Public Innovation Labs : a maturity level test
Our Pushing the Boundaries of Public Sector Innovation community of practice will be discussing this (and other) ways to think about Codification + Shapeshifting in our work. Session is on April 24, 1:00–2:30pm (Pacific time), register here.
Labs, are you ready for hiking ? Build your own journey with Labonautes (*) maturity levels !
Ambition(s)
What ambition(s) and purpose(s) does your laboratory or public innovation function pursue ?
Are they clear to you, but also to the team, the organization and outside organizations ? How do they progress over time ?
Skills
How do you manage innovation skills ? Are you aware that they differ from those traditionally valued in the public sector? Do you know how to identify them, integrate them and develop them to deal with increasingly ambitious and complex issues ?
Projects
How do you approach project management ? Are you aware that innovation projects can’t be managed like conventional projects ? How can you move away from the “internal service provider” mode to gain in reflexivity and strategic capacity ?
Methods
How do you see your relationship with innovation methods, tools and approaches ? Are you aware that your use of “methodologies” can condition the success of your projects and your organization? Do you intend to change this, and to what extent ?
Governance
How are decisions made in your innovation lab, and by whom? Have you thought about changing the way decisions are made ? Are you able to identify this dimension to produce ever more transformative effects ?
Collaboration
How do you view your collaborations ? Are you aware that certain coalitions would enable you to tackle more ambitious issues, on larger scales ? How can we move towards collaborations capable of systemic change ?
Management
How do you view the management style of your innovation laboratory ? Are you aware that innovation requires specific management practices ? How can you develop them to make your organization more transformative ?
Evaluation
How do you approach the question of evaluation ? Are you aware that it can be a means of learning and developing ? How can we better evaluate ourselves to generate learning for labs, innovation and public action ?
Financing model
What is your financing model ? Are you aware that diversification of resources is a guarantee of your lab’s independence and sustainability ? How can you move towards more balanced, multi-year models adapted to the challenges of transition ?
Labonautes Maturity levels : Instructions for use
Do you think that innovation labs need to be both humble and ambitious, and that they all still have a long way to go ? Then this test is for you !
On your own or in a team, take a look at this poster and situate your innovation laboratory in each of the 9 suggested areas.
No score, no points to accumulate, no ranking! This poster is only intended to help you think about your margins for progress and build the trajectory of your innovation laboratory.
Then check out the Labonautes.fr website: dozens of resources and tools are waiting to help you progress according to your priorities!
Les Labonautes (*), an action survey to prepare the future of public innovation laboratories
The poster you are holding in your hands is one of the productions resulting from Labonautes, a program conducted in France between 2022 and early 2023 as part of a partnership between the 27th Region, the TiLab in Rennes, the Direction Interministérielle à la Transformation Publique (DITP), and a core group made up of Lab AH, la Fabrique à Projets, la Base in Bordeaux, EHESP in Rennes, the University of Paris Créteil, the Itinéraire Bis agency, the Nuunat agency in Lyon, the GRRR agency in Nantes, permanent and occasional experts (Cécile Robert at Sciences Po Lyon, Emmanuel Bodinier, Mickaël Poiroux…). The Les Labonautes program is twinned with the Canadian program Transforming Cities from Within. For further information, visit https://leslabonautes.la27eregion.fr. All the resources gathered at the end of this program, including maturity tools, self-diagnosis tools and dozens of methods, can be found on the labonautes.fr website. This document is published under Creative Commons licence “CC-BY-SA” / Attribution — sharing in the same conditions”.
