Innovation in the Federal Government – An Innovation Maturity Model
Historically, the concept of innovation was the focus of private sector organizations as a way to establish a competitive edge in the marketplace or cut costs in order to provide increased value for shareholders. The concept of being innovative was not something, generally, considered or adopted within the Canadian Federal government. In fact, general opinion may have been that the hierarchical nature of the government could be a barrier to innovation. However, more recently, the Federal government has found itself with a need to innovate due to increased pressure on resources. Federal government departments and agencies are looking to do more with less, as well as address increased service delivery expectations. As a result, departments and agencies, once resistant to change, risk adverse and operating in a more siloed environment, now find it necessary to embrace innovation by being agile, taking risks and becoming more integrated. In many cases, this has resulted in a disruptive change to the entire organization.
But how? What are the barriers that departments/agencies need to overcome to be innovative? Do we have defined version and strategies? Do we have the right resources? Have we identified the right opportunities? Does the department/agency has in place the infrastructure required for successful innovation?
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in conjunction with the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Treasury Board Secretariat, developed an Innovation Maturity Model to help answer these questions.
The model measures a department or agency’s capacity for innovation against six dimensions – client expectations, strategic alignment, internal innovation activities, external innovation activities, organization and culture, each tailored to operating environment of the public sector.
Through an assessment against the six attributes, the e Innovation Maturity Model provides a tool for Internal Audit to provide value added insight into whether the organization has established the right mechanisms to enable successful innovation in this time of continuous disruption, and help establish priorities to break down existing barriers.
With this year’s conference theme of <em>The Agile Auditor in the Age of Disruption, the Innovation Maturity Model enables internal audit functions to provide real-time, forward looking consultative insights into their organization’s capacity for innovation. This practical tool enables Internal Audit to support the organization understand its current capacity for innovation, prioritize efforts to improve capacity and support the efficient measurement of the impact of changes over time.