resources and most of all, with a tightly knit community
that has decided to help communities in need and comes
off much more prepared than the official institutions. The
mobile hospital in Devin, regarded as a temporary (and
controversial) measure might actually represent a very
good permanent solution for accessing remote locations.
We have many examples of blank spaces left by state
institutions that can be filled with new solutions that are
workable, result-oriented and helpful for the community. If
some of the institutions choose to create a mechanism for
the rapid deployment of such solutions on a larger scale,
the better.
Too much state intervention could also cause problems.
One such example is the entirely top-down approach for
creating an innovation cluster in Okinawa, Japan. The
investments there were directed towards the creation of a
top-class university and technology park, yet nothing was
done in regard to the local economy and towards
overcoming the fear of failure in the Japanese society -
factors of no less importance for creating successful
innovation initiatives. Okinawa’s experience can be very
useful for the current and future development of Sofia
Tech Park.
In order to advance our future position as destination
number one for social innovation, the most important task
for the state institutions at the moment is to restore their
relationships with the citizens. They are facing a very
serious lack of trust and don`t stand a chance of
influencing the negative opinion of the public by initiating
change on a large scale. The reason is simple – it takes
time for the effects to become visible.
Promises are quick; legislation is slow;
positive results take even longer.
The experience of many countries shows that
straightforward, quick and visible results can only be
achieved where the state has a direct line of contact with
the public (by that I don`t mean the contact form on the
municipality website, but a genuine dialogue with the
community).
The British administration has a Nudge Unit – the
unofficial name of the Behavioural Insights Team. It consists
of 13 (yes, thirteen!) people who have the carte blanche to
work with all administrative levels, local authorities,
NGOs, and embassies. The Unit “nudges” state institutions
33
/
Home
to adopt a more human-oriented approach in their
relations with the citizens and their usage of government
services. They don`t do this by changing people – instead,
they transform government services with small, concrete
steps, making them more convenient and accessible and
do their best to avoid changes in legislation.
For example, using the methods of behavioral economics
and psychology, the team altered the language of the tax
returns to make them more user-friendly and encouraged
supermarkets to have “guilt-free aisles” with no chocolate
or fizzy drinks. These are small, concrete actions that save
millions of pounds and make people feel more relaxed.
The model is so successful that it is used in an increasing
number of countries around the world. The department
itself is soon to become a separate company with
shareholders, public and private investors and staff
members.
The Nudge Unit is also changing the design of certain
processes. Take employment centers, for example – the
experts found out that people who have been
unemployed for more than a year and are currently
looking for a job with the help of the state, increase their
chances of finding work if they have a sense of constant
progress. After reviewing the whole process of applying for
a job and filling the necessary papers, the experts reached
an interesting conclusion. The decisive factors for the
success of the applicants come down to the way they are
treated, what has been said to them, the structure of the
individual steps and the types of documents required.
Here in Bulgaria, the logic behind providing work through
the state job centers is different:
“If an individual does not seek the services of the state, which
are offered for free, it means that he or she receives some
sort of income and is able to survive.”
Rositsa Stelyanova, former Executive Director
of the National Employment Agency
In many other cases the situation is similar. The use of
“services” provided by the state is mostly painful,
exhausting and bureaucratic. It brings no sense of
progress; on the contrary, it instills a feeling of total failure.
Therefore, the key to restoring trust in the institutions lies
in improving the points of contact between the state and
the citizens.
34
/
Home
The British Ambassador in Sofia recently proposed
a bolder idea – a Bulgarian version of the British Cabinet
Office, to bring together the interests of the different
institutions, to create consensus on all issues and monitor
the implementation of decisions that have been taken,
including on a local level. Another idea, perhaps even more
ambitious, is for the state itself to stimulate social
innovation by actively including the public in the process of
creating and changing laws and policies.
I mentioned earlier how social innovation can secure us a
leading role in processes on a European level. At the
moment, we simply act as consumers of EU policies –
precisely due to our lack of vision. We can become the
main proponents of a comprehensive EU policy for social
innovation, able to solve major problems such as youth
unemployment and the ageing of the workforce. This will
give us an important seat on the table and something
substantial to say to the others.
There is a certain amount of risk here. Under the pretense
that we are creating social innovation to be implemented
on a European (or a global) scale, our state institutions
could continue their business as usual and sugar coat it
with words about novel social change, without actively
prioritizing the process. Therefore, it is important to accept
that at the moment state institutions play a supporting
role and could only amplify the signal coming from
somewhere else.
Businesses
Anyone who has read Maverick by Ricardo Semler was
left with one question after finishing the book: could this
really happen? It turns out that it could happen – not only
to run a company for the benefit of the employees, but
also to steer it forward together with them; not only to
survive, but also to make profit during one of the worst
periods for the Brazilian economy; not only to introduce
piecemeal change, but also to constantly reinvent your
business.
According to Umair Haque, companies in the 21st century
exist not to make money but to develop and make better
people, communities and societies. This evolution is very
visible in the work of one of the most prominent
management thinkers, Michael Porter. The idea, which he
became known for in the 1980s, was that business exists in
order to deal with competition.
35
/
Home
Dostları ilə paylaş: |