- 9 June 2026
- |Change, Taking risks, Technology, Uncategorized
Part 4 of 5 short articles on just some of the many barriers faced by both public sector buyers and technologists when trying to bring inventions to market that can improve lives and save money.
Although I use technology for older people as a reference point, many of the themes I touch upon should have parallels for anyone, on either side of the table in bringing meaningful tech to the masses. For brevity quite complex themes are abbreviated in these articles, but I hope you enjoy them. Take what you want.
In the first three blogs in this series we discussed the reasons why public sector organisations are so slow to adopt beneficial new technology.
When we consider the effects this has, these institutions can begin to resemble something akin to a patient with a chronic illness.
Unable, or unwilling, to take measures which will solve the root cause of their problems, they constantly battle the symptoms, symptoms which affect their ability to function efficiently and effectively. What’s more, the compounding effects of the illness become so complex they seem impossible to unpick.
Imagine there was a medication they could take, a cure which could pull them out of this malaise, ease their breathing, regulate their blood pressure and restore healthy, happy physical functioning.
Well, the good news is that there is. It comes in the form of a PILL. Not the type of pill that you swallow every day, but a prescription of actions and attitudes that make real change possible.
Passion. Innovation. Learning. Leadership – The PILL
P – Passion
The prescription has to begin with someone being passionate enough to want to make change.
In a housing provider, NHS organisation or local authority – it usually falls to the Chief Executive or some other Department Head to be the driver of this desire for action.
Broadly, there are two types of senior leaders.
There are some who feel deeply engaged with the purpose of the operation they oversee. Others are more detached. They are less concerned with what the organisation does, than doing it in a way that maximises efficiency, fiscal performance and achieves an excellent outcome.
By the way, either can be very good at their job, and both can still find the level of passion needed to begin prescribing the PILL.
For the first kind of senior leader, it may be through a personal, emotional drive to improve the lives of the people living in their communities, keep them safe and look after their health. For the second, it could originate in the need to solve a specific problem which is leading to substandard performance or causing a crisis at that particular moment.
Whatever the reason, that leader needs to care deeply enough to summon the courage to risk innovation. Passion provides boundless energy, a capability to overcome hurdles, a burning desire to help people. It is the binding agent for the rest of the PILL.
Is the leader of your next technology project truly passionate about it? If so they’ll be tenacious about making it work, and that, frankly, is most of the battle.
I – Innovation
I actually find the word innovation quite annoying. This is ironic, considering digital innovation has been my business for the last 30+ years. It is not the concept, clearly, that I find irritating, but the fact it is discussed so much with such a disproportionate lack of concrete action.
Perhaps, if CEOs and policymakers developed and commissioned innovation at the rate they talk about it, we could have got to Mars already, cured cancer and tackled the climate crisis long ago. Part of the problem is that most people lack the courage and appetite for risk required to invest in innovation. Put bluntly, they’re scared of making a mistake.
Geoffrey A Moore describes this problem particularly well in his fantastic book Crossing the Chasm. Most humans, Moore points out, are biased towards the tried and tested. They like to use tools and methods that have been shown to work with the minimum of risk (he refers to these in terms of innovation consumers at the “early” and “late majorities”).
Those who will invest their time, money and reputation in the bleeding edge and, at least seemingly, unproved are a small minority. This is a trait which has put paid to many valid, effective startups, simply because they have failed to “cross the chasm” from having a great idea to finding a big enough market to try it out, and then sustain it.
Therefore, courage – born of passion – is essential to create a culture of Innovation. Without it an organisation will never move forward. Not only that, but the pipeline of inventiveness, with all the benefits it could bring, will slow to a trickle and, perhaps, dry up entirely.
L – Learning
If passion can be ignited and courage summoned to countenance the adoption of innovation, then it is also essential to spend time learning about how it can be implemented.
In one of my earlier blog posts in this series about public procurement you might recall me talking about the very serious issue of people simply not knowing enough about technology to make reasonable procurement decisions, and this leading to the use of independent consultants which are often anything but. Learning is the only solution.
And, the best way to learn is to play. Not enough time is devoted to ‘play’ in large organisations, but giving people the opportunity to experiment, try and fail, is essential. Without a level of creative freedom and time out from essential day-to-day tasks, they will not have the headspace required to adequately evaluate new approaches.
A reluctance to allow ‘playtime’ is understandable. The public sector is a serious business, with responsibility for large budgets made up of taxpayers’ money. This cannot be risked on people frittering away their time with no result.
Here, as the CEO of my own company, I completely empathise with the itchy discomfort at the idea of paying good money for no result. The solution is to ensure clear boundaries, timelines and expected outcomes are set at the very start of the process. Freedom to play comes with an unwritten contract that you will be held to account to deliver something tangible in the end.
If these are put in place, the process of learning can provide vital insights into which innovations are the best to adopt and how. A playful workplace, full of learning, will ultimately make better discoveries and better decisions.
L – Leadership
Even if all of the above are in place, making real change can still be extremely difficult.
Change comes with challenges. It requires the buy-in of people throughout every part of an operation. Stakeholders, compliance, frontline and backroom staff all have to be briefed, prepared and, ideally, enthused. One single-stakeholder can often derail a project.
It is here that many organisations make a terrible mistake. They confuse project management with leadership. They take the approach of being overly focused on process, rather than vision.
A project manager may well be essential to oversee and implement change but this cannot come at the expense of true leadership.
When I say leadership, I mean the ability to tell a story which outlines a compelling, clear vision of the future, which can inspire people to unite behind a common purpose. It is up to the leader to demonstrate how this innovation will benefit everyone, not just fulfilling the needs of the organisation, but also improving the lives of those who work there and the people it serves.
And, just as with medication for human patients, ensuring the long-term effectiveness of the PILL is a matter of compliance and continuing the treatment for as long as is required.
It is the leader’s job to not just outline the vision once but to keep on reiterating, adapting and maintaining it in order to drive continuous improvement. It’s the leader’s job to ensure all the stakeholders are up for walking up that mountain.
How bad can it be?
Like all pills, this prescription is not always easy to swallow.
It takes dedication, it takes hard work, it involves risk and stepping out of your comfort zone. It may also cause side effects; sleepless nights, conflicts which need to be resolved and, most scary of all, the prospect of failure.
The risk of failure can never be completely eradicated. However, it can be reduced by following the prescription thoughtfully and consistently. If it does happen, failure is not a reason to never try again, it is an opportunity to learn and come back stronger.
Because without risking what are, in reality, often small chances of failure with relatively minor consequences, we entrench long-term, institutional dysfunction and decline. This is not a risk. It is a certainty.
In the next, and final, blog I will discuss the very real dangers of not taking the PILL.
For more articles in this series on Public Sector Technology Adoption see
Public Tech (Part 1): Why innovation & agetech adoption is so slow
Public Tech (Part 2): 5 x Critical factors to consider when commissioning innovation
Public Tech (Part 3): The three funding truths – that block innovation
Public Tech (Part 4): Treating our tech adoption sickness with a “PILL”
Public Tech (Part 5): Why chronic sickness is inevitable without “The PILL”