Risk is great, innovate now!
Innovation has never been optional—it has always been essential. Yet, interest often flares up and then fades away. Over the years, I have seen a few great business and public sector leaders not only innovate but also create lasting innovation engines.
Yet, for many public sector leaders, risk aversion remains a barrier to change. In New Zealand, our Minister for the Public Service highlighted the challenge of innovating, embracing a culture of action, and managing risk. Our new Public Service Commissioner, Sir Brian Roche, reinforced this by stating that true leadership requires the courage to act despite uncertainty—waiting for perfect conditions often means missing opportunities. So how can government leaders move beyond hesitation and drive meaningful innovation?
In my experience, reframing risk is key. Bent Flyvbjerg, in his excellent book How Big Things Get Done, stresses that successful innovators don’t avoid risk—they manage it strategically.
One group of innovators is designers; they reframe risk as something to design for and be curious about. They apply a toolkit of techniques to do so. Over the past 30 years, I have seen design thinking emerge and grow in popularity, with leaders often embracing the tools and phrases but sometimes shying away from the critical mindset that is key to success. The foundation of design thinking is thinking like a designer. It is easy to say “fail fast, fail cheap” or “have beginner’s eyes,” but hard to do if the authorizing environment does not support you.
Applying the following insights can help public sector leaders move from caution to results.
1. Start Small, Think Big
Flyvbjerg’s research shows that successful projects begin with small, controlled experiments before scaling. Instead of launching large-scale reforms all at once, leaders should test innovations on a small scale, measure impact, and refine before full implementation. His book is full of great examples.
Pilot programs may be perceived by some as experiments but are often launched in a very public way. Reputational capital is attached, and the risk of failing starts to dominate over the risk of not learning. What we should hear from pilots is, “Well, that was a start. What do we adjust as we launch our next pilot or scale up?”
Practical Step: Identify one process to improve and test a new approach in a single team. Track results, celebrate lessons learned, iterate, and refine before expanding.
2. Redefine Failure as Learning
Innovation thrives in environments where failure is part of the process, not a career risk. The Minister’s call for “freedom to fail (hopefully in a small way)” challenges leaders to view setbacks as learning opportunities. Sir Brian Roche reinforces this by emphasizing that leaders must create environments where teams feel safe to experiment without fear of blame.
Practical Step: Establish regular structured “lessons learned” reviews where teams analyze both successes and failures, then determine how both will inform future efforts. As a leader, role model this behavior by going first.
3. Replace Bureaucratic Inertia with Prototyping
Excessive planning can stall progress. Flyvbjerg warns of the “planning fallacy,” where rigid strategies collapse under real-world conditions. Instead, he advocates for prototyping—testing and refining ideas based on direct feedback. Roche adds that agility in decision-making is key to unlocking transformational change. Prototyping makes abstract conversations about policies, services, and products real, fosters learning, and, importantly, creates forward movement.
Practical Step: Shift from lengthy policy papers to rapid prototyping. Create a basic version of a new service to gather user feedback and iterate before deployment or hard-wiring into legislation. Use “citizen journeys” to map how people interact with services, identifying pain points and areas for improvement.
4. Say “Yes” More Often
The Minister challenged leaders to replace default “No” responses with a willingness to explore solutions. Flyvbjerg’s findings show that leaders who empower teams to take action drive real progress. Sir Brian Roche echoes this sentiment, stating that leaders must shift from gatekeepers to enablers.
Practical Step: Start a “Yes AND” challenge where teams propose solutions to roadblocks and then commit to a learning experiment. This technique encourages teams to build on each other's ideas, embrace possibilities, and expand on suggestions. The approach fosters creativity, unlocks new opportunities, and can lead to breakthrough solutions.
The Path Forward: Innovation Mentoring for Public Sector Leaders
Moving from risk-averse to results-driven requires the right tools, but more critically, it requires the right mindset and leadership behaviors. Innovation mentoring programs help leaders navigate internal resistance and apply these principles effectively.
If you are leading innovation and would like someone to help navigate your journey or simply test your plans with, let’s connect. The future of government innovation starts with leaders who embrace risk as part of innovating.