Creating a culture where new ideas can flourish
Innovation is a buzzword, but few organizations actually know how to cultivate it. Chapter 7 explains what it takes to make a city genuinely innovative – not just in technology, but in mindset, processes, and partnerships.
Dr. Reichental distinguishes between incremental innovation (making existing services 10% better) and radical innovation (reinventing the service entirely). Both are needed. For example, a mobile app for bus schedules is incremental; a dynamic on‑demand micro‑transit system is radical.
The biggest barriers to innovation are not technical – they are cultural: fear of failure, siloed departments, risk‑averse budgeting, and lack of psychological safety. This chapter offers concrete methods to overcome them:
Innovation labs – physical or virtual spaces where employees and citizens can prototype ideas without bureaucratic red tape.
Fail‑fast pilots – small experiments designed to learn quickly, with budget set aside for “learning, not blaming.”
Hackathons and challenges – inviting the public to solve specific problems (e.g., redesign the 311 call system).
Reverse mentoring – younger employees teach senior leaders about emerging tech; senior leaders teach about policy and politics.
Reichental also profiles inspiring examples: Kansas City’s living lab in a streetcar corridor; Helsinki’s “city as a service” platform that opens APIs to startups; and Buenos Aires’ use of data to reinvent waste collection. The key insight: innovation is a habit, not a project. Chapter 7 will inspire you to start small, celebrate learning, and build a city team that isn’t afraid to try new things.
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