Silo structure, plenty of tasks and limited amount of money mean that being innovative in the city hall may be a challenge. The city hall of Gdansk wasn’t afraid of it and GdanskLAB was established. It is an informal group of officials from various departments who work together on new ideas, improvements and innovation. The 1st anniversary of GdanskLAB has already passed. It is a good time to make a short summary of the project.
Let’s start from the beginning. A team of officials working on innovation is quite a new concept in Poland. To put it simply, there was no previous experience of such kind in our country, therefore — no good practices to copy. Still, the mayor of Gdansk Pawel Adamowicz decided to work out the plan of creating a vivid, innovative culture in the city hall. Tomasz Nadolny, then an advisor to the mayor and now head of the mayor’s office, was tasked with it.
The concept was called GdanskLAB and the following objectives were set:
• to engage the staff and encourage cross-department cooperation
• to analyze and improve internal processes
• to catalyze the change in the organization
• to share know-how
• to keep pace with the digital world
Initially, a few doubts emerged: wasn’t GdanskLAB duplicating tasks of departments? Wasn’t it disrupting daily work?
- We know that the world is changing rapidly. Residents demand more from the city hall services. However, the structure is quite resistant to change. I was sure it won’t be easy and that proved to be right. As for today, we don’t know where this experiment will lead us, but it was worth taking the risk. Underperforming areas were determined and we already observe positive results. They say that even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and we took that step. Personally, I’m happy to see my project became a reality. I would like to improve it further — a big number of variables and some level of uncertainty are the most exciting part of it — says Tomasz Nadolny.
In the first stage, 32 proposals for improvements were submitted by the city hall staff. A team of 20 people began to analyze the feasibility of the proposals. In this phase, expectations were confronted with reality, and working out the consensus was not always a smooth process. Some people rejected an open approach to work and the need to work out solutions together instead of executing orders. For some of the participants it was hard to accept that their ideas can be freely discussed and even significantly modified. Finally, some ideas had to be rejected at the beginning as too expensive to implement.
Brainstorming for the best mode of work, verifying expectations and confronting with reality stage was very important, because it allowed us to find the best formula for GdanskLAB, and to understand how it should work. It was also important for the organization to get accustomed to the new initiative and to overcome fears and doubts. Every level in the hierarchy began to understand the very special role of GdanskLAB in the organization.
Members of GdanskLAB divided themselves into 5 project teams. Participants gained opportunity to explore new ways of dealing with tasks, to seek alternative, to work out smarter approach to project management, to select project leaders and finally to gain support for the project within the structure.
Playground for innovation
GdanskLAB appeared to be a safe haven, a playground for experimentation. Currently it is a best place to submit new, uncommon, not-yet-tested ideas, where people can discuss even the craziest ideas. Innovators can be sure no one will laugh at them; on the contrary: they will get help in improving their ideas and in delivering information to crucial stakeholders. We like to call this approach a start-up culture implemented in the city hall.
This way we approached design thinking, the method which has been tested in the city hall for the first time. It was highly acclaimed within GdanskLAB, and praised for its open, creative approach to solving problems. We were introduced into design thinking by Tomek Tomaszewski from Rocket Studio, an experienced trainer who showed us how to use in in our organization. As a subsequent step, design thinking was used in other projects outside GdanskLAB, like in creating a new website.
One more thing…
There is one more thing. GdanskLab animators never meet in the city hall building. We do it outside, e.g. in the European Solidarity Center, one of the most interesting spots in Gdansk. This way we emphasize the special status of the GdanskLAB initiative, its exterritoriality and its broader context. We take care of details — we set tables or chairs in U-shape rather than “classroom style”, encouraging open discussion.
It has been a year since the beginning of GdanskLAB. The initiative was well received in the city hall, where it proved useful. The staff became aware that such a project exists and is important for the leadership. Here we need to put it straight: such a project could not succeed in a large organization without a support from the leader. The mayor of Gdansk repeatedly supported the initiative, communicating importance of GdanskLAB to the staff. It was even described as one of the most interesting projects of 2015.
Currently, GdanskLAB is a team of people ready for innovative initiatives, ready to cooperate and share their knowledge. There are people working in the team from the beginning and people who join on the spot, when ideas from their particular area of interest emerge.
Year 2016 brings improvements to the project. We put more emphasis on a selecting project leaders. Initially, participants were afraid to take this kind of responsibility, but today they are well accustomed to run their own projects, and manage teams within the GdanskLAB initiative.
For many of us GdanskLAB became a great source of professional satisfaction and a way to gain new know-how.
Written by: Krzysztof Garski, Mayor’s Office in Gdansk
