Wesenwille

“A Decade In Innovation” is the dramatic title of Robin Hambleton and Andrew Holder’s two page spread in this weeks MJ.  The article looks at innovation over the past ten years and, while no direct mention is made of social media, it talks of a former MJ piece that categorised local authorities as the following, in terms of innovation:

• Adventurous – Those who sought out new opportunities and used them
• Cautious – Those who waited until the others had tried it first
• Stuck – Those that were resistant to change

As the article suggested, there are many reasons for falling into the latter catagory and some may be reasons beyond the authorities control.  However, I am frequently surprised how many award winning, four star or Beacon Status authorities don’t engage with social media.

Maybe think about the areas this could be in.  Learning / Education (both young and old) is the obvious one to me, followed closely, if not lead, by, corporate communications.  But how about the other areas?  How about staff development and HR?  How about other frontline services like environment or planning.  Social media has a key role in all our services and is an area of innovation that is often overlooked.  For example, the article lists improvements over the past decade, which include

• more day-to-day performance monitoring
• clear targets, coupled with outcome monitoring
• market testing
• increased user and staff engagement

All of these, in particular the latter, could make sound use of social media and, as the web’s ability to analise and process information becomes stronger, outcome monitoring could easily be included.

So, if you read this from within a local authority, try to see which catagory you think you fit in and, if you’re not ‘adventurous’, how could youu get there?