The Case for Innovation Teams: More Than a “Nice-to-Have”
Innovation teams are often seen as a luxury. An organization won’t collapse without them, and this perception stems from the fact that they’ve only been around for a relatively short time in our sector. Before innovation teams existed, international organizations still functioned, and, to some extent, innovation still happened.
But who were the innovators back then? They were, and still are, individuals who don’t conform to the status quo, they are people convinced that there are always better, more effective ways to create impact.
So, why does the private sector invest in innovation or R&D departments? The answer becomes more obvious when you consider that the private sector wouldn’t survive without innovation. Customers are dynamic; their needs evolve with shifting contexts, and companies must constantly adapt their products to meet these changing demands.
Why Innovation is Critical for the Public Sector Too
But how different is the public sector, really? After all, we serve the same “customers”, people whose needs are constantly evolving in the face of social inequalities, poverty, and crises. The difference is, we are tasked with managing public goods and fixing market failures, making it harder for us to envision the same kind of entrepreneurial, innovative dynamism that we associate with the private sector.
Yet, this is precisely where we miss the point. Even if we go back to Joseph Schumpeter’s classic definition of entrepreneurship, we’ll find that it has far more to do with social good than we might think. Schumpeter argued that entrepreneurs are agents of creative destruction, breaking down old systems to make room for new, more effective ones. The goal of this process, ideally, is to enhance human well-being, which is exactly the mission of the public sector.
In this sense, innovation in the public sector is not a nice-to-have, but a must-have. Reducing market failures and inequality, central to public sector work, requires constant innovation.
Innovation is Not Optional, It's Essential for Impact
By diminishing the importance of innovation labs or functions in public sector organizations, we aren’t just cutting a “nice-to-have” feature; we’re undermining a critical capacity to tackle some of society’s most pressing challenges. Mariana Mazzucato, in her work on the “entrepreneurial state,” emphasizes that the state is not just a passive bystander, but an active player in innovation. She provides examples, from the iPhone to green energy, where public investment in innovation has been the driver of transformative societal advancements.
When we dismiss innovation teams, we miss the opportunity to channel this potential. The public sector may be more focused on regulation and stability than the private sector, but that makes the innovation capacity even more crucial. Without serious investment in new ways of solving global challenges, we will struggle to make meaningful progress on issues like inequality, climate change, and global health.
Innovation Teams as Spaces of Learning and Experimentation
Innovation Labs, specifically, have emerged as a response to the need for concentrated, unified action from these “non-conformists.” They serve as repositories of best practices, and failures, and act as experimental spaces where new approaches can be tested. More than that, they play a critical role as radars of innovation, identifying emerging trends, fostering cross-sector partnerships, and transferring knowledge across silos.
If these teams disappear, innovation won’t stop, but we’ll continue reinventing the wheel, losing valuable knowledge and skills, and restarting from old departure points. Without these dedicated spaces and people, we risk stalling our progress at a time when the world desperately needs more innovative solutions.
