”Innovation” er på alles læber. Innovation skaber fremskridt, udvikling og kvalitet. Eller gør det? Er ”innovation” blot gået hen og blevet et intetsigende modeord? Ja, det kan der være noget om, men under det overfladiske modeord, er der et vigtigt og brugbart niveau, slår oplægsholder ved RUC Sunrise Conference 2012, professor Jean Hartley, fast.
Denne brugbare og kraftfulde side af innovation forsøgte både oplægsholdere og deltagere at få indkredset og gjort til noget håndgribeligt under RUC Sunrise Konferencen 2012, der gik under sloganet ”Transforming Governance, Enhancing Innovation”.
Der skal være tillid og åbenhed på tværs
De 275 tilmeldte deltagere i konferencen repræsenterede flere forskellige aktører i og omkring den offentlige sektor. Blandt deltagerne var der professorer, studerende og praktikere fra alle niveauer i det offentlige.
Det var også samarbejdet på tværs af aktører, der blev sat på dagsordenen til konferencen. En central pointe under konferencen var nemlig, at samarbejdsbåret innovation er en af de vigtigste nøgler til vellykket innovation. Men alle parter må under et samarbejde, der skal skabe innovation, være åbne, stole på hinanden og dele ud af deres viden for at skabe et konstruktivt projekt, understregede Jacob Torfing, en af drivkrafterne bag konferencen, under sit oplæg.
Konferencen mundede ud i skabelsen af et manifest, der fremhæver, hvordan man kan skabe vellykket innovation i den offentlige sektor. Det er planlagt, at manifestet bliver sendt til politikerne i Danmark.
Centrale pointer fra manifestet:
Very few people are producing innovations that work all by themselves. Most innovations are the product of collaboration between multiple actors engaging in multilateral actions about multi-dimensional problems. Collaborative innovation means that it is the possession of and the capacity to activate relevant innovation assets rather than institutional and organizational boundaries that determine who gets to participate in the process of innovation.
Politicians are used to see themselves as sovereign decisions makers, but need to share both power and responsibility with other actors. Public managers are primarily concerned with running their own public agency efficiently, but must learn to convene relevant actors, facilitate collaboration, mediate conflicts, and catalyze innovation. Professionals who tend to see themselves as experts with a certain specialized knowledge, well-established working methods, and a monopoly of defining the standard for good quality in public service delivery, must transform themselves and open up for dialogue with other professionals, users, citizens and politicians. Private firms must stop perceiving themselves as lobbyists and subjects of regulation and begin to see themselves more as partners with complementary resources.
What is important about public service is that the user is always actively involved in the production and delivery of public services and highly interested in the result. Service innovation should, therefore, involve the users in co-created innovation processes that take the users problems, experiences and ideas about the good life as the point of departure for a joint exploration of new and better solutions. Here seems to be a big room for improvement and a huge potential for spurring innovation.
Læs hele manifestet her.
Forskere sætter forvaltningspolitikken til debat her.
Læs et historisk opråb fra forskere her.
