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Innovation for the Public Good

In this series

A Diagnostic Tool to Help You Innovate
The last piece in our innovation series is a diagnostic tool for use by you, your colleagues, and your leadership. Your answers to questions on each of the five elements of innovation will produce a report that will broadly identify your agency’s strengths and weaknesses. (iStockphoto/Pixsooz)
Article

A Diagnostic Tool to Help You Innovate

This diagnostic quiz will help you identify your agency’s strengths and weaknesses on innovation, and offer advice on what to try next.

Developing a Plan to Change Agency Culture
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivers a speech during the Puerto Rico Education Summit in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, October 17, 2011. The U.S. Department of Education is focusing its innovation energy on improving student achievement and increasing graduation rates. (AP/Ricardo Arduengo)
Article

Developing a Plan to Change Agency Culture

Jitinder Kohli describes how government agencies should develop plans to promote a culture of innovation.

Jitinder Kohli

Incentives and Responsiveness
People are seen queuing outside a Jobcentre Plus at Gateshead, England, Wednesday, October 12, 2011. In the United Kingdom the government’s “Work Programme” outsources job brokerage and employability support to a small number of providers. Providers are paid largely for outcomes, not activity. In this case the outcome is finding a participant sustained employment for 26 weeks or more. (AP/Scott Heppell)
Article

Incentives and Responsiveness

Vicki Sellick describes two ways government agencies can offer incentives to nurture innovations that meet the most pressing social challenges.

Vicki Sellick

An Open Agency Culture Is Key to Innovation
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray stands in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, July 18, 2011. CFPB is quickly proving itself to be deeply invested in innovation and transparency as it works to redesign mortgage disclosure forms. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Article

An Open Agency Culture Is Key to Innovation

Kristina Costa takes a tour of successful social innovations and discovers that a common ingredient they share is “permeability,” or the willingness to be open to new ideas, technologies, and collaborative opportunities.

Kristina Costa

Financing Tools for Social Innovation
Patrick Corvington, former CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, speaks at the National Service-Learning Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, April 8, 2011. (Flickr/<a href=NYLC)" data-srcset="https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2011/10/corvington_onpage.jpg?w=610 610w, https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2011/10/corvington_onpage.jpg?w=610 610w, https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2011/10/corvington_onpage.jpg?w=610 610w, https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2011/10/corvington_onpage.jpg?w=500 500w, https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2011/10/corvington_onpage.jpg?w=250 250w" data-sizes="auto" />
Article

Financing Tools for Social Innovation

Kristina Costa discusses three financing tools that can encourage innovation in the social and public sector.

Kristina Costa

The Importance of Leadership in Social Innovation
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City helps build a culture of innovation across the city’s agencies by encouraging his staff to take calculated risks. (AP/Jason DeCrow)
Article

The Importance of Leadership in Social Innovation

Jitinder Kohli discusses the role leaders must play to build an innovation culture in their agencies, encouraging calculated risk taking and challenging traditional approaches.

Jitinder Kohli

The Five Keys to Innovation
Article

The Five Keys to Innovation

Vicki Sellick describes the five key elements to promoting a culture of innovation in government agencies focused on social issues.

Vicki Sellick

The Barriers to Innovation
Garmin GPS units are shown outside the company's headquarters on Friday, July 7, 2006, in Olathe, Kansas. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been an innovation hothouse since the 1950s, and is credited with helping to create the Internet and GPS technology. But such exceptions are rare, particularly in the social sphere. (AP/Reed Hoffmann)
Article

The Barriers to Innovation

Traditional budgeting, lack of incentives, and agency failure to follow through on rhetoric are all significant barriers to government innovation, writes Jitinder Kohli in this week’s installment.

Jitinder Kohli

New Weekly Column Explores Innovation in the Public Sector
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivers a speech during the Puerto Rico Education Summit in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, October 17, 2011. The U.S. Department of Education is focusing its innovation energy on improving student achievement and increasing graduation rates. (AP/Ricardo Arduengo)
Article

New Weekly Column Explores Innovation in the Public Sector

This is the first installment of a new weekly column on government innovation produced by CAP’s Doing What Works team in partnership with the Bellwether Education Partners and the Young Foundation, as part of the “Innovation for the Public Good” series.

Jitinder Kohli