aps innovation snapshot 2016 · the programme trains aps5 to el staff across different departments...

APS Innovation Snapshot 2016

APS INNOVATION SNAPSHOT 2016 2

Overview

“Every level of our government is focused on a more innovative, enterprising Australia and a more innovative and enterprising government.” Prime Minister Turnbull – 15 March 2016

Welcome to the Australian Public Service (APS) Innovation Snapshot for 2016. The snapshot showcases achievements we have made on the public sector innovation journey. It provides an overview of initiatives, such as the Innovation Champions Group and case studies of APS innovation.

It has been twelve months since the last snapshot and much progress has been made. Initiatives launched last year, such as the Design Mentors Programme, are now well underway and are delivering good outcomes. In addition, our ongoing commitment to an innovative public sector has been bolstered by the government’s focus on ‘Government as an Exemplar’ as one of four pillars in the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA).

‘Government as an Exemplar’ includes initiatives responding to the data revolution impacting almost every aspect of Australians’ lives. For example, Data61 in the CSIRO, is up and running as Australia’s leading digital research organisation. Working across sectors and collaborating with research and commercial partners, Data 61’s focus includes using data analytics to connect disparate government datasets and publicly release them on open data platforms. It’s also exciting to see developments like the new Data Fellowships which will provide advanced data training to high performing data specialists in the APS.

The APS Innovation Agenda comprises various initiatives to strengthen the innovation supply chain for the public service. These include networking, peer support and learning and development opportunities through the Public Sector Innovation Network (PSIN) and Innovation Month each July. In addition, 2016 saw the inaugural APS Innovation Awards, a joint initiative of the Institute of Public Administration of Australia ACT division and the PSIN. The awards now give all APS employees a chance to be recognised for the value of their ideas.


Glenys Beauchamp Secretary Department of Industry, Innovation and Science

As we reflect on the progress made in 2016 we should also remember some of the basic characteristics of innovation. Without change, experimentation and risk—all of which are not easy to accept in the APS—we cannot adapt to the changing world around us. Without innovation the APS won’t evolve to best serve the public and to develop effective solutions to complex challenges. We also won’t be able to remain an employer that can attract and recruit the most talented people.

The Australian Public Service Commission’s (APSC) State of the Service and Employee Census includes metrics on the culture and practices that support innovation in APS agencies. The Snapshot includes analysis of the most recent data. It draws out a strong connection between innovation performance and more traditional measures of staff engagement and management performance, for example in relation to risk management and internal communications.

I’m pleased that my department continues to take a lead role in public sector innovation and houses the PSIN, which is responsible for co-ordinating Innovation Month and, thanks to support from the agencies across the APS, the Innovation Champions Group chaired by our Acting Deputy Secretary David Hazlehurst.

I hope you enjoy this update of achievements we have made on the public sector innovation journey in 2016.


Developments in the APS Innovation Agenda

Innovation is alive and well in the APS and the wide range of events and initiatives launched this year across the APS continue to develop and connect players in the innovation field.

For me 2016 has been a significant year for innovation in the public service. As Chair of the Innovation Champions Group I’m proud of what’s been accomplished since our first meeting in late 2015.

There are Innovation Champions from each of the Portfolio Departments, as well as the Australian Public Service Commission, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the Digital Transformation Agency. As a group our aim is to provide senior leadership support for innovation across our agencies, and to share and learn from our experiences of what’s working and what’s not. We have sought to bring executive support and resourcing to APS innovation projects. We also sponsor the trials of cross-agency projects, acting as an incubator for new approaches.

This year, two projects were selected from the Innovation Hub trial of 2015 which was a pilot whole of government idea management system. The projects selected by the Innovations Champions Group to implement were the Policy Crowdsourcing Project and the Design Thinking Mentoring Programme.

The Crowdsourcing Project was a discovery process undertaken by the Department of Finance (Finance) to assess the nature, extent and challenges of policy crowdsourcing currently undertaken in the APS both internally and externally. The findings of Finance’s work will inform delivery of commitments under Australia’s Open Government National Action Plan, in particular a commitment improving opportunities for participation in government decision-making with explicit reference to the more effective use of digital channels.


In June 2016, the Innovation Champions Group endorsed a six week pilot as part of the Design Thinking Mentoring Programme. The pilot was led by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and involved 14 participants from 10 agencies. Participants spent one day a week working on the job with an experienced design thinker. Afterwards, participants pitched to their managers a different way of approaching their own project, and then participated in journey mapping their experience and evaluating the pilot. This was well received, with all of the participants who successfully finished being able to test a different approach within their own agency. Many of the participants have maintained a mentoring relationship with their design thinker.

Another initiative undertaken by the Innovation Champions Group this year was the 21st Century Service Programme by the not-for-profit Australian Futures Project. The programme trains APS5 to EL staff across different departments to develop solutions to complex real-world problems.

Solutions are developed using techniques such as design thinking, systems mapping and rapid prototyping.

The course was piloted in April 2016 with a revised version run in October 2016. A post training survey showed that 84 per cent of participants have used what was taught on the course in the workplace and have shared or are seeking to share these skills with others. The second training course concluded in December 2016.

Innovation in the APS was recognised this year with the inaugural APS Innovation Awards, developed in partnership with the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) ACT. The awards help celebrate the innovative ideas coming out of the APS. There were 80 entries this year, from which 12 finalists were selected to pitch (https://vimeo.com/172859374). More information on the awards is provided in the Case Studies section.

Innovation is alive and well within the APS if the award entries we received and the progress in 2016 detailed in this snapshot are anything to go by. I look forward to what the coming year will bring for the APS in terms of together finding new and better ways of doing things and solving problems.

David Hazlehurst A/g Deputy Secretary and Innovation Champion Department of Industry, Innovation and Science


NISA – Government as an exemplar

It has been just over a year since the $1.1 billion National Innovation Science Agenda (NISA) was launched and a broad package of initiatives designed to harness opportunities for economic prosperity and growth has been implemented. These initiatives include many under the ‘Government as an Exemplar’ pillar of NISA which is to ensure that the Australian Government leads by example. The initial focus has been on the delivery of digital services, by making data openly available to the public and by making it easier for startups and innovative small businesses to sell technology services to government.

Our goals are to provide world class services to the public and to help Australian industry leverage opportunities to grow in a globally competitive environment.

Innovation and Science Australia

To this end Innovation and Science Australia (ISA) has also been established under NISA as an independent body to advise the government on science,

research and innovation matters. ISA is establishing strong and extensive business and research stakeholder links and will publish advice to government to promote public discussion, and publicly advocate reforms on key issues. These issues include improving our innovation investment, innovation skills, industry-research collaboration and how to better plan and use Australia’s investment in research and development.

During 2016, ISA undertook a performance review of Australia’s innovation, science and research system. The review report was released on 7 February 2017. The review informs the development of ISA’s 2030 Strategic Plan which will provide a vision of the innovation, science and research system by 2030, set goals and outline the actions required to give life to the vision. It will identify investment priorities and specific areas for policy reform for government to consider. The 2030 Strategic Plan will be delivered to government in late 2017.


Business Research and Innovation Initiative

The government is also trialling an approach to reach the innovative ideas of Australian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) while making it easier for them to do business with the public sector. The Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII) is encouraging businesses to develop innovative solutions to defined government policy and service delivery challenges.

BRII was officially launched on 17 August 2016 with five challenges:

A portable on-the-spot measurement technology to determine if pyrethroid residues on interior aircraft surfaces are high enough to kill mosquitoes and other insects.

Using “smart information products” to track the effect and value of information products through the life of the information.

Digitally enabled community engagement in policy and programme design.

Improve transparency and reliability of water market information.

Sharing information nationally to ensure child safety.

Applications for solutions to these challenges closed on 30 November 2016 and first round grant recipients were announced early 2017. BRII will provide critical early stage financial support enabling the successful applicants to test the feasibility of their solution and to develop a proof of concept for an existing potential customer. Successful SMEs also retain the intellectual property and rights to market the solution globally. The programme will provide a path to market and expansion for SMEs with government as a customer and the opportunity to develop a track record.

The Business Research and Innovation Initiative is encouraging small and medium businessesto develop innovative solutions to defined government policy and service delivery challenges.


The strong performance of the Digital Marketplace shows how government can act as an exemplar in the creation of more innovative and enterprising products and services.

Digital Marketplace

NISA is making it easier to do business with government through the Digital Marketplace, the digital procurement platform being delivered by the Digital Transformation Agency. The marketplace started in March 2016 and released its Beta five months ahead of schedule in August 2016. This early release was made possible through collaboration with the UK’s Digital Marketplace. The two marketplaces share open source code and are increasingly collaborating to extend functionality and enrich the experiences of buyers and sellers.

The Digital Marketplace has listed over $20 million in opportunities in the five months since its Beta release. Of these opportunities $12.3 million worth of contracts have been reported so far, with 93% of the value going to SMEs. These opportunities have been posted by some of the 220 government buyers who have registered on the Digital Marketplace. Buyers span all levels of government and corporate entities such as the ABC.

The Digital Marketplace will continue to release new features and iterations over the next 18 months in the journey from the Beta ‘minimum viable product’ to the Live ‘minimum loveable product’. Several of these will be built in collaboration with other government digital teams, both domestically and internationally, or with innovative ICT sellers sourced through the marketplace itself.


Public Data Policy Statement

Data sharing for innovation received a boost through NISA via the Public Data Policy Statement which requires Australian Government entities to make non-sensitive data open by default. The policy is intended to ensure that the value of Australia’s growing data volumes can be harnessed and that we have the capacity to remain competitive in the digital economy. Publishing, linking and sharing data can create opportunities that neither government nor business can currently envisage.

Appropriately anonymised government data is now being published as a result of the Public Data Policy Statement and will help stimulate innovation and contribute to positive economic outcomes. Data releases will also inform policy development, create new and innovative products and services, and increase efficiency.

One major data release this past year was Australia’s Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF) and their Administrative Boundaries datasets in February 2016. G-NAF is Australia's authoritative geocoded address file and contains more than 13 million physical address records. We are one of only a few countries in the world to make this data — which can be used for many purposes including infrastructure planning — openly available. The datasets are available for use and reuse at no charge to end users through the Australian Government’s online data portal, data.gov.au. Updated versions of these datasets are published on a quarterly basis.

The government will continue to work with businesses, researchers, academia and the public to identify datasets that will have the highest impact when opened up for wider access. This will be done while continuing to uphold the highest standards of security and privacy when it comes to personal, security and commercial data.

Data61

To further improve on the APS’s data skills Data61 partnered with Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) in 2016 to deliver advanced data training internships for APS data specialists. Known as APS Data Fellows, the specialists will be hosted by Data61 and partner agencies for three months, giving them an opportunity to work with researchers and engineers to develop a solution for a data related problem from their agency.


Case Studies – The APS Innovation Awards Finalists

A highlight event in the Innovation Month calendar was the APS Innovation Award Ceremony. The inaugural awards received 83 entries under the themes of: innovative solutions; engaging with the edge; digital transformation; and contributing to a culture or practice of innovation.

From the 83 entries 12 finalists were selected to pitch their project to a panel of innovation experts from the public and private sectors.

The finalists were of a high quality, showing the diverse work and great talents of the APS. Late in 2016 the Innovation Champions Group initiated a research project developed collaboratively with the DFAT and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The project interviewed seven of the 12 finalists to explore what public sector innovation meant to them. The finalists were also interviewed and a video was developed with the assistance of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) video production unit.

The finalists are detailed on the following pages.

Click on the image to play the video or visit: https://youtu.be/oGq5H_GABds


Public sector innovation: What does it mean to the APS Innovation Award winners

Consistent themes were found among the

finalists when they were interviewed. These

included:

Innovation is new ideas and being

prepared to accept failure. All the

finalists stated that a lack of failure

indicated that you weren’t challenging

yourself enough.

Barriers, especially bureaucratic ones,

to innovation exist but these can be

overcome by not being a stickler for

rules. Sometimes rules just become

safety blankets that stifle new thinking.

The finalists recommended asking

yourself ‘do we need a rule?’ and ‘why

do we have that rule?’

An innovation culture is a culture of staff

empowerment, with that comes a

bottom-up approach, different from the

traditional top-down management of the

past. To be innovative, staff need the

space to challenge old ideas and rules,

and test new ones.

Timidity towards major change and the

favouring of small changes with less risk

or no risk is often the preferred

approach in the APS

Innovation means not playing it safe.

The public service doesn’t live in a

vacuum and inaction can be very risky.

To stay relevant the APS must accept

risk and risk management (not risk

avoidance) in order to try new things.

Approaching problems with an open

mind and not being timid is the best

approach.

Sometimes the best solution is a simple

one. Innovation isn’t always large ICT

projects and big announcements, it can

be good, small ideas with big benefits.

Risk adversity to the point of inaction

isn’t playing it safe at all. The public

service doesn’t live in a vacuum and

inaction can be very risky. To stay

relevant and continue to service the

public, the APS much accept risk and

risk management (not risk avoidance) in

order to try new things.

For details on each interview visit the APS innovator interviews 2016 at the DIIS YouTube channel https://goo.gl/a75JQ1.


Jeff Roach – representative of APS Innovation Award finalistDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s innovationXchange.

Finalist: innovationXchange @ The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

The innovationXchange (iXc) was launched in March 2015 with the goal of multiplying the impact of Australian aid investments by accelerating and stimulating innovation and the application of new knowledge. All progress involves change, but iXc aims to make this happen more quickly in order to improve the impact of Australia's aid spend.

A unique effort in Australian public policy to catalyse innovation in a longstanding policy programme (development assistance), iXc is a new standalone work unit with an explicit mandate to trial new approaches, develop fresh relationships and engage differently with risk.

iXc works with new partners on international development assistance and is sourcing the best global ideas to solve intractable challenges (through publicly contestable challenges). It is also trialling and experimenting with potential solutions prior to scale-up.

iXc has publicly-sourced new ideas on Pacific humanitarian challenges and has completed two "Ideas Challenges" at DFAT drawing hundreds of staff ideas on how to improve the department's work. iXc is also working in 18 lndo-Pacific countries on projects which encompass health, water and nutrition.


Finalist: Geoscience Australia's Mineral Potential Mapper

Geoscience Australia has developed a new way of locating potential new mineral resources using a computer-based system.

Australia benefits greatly from its natural endowment of mineral resources. However, a declining rate of discovery of major new mineral resources threatens the continuation of mineral projects.

This important issue led to the development of the Mineral Potential Mapper which uses datasets to predict mineral locations. It is the first of its type in Australia to be applied at the continental scale. The Mineral Potential Mapper has been applied to ore deposits of nickel (Ni), copper (Cu) and the platinum-group elements (PGEs). These were chosen for their high importance for the global economy, and that fact that these minerals are under-represented in Australia despite a very favourable geology.

The Mineral Potential Mapper highlighted thirteen regions in Australia with high potential for Ni-Cu-PGE deposits, successfully predicting regions containing the few known deposits of this type, even though the deposits were not included as an input dataset. More importantly, the results also predicted high potential in several greenfield areas where no deposits are known to exist. The results provide the mineral exploration industry with target regions within which more detailed follow-up and exploration will be required to discover new mineral deposits.

The Mineral Potential Mapper shows the way forward for mapping the nation’s mineral potential not only for nickel-copper-PGEs but also in the future for other metals such as gold, zinc, lead, uranium and rare-earth elements.

Richard Blewett – representative of APS Innovation Award finalist Geoscience Australia.


Finalist: The Department of Finance's govCMS

The Department of Finance's Government Content Management System (govCMS) is an open source web content management and hosting service that was developed by Finance.

The govCMS platform is helping federal, state and local government agencies create modern, affordable and responsive websites that deliver better end-user experiences. By using open source software, government web teams have been able to come together as a community and collaborate to create the things they need. This is an approach that differentiates govCMS from traditional government services.

Finalist: IP Australia's Patent Analytics Hub

The Patent Analytics Hub (the Hub) aims to help Australian innovators make the most of their intellectual property. The Hub provides analysis, visualisation and interpretation of data included in patent documents.

The Hub translates the world’s vast patent literature into useable information to help users with research, development, collaboration and commercialisation. The material contains over 80 million patent records, which provide bibliographic information, as well as technical information about the invention and provides users with a wide range of details in a particular technology area.

Now in its second year of operation, govCMS has doubled its projected adoption rate. As of mid-November 2016, there were 52 agencies using the govCMS platform, representing six different jurisdictions, and a total of 105 live websites with a further 31 in development.

Sharyn Clarkson – representative of APS Innovation Award finalist Department of Finance

Alicia Daly – representative of APSInnovation Award finalist IP Australia


Finalist: Australian Taxation Office's Fix-it squads

To improve the interactions that small business owners have with government agencies, the ATO is leading a cross-agency initiative called Small Business Fix-it Squad.

The squads bring small business owners, different government agencies and other stakeholders together to look at issues from the small business owner’s perspective, with a focus on identifying and reducing red tape.

Small business have frequently advised that it’s difficult to find the right part of government to deal with. In many cases, they have to deal with a number of agencies, resulting in a time consuming and confusing process.

To date, the ATO has held eight squads, and many recommendations have already been implemented by the ATO and other government agencies.

The squads have addressed a range of issues including changing from a sole trader to a company, taking on an employee, and starting a small business for young adults.

The whole-of-government and collaborative approach of the Fix-it Squads are making a real difference for small business owners, and the red tape reduction process has delivered real savings. To date the squads have delivered an estimated saving in excess of $140 million for small businesses, giving more than 1.7 million hours back to small business owners.

Small businesses involved in Fix-it Squads have enjoyed their experience and are advocates for this approach to problem solving. Government agencies have gained a better understanding of the challenges facing small business and have learned that by working together we can deliver a far better experience for small business.

David Colahan – representative of APS InnovationAward finalist Australian Taxation Office.


Finalist: The Department of Defence's Redwing project

The Redwing programme comprises a series of innovative products that have been developed within the Australian Department of Defence. It includes the first-of-its-kind, specialised Improvised Explosive Device (IED) protection system, which has been developed for export to selected security forces such as the military and police.

IEDs take a daily physical and emotional toll in Afghanistan and other global conflict zones. As a result, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Counter IED Task Force (CIEDTF – recently renamed as the Joint Counter Improvised Threat Task Force (JCITTF)) set the challenge to develop devices employing new techniques that were robust against a wide range of trigger devices yet could be used without fear of exploitation by hostile forces.

The devices had to be robust, cheap and can be manufactured en masse quickly. This was a research and engineering challenge that the department solved in a way that no other country had done previously.

Two main devices were developed: GREENGUM, a compact personal protection unit; and GREYGUM, a unit designed to protect light vehicles. In an extremely short time frame over 100,000 units were manufactured by Australian industry and delivered to the Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDSF) in 2015. All units were delivered within schedule and budget early in 2015. The resulting economic benefit for the first phase of the project to Australian industry was more than $28 million.

Following the success of the 2015 programme, the ANDSF placed orders for an additional 55,000 units in 2016.

The project is an example of the Department of Defence working closely with Australian industry to move from an initial concept to field testing and mass manufacture within very tight delivery deadlines.

Although the systems were mainly designed for Afghanistan, they have also been designed for potential export to selected security partners for use by their military and police. There has also been a high level of interest from various Non-Government Organisations involved in humanitarian support across the globe.

Through the development of these life-saving units, the Redwing programme showcases how Australia’s cutting-edge technological development can make an impact on the global stage.

This unique programme has and will continue to save many Afghani lives. The timely and successful transition from the innovative design prototype to the final mass produced version has been critical to the success of this project.

Darryn Smart – representative of APS InnovationAward finalist Department of Defence.


Finalist: The Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) Quick Motor Vehicle Portal

The Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) administers the national online Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). The PPSR, established in 2012, underpins the national scheme for personal property securities that replaced a large number of pre-existing Commonwealth, state and territory registers. The creation of the national scheme was a significant micro-economic reform in Australia, requiring cooperation from consumer groups, Commonwealth and state governments and the business community.

The PPSR is used by businesses and individuals to register their security interests over personal property (any sort of property that is not land, buildings and fixtures). It also allows businesses and individuals to search for any security interest that may exist over property they may be interested in purchasing or dealing with. By 2016, there had been 9,734,760 new registrations created and 29,508,532 searches on the PPSR.

AFSA noted issues with the PPSR. A large proportion of queries were around motor vehicles ownership, but users were having difficulty with the terminology used in the system. To resolve this the AFSA released a new streamlined and simplified search option called the Quick Motor Vehicle Search. This search option allows clients to easily perform a search against the vehicle’s serial number, provides an onscreen result in plain language and automatically emails a copy of the Search Certificate, invoice and a fact sheet to assist users to understand the result.

The service has continued to be incrementally improved with full mobile-friendly functionality introduced in December 2015. This is particularly useful for clients out and about looking at a used vehicle as they can do a check anywhere and at any time.

Not only does the improved service assist the public, but processing time on customer calls to the AFSA has reduced by 19.47 per cent. This represents an annual saving of $37,950 of staff time for the AFSA.

Genene Bageas – representative of APS InnovationAward finalist Australian Financial Security Authority.


APS innovation in action – Defence Industry Policy

The Department of Defence recognises that investment in innovation helps to ensure Defence remains resilient to emerging threats. Since the 2016 Defence White Paper launch, Defence has been working hard to implement the Defence Industry Policy Statement. This establishes the systems and frameworks that will provide the foundation for the new Defence and industry partnership. Collaboration between government, industry and the research community is critical to get the best capability for Defence. Great ideas come from collaboration and that is why Defence innovation is moving to promote collaboration and fast thinking.

In December 2016 Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, launched the Centre for Defence Industry Capability (CDIC) and the Defence Innovation Hub, (www.business.gov.au/ centre-for-defence-industry-capability). The CDIC is a significant step in resetting the relationship between Defence and industry and driving jobs growth across the country. The CDIC is a $230 million initiative delivered through a collaborative partnership between Defence and DIIS in which the centre is based. It will support Australian industry by offering access to expert advice on doing business in the defence market, including providing assistance with submitting innovation proposals. The CDIC is the single entry point for the Defence Innovation Hub through the Defence Innovation Portal website, and is focused on supporting Australian industry to commercialise successful innovations into Defence capability.

The Defence Innovation Hub integrates Defence's innovation programmes into a single innovation programme guided by a single set of Defence investment priorities. The Defence Innovation Hub will make it easier to do business with Defence. The Defence Innovation Hub will invest around $640 million over the next decade to 2025-26 into maturing and further developing technologies that have moved from early science stages into the engineering and development stages. The Defence Innovation Hub invites innovation proposals from industry, academia and research institutions across the six capability streams in the Defence Integrated Investment Programme. The proposals can be initial concept through to prototyping and integrated testing.

Another key element of the Defence Industry Policy Statement, the Next Generation Technologies Fund (comprising $730 million over the decade to 2025-26) launched by the Minister for Defence Industry in March 2017, focuses on research investment on technologies to better position Defence to respond to future strategic challenges.


The Honourable Christopher Pyne MP, Minister for Defence Industry with Kate Louis, First Assistant Secretary Defence Industry Policy, Paul Johnson, Co-Chair Centre for Defence Industry Capability and Kim Gillis, Deputy Secretary Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group at the newly launched Centre for Defence Industry Capability Headquarters in Adelaide South Australia – December 2016.

Taking the innovation temperature: how innovation culture is developing in the APS

Key findings of the 2016 APS Commission State of the Service Agency Survey and the 2016 APS Employee Census.

The 2016 APS Commission State of the Service Agency Survey (2016 Agency Survey) and the 2016 APS Employee Census conducted by the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) tracked the strategies used by agencies to improve innovation. The results show that innovation is rapidly expanding across the APS. However, this expansion is uneven and there are areas for improvement.

Almost 60 per cent of agencies in the 2016 Agency Survey reported that senior leaders had set out a vision for an innovation strategy, and four in five agencies reported that they were engaging with internal and external groups to drive innovation. The survey also revealed that over 50 per cent of agencies reported monitoring internal innovation and are using this to foster more innovative activities. Nearly half of all agencies reported that they are working on establishing clear processes for turning an innovation into a practice or policy.


In the 2016 APS Employee Census 45 per cent of respondents indicated that their workgroup had implemented an innovation in the last 12 months, and nearly half of all respondents agreed that finding new solutions to problems was important in their agency and that employees were encouraged to make suggestions.

It is also worth noting that while 36 per cent of respondents agreed that most managers in their agency encouraged innovation, 23 per cent indicated that most managers barely encouraged innovation.

Generally, younger employees thought that their agencies emphasised innovation to a greater extent than their older colleagues. While those aged under 30 years were least likely to have actually seen innovation being implemented, they were most likely to indicate that their agency prioritised it.

Staff in agencies with the highest emphasis on innovation also had managers who encouraged innovative practices and deliberate strategies to support innovation and increase the agency’s ability to implement it. These agencies had proactive risk management strategies and encouraged a culture of accountability which included accepting and learning from mistakes. Smaller agencies, on average, rated higher for emphasis on innovation than large agencies, perhaps as a result of a more effective internal communications system, which was also, on average, a feature of organisations which emphasised innovation.

The 2016 APS Employee Census findings identify some key management areas that can be addressed in order to develop a more innovative organisation, as well as some common innovation strategies being used by agencies which have a strong emphasis on innovation.

These innovation strategies included:

Innovation strategies and plans

Innovation labs

Encouraging innovative ideas

Innovation events.


Innovation strategies and plans across the APS

Many departments have had an innovation strategy or a component focusing on innovation in their corporate plan. However, in the past twelve months departments have been making concerted efforts to develop innovation strategies using methods that are not traditional to the APS, such as User-Centred Design and other bottom-up methodologies.

The Department of Innovation, Industry and Science (DIIS), which takes a leadership role in public sector innovation, launched its own Innovation Strategy in 2016. The strategy, which remains a live and developing document highlights the importance of collaboration (both internally within the public sector and externally with private sector stakeholders) and experimentation. The DIIS Innovation Strategy encourages an environment where all staff, from the top-down and the bottom-up, are empowered to put forward ideas that can develop into innovations that assist the department.

DIIS has launched an internal Innovation Council, allowing staff from all areas of the department to contribute to the innovation journey. The department has also established Bizlab, an innovation lab (more below), and has begun work on the development of an internal ideas pathway to assist in the development of ideas from staff.

The DIIS is working closely with APS Design and Innovation leads, to look at how they can achieve synergies in terms of capability development and rapidly scaling up the efforts of APS innovation teams. Teams having been working closely with the not-for-profit organisation – The Australian Futures Project, to conduct APS wide User Centred Design training, a cornerstone skill set for APS wide innovation acceleration. Content is delivered via La Trobe University and so far close to 30 staff have been through the pilot programmes with plans to rapidly expand training in 2017.

Project workshops at the Department of Innovation,Industry and Science’s BizLab innovation lab.


The Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (DIRD) released its Innovation Overview in March 2016. The overview recognised innovative initiatives across the department relating to connecting and developing individuals, building a strong organisation, programme management and digital and data projects.

DIRD released its Innovation Agenda in late 2016. The agenda sets out goals and activities across three themes—disruption, design, and data. DIRD continues to build awareness, interest and capability in innovation with underway looking at patent technology in the transport sector with IP Australia, piloting three demonstrator projects using design thinking, and a suite of events for Innovation Month.

The Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) has continued to invest in new approaches to policy design and complex

problem solving. These include establishing a multidisciplinary social media research unit to support countering violent extremism initiatives, and innovative work with digital industry partners to increase the capability of young people to use social media to challenge hate and violence. AGD has also sponsored a co-design policy process with government, business and community partners to develop an investment model that will achieve greater collective impact in building community resilience.

The department has adopted Agile methodologies in a number of service delivery and technical projects. In addition, 100 departmental and portfolio staff undertook a user-design foundations course, with an extension programme to follow in 2017.

The Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development’s InnovationTeam with their Secretary, Mike Mrdak (centre), at their cross-agency

Disruptive Technologies Workshop in July 2016.


AGD has also adapted rapid policy methodology to assist consultation and issues mapping in complex projects relating to protective security arrangements, technology assisted abuse and other legal policy priorities. The rapid policy methodology was sourced from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Project Office, which developed the method by adapting consulting approaches to the policy context. It has four interlocking policy development approaches: rigorous analysis, project management, stakeholder engagement and compelling communication.

Overall, there has been growing internal awareness and uptake of opportunities to work differently within AGD. The initiatives undertaken reflect a strong departmental focus on the importance of innovation and successful outcomes have already been delivered through trialling new approaches.

Established in February 2016 and hosted by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) is a joint initiative of agencies from across the APS dedicated to building the APS’ behavioural economics capability.

BETA collaborates with other behavioural insights teams, APS agencies and a range of field partners to deliver projects that demonstrate the value of applying behavioural insights in delivering better policy outcomes for Australians.

BETA is driving new ways of doing business in the APS by; translating the latest insights in behavioural economics into design of policies and services, testing impacts through randomised controlled trials, the gold standard for evaluation; and publishing project results by default, to build an evidence base on what works.

BETA’s work recognises that the most elegant of policies can fail if they do not account for human behaviour. By designing prototype interventions, testing on a small scale and learning from what works and what doesn’t work BETA is building rapid evidence to support adapting, scaling up and, if required, terminating policies and programs. See www.pmc.gov.au/beta for more information.

The Behavioural Economics Teams of the Australian Government (BETA) was launched in February 2016


The Department of Employment (Employment) has continued its innovation journey, using co-design methods (including a “draw innovation” competition, affinity mapping and user-centred design workshops) to refresh and relaunch its Innovation Framework. The refreshed framework focuses on: unlocking staff expertise, interests and life experiences; applying user-centred design; exploring a variety of policy levers and non-legislative approaches; and sharing successes and lessons learnt from failure.

Understanding user needs was identified as a priority in the framework and APS, EL, and SES staff nationally from across Employment volunteered to take part in a

series of projects in 2016 to trial user-centred approaches and methods. These approaches started with upfront user research by talking to citizens in their own environment, and involving users in co-designing new programme and policy prototypes. Staff were supported throughout with a combination of external and internal expertise, leading some to coach others new to user-centred design. The projects were successful and so Employment is continuing to resource design capability and embed user-centred principles throughout the organisation, with a focus on policy making.

Department of Employment Future of Work Policy case study team members in front of their context mapin the Design Lab set up for the Embedding of User-centred Principles project April-August 2016.


Rise of the Innovation Labs

innovationXchange @ The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

The innovationXchange (iXc) was launched in March 2015 with the goal of multiplying the impact of Australian aid investments by accelerating and stimulating innovation and the application of new knowledge. All progress involves change but iXc aims to make this happen more quickly in order to improve the impact of Australia's aid spend.

iXc is a unique effort in Australian public aid policy to stimulate innovation in a longstanding policy programme (such as development assistance). It is a new standalone work unit with an explicit mandate to trial new approaches, develop fresh relationships and engage differently with risk.

iXc works with partners, such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, Google, Xprize and other private sector actors, on international development assistance. It is also sourcing the best global ideas to solve intractable challenges through publicly contestable ‘challenges’, and is trialling and experimenting with potential solutions prior to scale-up.

iXc has publicly-sourced new ideas on Pacific humanitarian challenges and has completed two ‘Ideas Challenges’ at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade drawing hundreds of staff ideas on how to improve the department's work. It is also working in 18 lndo-Pacific countries on projects encompassing health, water and nutrition.

In early 2017, iXc launched the Innovation Resource Facility (IRF) which brings together a consortium of internationally-renowned innovation-centred companies. The IRF has been structured to enable Commonwealth government departments to access a suite of technical advisory services on innovation. The facility encompasses deep expertise on non-aid related projects; departments interested in the IRF can find out more at the iXc website innovationxchange.dfat.gov.au/.


Department of Human Services’ Design Hub

DHS actively supports the whole-of-government innovation and design agenda and is committed to adopting a user centred, end-to-end design approach to improve and ultimately transform business priorities. The department has two design hubs, located in Brisbane and Canberra, which provide intensive user-centred design and apply design thinking to the government’s digital transformation priority projects. The design team works with internal stakeholders and with other government agencies, private sector colleagues as well as leading the Innovation Champions Group Design Thinking Mentoring Programme.

This year the DHS established a world class Technology Innovation Centre, also in Canberra, to bring future digital technology to the innovation agenda. The centre showcases future technology in an interactive environment where government representatives, business partners, department staff and customers are able to get hands-on with the type of cutting edge technologies that will underpin future business transformation. The centre is both a showcase of industry-leading technology and an interactive space for the department and its stakeholders to better understand what’s possible when it comes to designing solutions.

Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s Bizlab

In support of its Innovation Strategy DIIS launched its innovation lab, BizLab, in August 2016. BizLab seeks to instil a user centred design approach to problem solving with the goal of achieving more and better solutions in an efficient manner.

The remit of BizLab is two-fold; 1. To work with multi-disciplinary teams on complex “wicked” problems by scaffolding them with User Centred Design methodologies and in doing so transfer innovation skills, and; 2. To stimulate and inspire a culture that facilitates a mind-shift toward thinking differently in order to create a sustainable culture of innovation in line with the expectations of a 21st century government.

BizLab hit the ground running and has so far delivered against four major projects including; improving user experience and compliance for the R&D tax incentive programme; identifying improvements for the performance review process; investigating expansion opportunities for the Major Projects Approval Agency (MPAA) and streamlining of the Domestic travel process.

BizLab has conducted over 127 end-user interviews, introduced more than 200 people to user centred design principles, facilitated 14+ innovation workshops and co-ordinated 49 innovation month events with the PSIN covering more than 6500 participants in July 2016.


The Department of Finance ran a series of design thinking inspired Test Labs for staff in 2016.This gallery illustrated the ideas and topics covered in the lab sessions.

Encouraging innovative ideas

The capacity to develop, test and evaluate ideas is central to building an innovation culture. Without a pathway to develop new ideas, agencies cannot tap into the potential benefits they can deliver. By developing a pathway organisations can encourage staff to participate, with that participation comes a culture of empowerment and risk acceptance that allows innovation to flourish.

The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) is modernising workforce management practices in the APS and equipping it to manage future impacts on the workforce, such as changing ways of working (for example project based employment and the impact of technology and connectivity). In 2016 the

APSC has trialled a smartphone application to get employees talking about underlying drivers of performance, and to ‘nudge’ performance by increasing awareness of the importance of performance management.

The APSC has also redesigned its own performance management system. The changes move its system away from a focus on process to improving performance through regular conversations with minimal compliance requirements.


New ideas are being encouraged at the Department of Finance which conducted its first series of design thinking inspired Test Labs in June 2016 as part of its Transformation Programme. The Test Labs events are a creative way for staff to discuss, create solutions and engage with the design of Finance’s transformation agenda.

Over 400 Finance staff, from APS1 to EL2,

generated more than 1200 ideas during 22

sessions in the Test Labs. Many staff

reported that the sessions were a fun way

to get involved in discussing the people

aspects of transformation.

Problems were posed in the Test Labs and

participants worked through a range of

solutions. Staff who couldn’t attend a

session were able to drop in to a gallery to

see the ideas and thoughts discussed in

the Test Labs and captured through

graphics.

Feedback received from department staff

included:

Keep the Test Lab concept going into

the future.

The sessions were a great way to

engage and understand what this

means for me.

The Test Labs offered a great

opportunity to influence aspects

of the transformation.

Some ideas will be able to be actioned in

the near future as part of organisational

transformation while others will be retained

for consideration further down the track.

Finance plans to use the Test Lab

approach on an ongoing basis to engage

staff and generate ideas and solutions – it

is a new way of working in Finance that is

here to stay.

The Department of Environment and

Energy (Environment) also launched its

programme of Innovation Challenges by

posing a question to all staff through the

department’s intranet discussion board on

a quarterly basis. Staff have the opportunity

to put forward an idea in response to the

challenge to contribute to an idea already

posted or to rate an idea to get it noticed.

The aim is to encourage reflection and

collaboration. Ideas that show potential will

be explored through a pilot process.

Piloting has been embraced as a critical

component of innovation in Environment.

Eight pilots are currently being undertaken

with the support of the central innovation

team, in addition to other trials occurring

around the department. The pilots cover

new collaboration tools, approaches for

streamlining processes, staff mobility

proposals and behavioural insights projects

with government and industry partners.

Implementation of the first pilot has recently

concluded with results and

recommendations expected to be ready

early 2017.

The Department of Health (Health) is currently embedding an innovation culture and effective supporting infrastructure that emphasises the importance of incremental innovation activities through to disruptive change.


The DFAT innovationXchange was launched in 2015.

Health is actively developing and building capabilities that can encourage a more agile and innovative workplace, with assistance from an engaged Community of Interest. In 2016, Health ran an APS-wide innovation summit, and developed an innovation work program ‘blueprint for action’ and implementation plan. Health is also developing its design thinking capability and other stakeholder-centric approaches to policy development and programme delivery, and building a strategic environment that actively supports staff to consider, accept and capitalise on innovative approaches as part of business as usual work activities.

Since its first, staff-wide innovation challenge in 2015, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s iXc has launched three external challenges in the past 12 months and completed a second staff ideas challenge.

In 2016 it delivered a global challenge attracting 129 new ideas on improving humanitarian response and recovery in the Pacific. These ideas were refined down to five finalists which are now being trialled in the Pacific region. iXc also concluded its blue economy aquaculture challenge that was run with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to attract new ideas on food security for the Indian Ocean. Ten winners are being supported to take their ideas to prototyping stage.

In 2017, iXc is partnering with the prestigious US-based XPRIZE organisation on a water abundance competition. The scientific challenge to be solved? A technological solution which harvests clean water from the atmosphere at a rate of 2000 litres per day, at a cost of less than 2 cents per litre, using 100% renewable energy.


In keeping with its objective, the iXc is

sourcing new ideas through these

challenges and competitions and trialling

the best ideas with the aim of maximising

the impact of the Australian aid budget.

Through the more effective use of these

funds, the iXc not only improves the lives of

those living in Australia’s neighbourhood,

but delivers better public policy outcomes.

The Department of Human Services (DHS) Innovation Programme has successfully driven a sustained culture of innovation across all areas of the department. The programme tackles challenges facing the department’s transformation journey with deliverable and actionable innovative solutions. It works to embed innovation as a live, leader-led conversation around continuous improvement and co-design that accelerates and enables the department’s vision for the future.

Through strong executive support the 2016 DHS Innovation Forum series continued across the department to ensure all states had an opportunity to attend, covering a broader inter-agency audience. In 2016 DHS also facilitated an APS wide innovation forum that involved over 40 agencies attending and an Innovation Forum for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

DHS has been able to share new ways of working by taking staff out of the office and introducing them to a design space where collaboration and innovation are made possible. DHS is on track to deliver more in 2017 with innovation forums scheduled with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, DHS smart centres, and three technical centres across Australia.

The Department of Communications and

the Arts recently completed the first round

of their Ideas Incubator. The Ideas

Incubator is a platform for staff to submit

ideas related to an organisational challenge

and creates an opportunity to crowdsource

a variety of ideas for implementation. The

challenge ‘how can we improve information

sharing to increase collaboration between

teams’ was selected after consultation with

staff to increase interest in the process.

There were 125 ideas submitted in the first

stage, an excellent result for a small

agency with about 400 staff. These ideas

were combined into common groups,

discussed with subject matter experts to

determine their validity and then refined

into larger concepts. There were 19 final

concepts for staff to vote on which ranged

from IT solutions to events. Consultation

with key stakeholder groups was ongoing

throughout this refining process.

The concepts were then voted on and a

panel of staff members ranging from APS4

to SES Band 2 discussed the ideas and the

voting results to develop a prioritised list of

concepts for implementation and those for

further development in the future. Short-

term staff rotations was the highest rated

concept by a large margin.

Concepts are being discussed with relevant

teams to begin implementation. To date, all

teams have agreed to take on the idea and

implementation is underway.


Innovation events

Innovation events have been a principle driver in building an innovation culture in the APS for many years. The success of Innovation Month (below) is a testament to the importance of innovation events as ways to share information and educate the APS on current developments in public sector innovation. However, innovation events are not solely run in Innovation Month and departments are offering their staff the professional development benefits of events all year round.

The Department of Environment’s “Environmental Department” (ED) Talks were launched in 2016 for staff from across the department to share their everyday experiences of innovation with colleagues. Talks are quarterly and are presented in the style of TED Talks, attracting 50-100 staff. The talks not only allow staff to share information about innovation and how it can be done, they also provide a platform for staff to gain new recognition for their work. Popular topics have included presentations from previous winners of the Secretary’s Award for Innovation, and senior executive staff discussing learning from failure.

In 2016 the Department of Health delivered departmental talks by the Behavioural Insights team and ANU ‘Mission possible’, created an internal SharePoint site to communicate internal and external innovation initiatives and

events, actively developed and built capabilities that can encourage a more agile and innovative workplace, and leveraged off existing knowledge and skills to build innovation into everyday work practices.

The APSC hosted two innovation hackathons in 2016; #APSWorkHack and #GradHack. In #APSWorkHack the challenge was for attendees to 'hack' into six enduring workforce management problems and to collaborate to identify an innovative solution. As a result, the APSC is piloting “Operation Free Range”, to understand and improve mobility across the APS.

#GradHack provided graduates across the APS the opportunity to develop and pitch solutions to one of five real government challenges put forward by Defence, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet and the APSC. #GradHack provided an opportunity for graduates to problem solve in a different way, work collaboratively across government and to gain exposure to real policy challenges.

Numerous APS departments and agencies also attended and hosted events in Innovation Month 2016, the flagship event for the Public Sector Innovation Network.


The Design Mentors Programme, endorsed by the Innovation Champions Groupwas led by the Department of Human Services (DHS)

Public Sector Innovation Network

The Public Sector Innovation Network was formed in 2009 and has been an experimental exercise in developing a public facing professional network on innovation. Anyone can join the PSIN and it seeks input from all areas of the APS on developments in innovation news. It also aims to inform the APS on developments in innovation both inside the government and outside. The PSIN currently has over 3400 members.

Initiatives of the PSIN include a weekly newsletter and website with a toolkit, blog and event calendar. It has developed and expanded Innovation Month and other innovation events, initiated monthly meetings with members to discuss agency innovation initiatives and share information face to face, and it has made inroads to better servicing members outside Canberra.

2016 saw the development of two initiatives, the Innovation Champions Group and the PSIN Yammer Group, which further developed both the usefulness of the network as a resource for APS staff seeking to innovate, and formalised the PSIN to closer work with the APS hierarchy.

The launch of the Innovation Champions Group in late 2015 provided a platform for ideas from the APS grassroots to be developed. In 2016 two ideas from the Innovation Hub pilot were approved, developed and delivered through the group.

These were the Design Mentors Programme and the Crowdsourcing Project. The Innovation Champions Group also serves as an incubator for its own ideas to be trialled.

The second initiative was the PSIN Yammer Group which launched in February 2016 as a platform for crowdsourcing information. It has been growing and successfully providing members with answers to innovation-related queries. The group is open to all tiers of Australian government and has over 370 members.

PSIN around Australia

The PSIN State Co-ordinators have

continued to work in developing networks of

APS staff collaborating on innovation outside

of Canberra. The Canberra-based PSIN

Agents group is assisting by finding contacts

in the state branches of their agencies who

are active in public sector innovation to make

contact with the State Co-ordinators.


Innovation Month 2016 events such as this one at the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development were held across Canberra and Australia.

Innovation Month

Innovation Month is the flagship event of the PSIN calendar and provides the APS with an

opportunity to develop skills and knowledge in innovation principles and their practical uses.

Innovation Month 2016 had 49 events at Innovation Month with 6500 attendees. Of these events

30 were from the public sector and 19 were from the private sector. Twenty-eight public sector

events were hosted by Federal Government and two by state government. Of all the Innovation

Month events 26 were internal staff only events and 23 were external, either open to the

government sector or entirely public.

Innovation Month 2017 will run July 3-30 with the theme ‘Making it Happen’. The PSIN Agents

are currently developing event ideas for the programme.


What’s next?

Undoubtedly 2016 was a big year for public sector innovation. The government’s commitment to innovation with NISA, the numerous initiatives, strategies and labs launched across departments and the continued formalisation of innovation across government through the Innovation Champions Group and the PSIN all contribute to the APS goal of becoming an exemplar of innovation.

2017 promises to be another big year as initiatives such as those discussed in this document continue to deliver and more like them are launched. These initiatives will normalise the principles of innovation in the APS—acceptance of risk and experimentation. In addition, more open and flatter structures are being embraced by the APS at varying speeds across its multiple organisations.

The work of the APS Innovation Agenda continues to encourage these developments through the sharing of information via initiatives such as Innovation Month and this document. The PSIN and the Innovation Champions Group will continue to trial new ideas and allow the formalisation of APS innovation through testing and development.

We look forward to sharing with you on how these initiatives have fared and the ongoing journey of the APS in innovation next year.

The PSIN Team

Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. [email protected] innovation.govspace.gov.au twitter/Instagram: @psinnovate


Contact

P (02) 6213 6000

E [email protected]

GPO Box 9839, Canberra ACT 2601

innovation.govspace.gov.au

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