March 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 47

great majority of innovative ideas
will take time, levels of effort and
will impact overall costs, which all
become an organization's risk factor.
A Harvard Business Review study has
found that when organizations allocate
approximately 70 percent of
their innovation activity to low-risk
projects, 20 percent to moderaterisk
projects, and 10 percent to highrisk
projects, they significantly outperform
the competition. Park and
recreation agencies can't afford to
risk their entire organization on one
big idea. Likewise, developing only
small projects won't ever deliver a
big win either. Managing your risk
level is an important consideration
as you develop your own " balanced
portfolio " of these types of innovation
projects.
Innovation as a Solution
Another part of innovation you
need to consider is: What are you
looking to fix, and why? It might
be budget driven, such as a reduction
of funds to provide the same
services. Maybe it is internal efficiency
issues or a need to find an
efficient way to do business. In the
business of parks and recreation,
oftentimes, the reason is to meet
customer needs. Your " fix " could
be a quality control-related issue
driven from previous
To make a culture of innovation sustainable,
it must be a part of every level of
your organization.
customer
feedback, or it could be customer
demand for new programs and services.
In some cases, your customer
demands also are driven by direct
competition in your local area.
Resource Allocation
When looking to innovate, organizations
need to ensure they devote
the necessary resources to explore
and implement innovation projects.
As we look at resources, it is easy
to focus on the dollars, or the hard
costs associated with cultivating,
developing and implementing new
ideas. However, it's more than just
dollars - it requires a whole process
or mindset, starting with leadership.
For many of us in the park and
recreation field, this may include a
board or city council as well as the
agencies' top leaders. All leadership
need to prioritize innovation, which
includes the delegation of the necessary
human and financial capital to
support that effort.
Finding the right people for innovation
is important. Some organizations
are now adding job functions
or responsibilities into position descriptions.
They also are creating
hiring strategies specific to finding
these " innovators, " or creative people,
for their agencies. However, if
you can't hire new talent and you
have many good people doing good
work, training to " innovate " might
be the best way to manage your human
capital in this direction.
Performance Goals
Once the leadership is committed,
the team is established and culture
for change is instituted,
it's " go
time. " Leadership first needs to set
the challenge or overall goal for the
agency related to innovation. Once
that is determined, you can create
short-term performance goals for
idea generation, along with team
efforts to explore, develop and
implement these approved innovation
projects. The result: an engaged
and motivated staff focused
on goals will drive the " innovation
train " to agency success.
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | MARCH 2 0 2 3
| Parks & Recreation
47
IMAGE COURTESY OF STEPHANIE HALE
March 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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