Innovation in Government Services

By Dr Nasreddin Dhafr

Innovation is the process of improving, adapting or developing a product, system or service

to deliver better results and create value for people (IDEO, 2011). In government,
innovation requires managers to identify and act upon new ideas and ways of providing
services to citizens while maximising limited resources in their institutions. The primary goal
of innovation in government services is to improve existing services, deliver new services or
improve internal processes to meet needs of citizens, enhance organisational performance
and attain regional or international leading and distinctive position. These forms of
innovation can be explained as follows:
Improving existing services: something the government is already doing, e.g., make
information or services accessible to all citizens through online systems and e-
government.
Delivering new services: this form of innovation covers anything that the
government do the first time in order meet their citizens needs. This may be a new
service, process, policy or tool - opportunities here are endless.

Optimising internal process and systems: in this form of innovation the government
agency makes improvements internally by use of innovative ideas to increase
efficiency, effectiveness and productivity, and as a result reduce cost and save time.
Examples of these improvements may include simplifying a core business process,
redesign customer service systems or develop a procedure that entirely new.
Citizens became more technically savvy, and as a result they demand government to solve
problems, find innovative and effective solutions and deliver results, whether the problem is
an economic downturn, security threat or a leak of an environmental contaminant. They are
also expecting government to reliably, effectively and efficiently perform day-to-day tasks
crisis or no crisis such as education, healthcare, police, delivering mails and social care
services, with equitable access to these services for all. Although many governments work
hard to provide such services in a way that meets their citizens needs, in todays world,
things change very quickly and people are able to recognize quality of adopted practices and
their perception of quality changes rapidly what is seen as high or good quality services
today, might be considered bad services tomorrow. As a result, governments are continually
forced to come up with innovative and creative ways of delivering services. The challenge is
that in government institutions innovation is not a one-time project; it is rather a learned
process that requires a shift in thinking, a disciplined approach and strong leadership.

References:
IDEO and the Partnership for Public Service. 2011. Innovation in Government. IDEO, Palto
Alto

About the Author

Dr Nasreddin Dhafr, Ph.D, MSc, BSc, PgC LATHE

Dr Dhafr is the CEO of Certeglobal, award winning knowledge transfer practitioner, the
founder and chair of the EXIP annual symposium, academic lecturer and principle consultant
in the fields of strategy implementation, change initiatives and business transformation.