Overcoming the false dichotomy of urban innovation
Fifteen years into the public innovation movement, one question still comes up repeatedly in city halls whose leaders are eager to solve the most difficult problems: Should cities invest in a dedicated innovation team, or should they focus on building innovation capabilities across the wider civil service? Here, Francisca Rojas of the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation rejects that choice, arguing instead that the way forward is to embrace a two-pronged approach: Build new innovation capacity that helps civil servants alter legacy systems from within, while also ensuring the efforts of innovation teams, when cities have them, swim deeper into the system of city hall.
Stream these: 9 podcasts for city innovators
The most interesting conversations about local government aren't happening exclusively inside city hall. They're also unfolding across the podcasts connecting local leaders, researchers, and practitioners who are changing the way cities operate. This year's edition of our annual list of podcasts for city innovators reflects the full scope of that discourse, from a deep dive into how mayors are transforming essential city services to a fascinating look at a city-university partnership training civil servants in AI.
