I kind of got a good laugh out of this story when I first read it. I have a close relative who lives in the Seattle area, and he is a fan of the blog, he recently said to me in one of our ranting phone conversations, “I wish you would come to Seattle and clean up the local government mess we have here!” I of course I cleaned that quote up for my delicate readers. It seems no matter where you live, when these local government folks get together, the BS flows like water down the Swiss Alps on a warm spring day;
City leaders face similar challenges in the early days of setting up innovation offices: explaining to city employees what they mean by innovation, getting them comfortable with new ways of working, getting some quick wins. Eventually, they have to think bigger, said Tina Walha, Director of Innovation and Performance in Seattle.
Because, you know life is about the ‘Quick Wins’. Oh, the stories I could tell about the Seattle area and it’s ‘Quick Wins.’ But our own Innovation Guru had this interesting tidbit to add;
Support from political leaders, particularly the mayor, is critical. Jason Reisdorfer, Director of Innovation in Sioux Falls, S.D., said he couldn’t get far in his role if Mayor Paul TenHaken wasn’t constantly talking up the value of trying new ways of solving problems.
“Culture is modeled from the top-down,†Reisdorfer said. “It starts with the mayor. The mayor sets the bar super high and encourages risk-taking and trial and error. It’s on us as innovation chiefs to carry that down through the organization. It’s probably our number one job.â€
The best ideas come from citizens, and an effective leader takes the citizens ideas and runs with them. I call it ‘from the bottom up.’ To often our supposed leaders think they have the best ideas, when in reality the real culture of a community comes from citizens who get engaged. And when you ignore them, you are only looked upon as a self serving dictator, and not a leader.
Let’s end with a little old skool propaganda;