On the occasion of the online conference organized by the Department of Innovation and Best Practices of the Ministry of Interior on November 17, 2020, for innovation in the public sector and the search for the next day after the Covid-19 pandemic, we had the opportunity to hold a workshop for innovation strategic planning, with the participation of Greek public administration executives.
How we designed the workshop
The workshop had three sections and was interactive to enable participants to get a glimpse of the OECD model of public sector innovation facets, to understand the model through examples from the Greek public administration, and to tell us their impressions of innovation management in their organization.
More specifically:
- In the first part, using the OECD model of innovation facets, we presented the importance of having an integrated portfolio of innovation management in public organizations. We developed management theory through the model, the four aspects of innovation, and what it means to properly manage an innovation portfolio. For this section, we warmly thank the OECD staff for their support and the material they provided.
- In the second part, we presented five innovation practices by the Greek public administration, which public organizations submitted to the Innovation Observatory of the Department of Innovation and Best Practices. We asked participants to categorize them on the model of innovation aspects. A specialized online platform provided this opportunity.
- In the third part, we asked questions to know more about what the participants think about how their organization manages innovation and what they predict will change in the future. Participants were able to answer interactively and to see their answers in real-time.
Feedback from the participants
There were impressive response and participation in the workshop. A total of 418 executives from all hierarchical levels participated, from employees to heads of General Management. Below are the results we received from the interactive part of the workshop:
How do public organizations manage innovation? What we learned from the answers:
53% of executives do not know if their organization has or is planning an innovation strategy.
Participants then worked on the 4 facet model based on practices posted at the Innovation Observatory. This exercise aimed participants to consider how to build a portfolio of innovative actions, taking into account the complexity of the environment in which a public organization operates and the complex challenges it faces.
The following sample of answers illustrates the difficulty of distinguishing the goal that innovation may have. We observe that the choices of the participants spread to all four facets. In reality, innovation actions can exist between only two of them.
In a word cloud exercise, the participants pointed out that the first thing their organization should stop doing, as it emerged from the covid-19 crisis, is bureaucracy.
In the next word cloud exercise, word cloud, what the participants highlighted as a priority from what emerged from the COVID-19 crisis, and their organization must maintain, is a digitization and teleworking.
To the question, what is the first thing they would like their organization to improve to be more efficient in the future, the answers with the highest percentages are: the technological infrastructure, the processes / methodologies, and organizational issues.
Finally, when asked if the participants think that their organization will improve after the Covid-19 crisis, 61% believe that their organization will change its work, based on the lessons learned.
Next steps
We want to maintain the contact we had with the executives of the Greek public administration. We also observed the great interest and participation in our actions. So we will continue to actively enhance the innovation dissemination through the Department's innovation platform, https://innovation.gov.gr, the Innovation Observatory, the integrated portfolio management workshops based on the model of 4 facets, for which you can express interest online at this link.
If your organization wishes to conduct a workshop exclusively with its executives, please contact the person in charge of innovation skills, Ms. Fay Giannarou at f.giannarou [at] ydmed.gov.gr.