Leading for collaborative public service innovation

ABSTRACT

This article examines the critical leadership actions that support collaborative public service innovations, drawing on evidence from UK local government led partnerships. It concludes that success is more likely if leaders help the partnership to: build mutual trust; agree clear, well thought through, politically supported ambitions; invest time, resources and energy; galvanize managers and staff; make a long term commitment to achieving the objectives, learning, adapting and growing innovations together.

IMPACT

Public sector managers can use the leadership actions highlighted in this paper to reflect on what more they might do to increase the likelihood that their innovative collaborations will succeed.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative
• government
• innovation
• leadership
• local

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) as part of their work on public services and communities. An earlier report of the research with more detailed case studies is available on their website (Munro, Burbidge, & Robson, 2017).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest

None.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.