In the September/October 2021 edition of the Public Administration Review (a special journal publication), at long last I discovered an article about Collaborative Innovation!

And although the article was prepared by a group of educators and researchers from the United Kingdom, the fact that it focused exclusively on employment development and the “wicked problems” facing today’s labor market was/is totally professionally encouraging!!  So as I considered how to adapt the article’s highlights within this week’s TRIPLE III TIME message, I decided to share critical direct passages so that all committed to quality innovation practices may benefit.

CORE PRINCIPLES
“The core principles of collaborative innovation are that innovation can be supported most effectively through:  the creation of spaces for mutual learning among stakeholders and from service users; joint ownership of program design, development, and implementation; and empowered participation among stakeholders, through the sharing of risks, resources, and decision-making”.

JOINT OWNERSHIP
“Joint ownership through participation and dialogue can improve the implementation of new and bold solutions when different resources are mobilized, exchanged, and coordinated. Real innovation advocates support forms of collaborative decision-making and street-level teamworking that enable:  the integration of ideas and consensus-based approach to the selection of most promising solutions; and joint ownership of risks and benefits and a shared commitment to the implementation of new solutions”.

EMPOWERED PARTICIPATION
During Collaborative Innovation “empowered participation is facilitated through processes that manage power and resource inequalities among stakeholders…which are defined as policy makers, funders and other “meta-governors” (public, private, and nonprofit organizations involved in the governance and management of services), and user groups and communities.  While some forms of power inequalities remain inevitable, governance and management arrangements can empower relevant communities and stakeholders by endowing them with relevant knowledge, rights, and resources to participate in driving innovation”.

There are a number of GREAT concepts and learnings contained in these article excerpts.  I hope everyone reads them more than once and realizes that Collaborative Innovation is always a progressive way forward in both the public and private employment sectors.