, and Finance.
• Bridging the implementation gap: Streamline the transition from prototype to live services, ensuring valuable ideas don’t get lost in any bureaucracy lag.
• Cultivating an open culture: Encourage collaboration, transparency, and a willingness to learn from failures.

By weaving these strategic elements into our overall approach, we can help transform New Zealand’s public sector into an agile, innovative force that consistently delivers value for people.

Strategic innovation

By promoting strategic innovation, we can create a public sector that’s not just responsive to current needs, but proactively shapes a better future for all New Zealanders.

A suggested action plan could include:

• Establish cross-functional innovation teams - including members from different agencies across relevant projects.
• Implement an innovation measurement framework: Adopt tools and culture to track progress and impact.
• Promote ‘Rapid Release’: Set up a streamlined process for quickly moving promising prototypes to beta stages - ensuring fast feedback loops.
• Develop an innovation skills curriculum: Offer training open to all staff, fostering a widespread culture of creative problem-solving.
• Create an ‘Open Innovation’ platform: Establish a digital space for sharing ideas, challenges, and successes across the public sector.