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Radicalize Your Suggestion Box

While many government organizations are still struggling with the applicability of social media tools to their mission, there’s one area for engagement and improvement that jumps right out: bringing collaboration to the traditional suggestion box.
What are some of the ways that agencies use a suggestion box? What are the benefits and risks of taking the review process from an insular committee to all stakeholders?
Computers have already helped us move beyond the simple wooden box and slip of paper to ideas like online sourcing of budget suggestions and process reforms from citizens and employees.
Taking that process to a whole new level, Web 2.0 tools like UserVoice and IdeaScale open up the suggestion box to internal and/or external stakeholders, enabling robust vetting and ranking of ideas in an open forum.
Any agency with a broad front-line community or stakeholder group – any agency, really – could use these tools to empower employees and revitalize its mission. I encourage anyone evangelizing Web 2.0 and social media to bring these tools to top-level decision makers.
Departments and governments already using this kind of collaboration include the TSA and City of Santa Cruz. What would you like to see?
~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of Government 2.0 Radio.
Flickr photo by drewsaunders

 

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adrielhampton

Adriel Hampton is a writer, strategist, and sometimes mindfulness practitioner.

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5 responses to “Radicalize Your Suggestion Box”

  1. I could not agree more with you Adriel. From our perspective at PubliVate we believe that innovation and collaboration campaigns have arrived in the public sector. We worked with the Canadian federal government on an idea campaign that brought together 68 different federal organizations and almost 1,200 ideas. It was a breathtaking experience. That said, it’s clear that, as they say, the devil is in the detail, as we have found out through our engagements. Utilizing an enabling platform is the easy part. Getting the processes (approach/framework, governance, communications, leadership commitment, among others) right before you start is the heavy lifting. If you don’t, it is too often Web 1.0 all over again – nice website but why don’t I have any traffic? – syndrome. However, with the right support, counsel, processes, and tools, it can be a defining moment for government leaders and participants!

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