Getting Government to Innovate

Readers of this blog know that I’m into social innovation, which is simply improving the way we tackle public challenges.

Last week, Tim Draimin, the Executive Director of SIG, tweeted that the world’s leading social innovator, Christian Bason, was coming to Toronto. I had no idea who this Bason guy was and why he’d be regarded by one of Canada’s leading social innovators as the world’s best.

It takes Google 0.17 seconds to return more than 110,000 hits bearing his name. It’s not hard to learn about him. And the more I looked, the more I realized what he does is needed our region.

Bason leads MindLab, a “cross-ministerial” research centre that involves business, citizens, and government to find creative solutions for society. It’s an incubator inside government focused on delivering new ideas, and housed in a gorgeous building. Which no doubt is an inspiring place to do their work.

Their work has helped retain foreign workers, reduced red tape through a citizen’s perspective (with a focus on young people), combined workplace safety with mentoring, and developed a business led climate change strategy.

At last week's panel on Governing New Brunswick, it was shown that our system puts up almost insurmountable barriers to doing the work that's needed. The province's fiscal situation fosters more conservative behavior, despite the need for innovation and creativity. From conversations in the other Maritime Provinces, this is true throughout.

A MindLab type organization on a regional scale could be our anecdote.