Fostering a culture of innovation in government

True innovation isn’t easy, and the research that leads to it can be expensive, with a lot of failures for each success. Historically, the U.S. federal government has proven to be a fertile ground for innovation, with NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Department of Energy and its national labs and the National Institutes of Health in the forefront. Meanwhile, private-sector ventures such as Bell Labs added their own capabilities to the mix. 

In recent years, that federal focus on innovation might have cooled somewhat. The American Council for Technology/Industry Advisory Council, better known as ACT-IAC, created the Institute for Innovation 12 years ago to foster more conversations around innovation. Now the Institute is rebooting itself, as things have changed. 

James Cook, ACT-IAC’s Strategy and Engagement Executive and the chair of the Institute, recently sat down with me for a conversation on why the organization is changing and what that means for government and industry. I am proud to represent CGI on the Institute’s board of directors, and appreciated the time Jim took to share his perspective with CGI.

Watch the full video here

“The Institute was created as a place to bring government and innovators from industry and academia together to talk about how to build a culture of innovation,” he told me. “The government's in a very different place today. There's innovation. Not just pockets of innovation, but a critical mass of innovation all across the federal government.”

Most federal agencies today have an office of innovation within their organization, and/or a chief innovation officer in the C-suite. And even agencies that may lack both have often begun creating some sort of innovation center. ACT-IAC’s Institute for Innovation, once trying to get conversations started, is now concerned with helping agencies bridge the gaps between innovators and agency missions. 

“There's still a challenge in the federal government, as you well know, in creating the on-ramps to get innovation into the agencies and really do full-scale adoption,” Jim said. “Part of what we're trying to do through this new strategy with the Institute is to focus on doing innovation and helping government do it faster than they have been.”

As I know from my own experience working in the government, the barriers are not always about the technologies; rather, innovation on a large scale can be a hard sell in a federal agency. In my experience, there was never any shortage of innovators nor innovations—the challenge has always been how those innovators can find a successful coalescing of a plan to achieve results.

During our conversation, Jim explained four key points of the new Institute for Innovation strategy: 

1. Find out where the innovation is, both inside and outside of the government. The initial phase is simply about building awareness. We need to know who is doing what, within federal agencies, their industry partners and possibly academia. 
2. Create and expand opportunities for connection. The Institute will continue to create forums where innovators can share their innovations and find their counterparts in other organizations for collaboration, implementation and further evolution. 
3. Find and break down policy barriers. “Policy can be an enabler. It can also be a barrier,” Jim says. Policy can be an accelerator for innovation. Policymakers who understand innovation—both specific innovative projects and the principles of innovation in general—may create better policy. 
4. Create an exchange for research and development. Getting innovations out of the lab and into full-scale adoption continues to be a challenge. An R&D exchange enables researchers to understand what the government most needs from them, and similarly keeps government informed on ongoing research. 

In my view, speaking as both a technologist and a member of the Institute’s board, these strategic initiatives reflect a visionary approach to driving meaningful change. The vision is of an agile, innovative and responsive government, one where new ways of thinking are welcomed.