Challenge

Existing resources on creating innovation/R&D structures don’t always work within the strictures and regulations of the US government.

OUTCOME

A cross-agency community of practice that allows federal employees working on innovation strategy to connect with and support each other.

OVERVIEW

When it comes to research, federal government departments and agencies are bound by rules that are often much stricter than their private-sector counterparts. As a result, many guides for setting up research and development/innovation labs are minimally useful in the government context. Assistance on topics like working within budget limitations, finding substitutes for popular (but not allowed) software tools and platforms, and motivating participation from government employees needs to come from people with lived experience working within these constraints.

This was a problem I was acutely conscious of when starting my own innovation lab at the USDA. To address it, I partnered with A’ndrea Jones, who leads an innovation lab at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to create a working group for government employees who work on lab-type spaces within the federal government. Our definition of “labs” is intentionally generous in order to encompass a broad spectrum of experiences, but focuses primarily on organizational entities or programs that are intended for the creation, development, and/or deployment of new ideas - whether those are products, services, policies, or something else entirely.

The Federal iLab CoP has been in existence for more than a year, and we have over eighty people on the roster. Our events include speakers and opportunities to share challenges and get group feedback; we also share resources and encourage networking between members. The enthusiastic response we’ve seen has shown that there is a real need for a community on this topic, and I hope that the work we’re doing is laying the groundwork for a federal government that is more open to the idea of deliberately promoting innovation within its agencies.