It’s true the federal government has made a lot of progress toward becoming more nimble and flexible in recent years, but its reputation as a risk-averse bureaucracy is still somewhat deserved. Innovating remains difficult in many pockets of the government, as managers and agency leaders shy away from the public disdain and scrutiny they fear failure would bring.

An old saying goes, “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” That principle still holds — an attempt to push the envelope might succeed or it might fail in a spectacular fashion, but sticking with the conventional, however ineffective it might be, is generally a good shield from criticism.

In recognition of this fact, Federal Times is launching this year the Vanguard Awards, a program to recognize the innovators, the federal government employees who dared to take the risks required to try something new, or that press forward with a new acquisition or technology concept not because they were mandated to, but because they saw the potential. Our contenders will be nominated by you, our readers from both government and industry, and the winners chosen by our advisory board, a panel of experienced federal leaders whose careers have spanned many decades and who have seen many attempts at management reform.

We’ll choose winners in three categories, more than one when there are several that impress our board. The Vanguard Executives of the Year are the leaders who drive change. The Programs of the Year are government/industry collaborations that build powerful synergies and find new solutions to longstanding problems. Finally, the Unsung Heroes of the Year are those employees who, despite not having yet become managers and leaders, provide essential inspiration and hard work to make an innovative idea into a reality.

We invite and encourage you get involved. Go here to nominate executives, programs and unsung heroes by May 30, and help us spread the word among your colleagues. The more high-quality nominations we get, the harder our Advisory Board’s job will be, but the reward of honoring true innovation will be worth the effort.

Questions? Email us here.

Dan Blair, president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration, former deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management

Government faces structural restraints when it comes to innovation. The current political climates provides little incentive for federal managers to innovate, and this climate highly discourages risk through punishing those who try to innovate but are not immediately successful. To overcome these barriers, government may want to examine more market based approaches where innovation can lead to transformation. An example can be found in the Government Publishing Office, which is successfully transforming from a hard-copy based printing office to an electronic knowledge management entity.

Robert Carey, vice president of Navy and Marine Corps Programs at Vencore, former principal deputy CIO at the Department of Defense

There is a culture of risk avoidance in the government. The government tries to drive risk to zero, rather than manage it. Innovation is synonymous with taking risk. Budgets are shrinking, which forces the government to spend money more conservatively. The government is a huge engine of bureaucracy. Decision-making takes too long. And there are NO rewards to taking measured risks, only penalties. In industry, failing is part of the journey to success. In government, the budget process has no room for failure.

Karen Evans, national director of the US Cyber Challenge, former administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and IT, Office of Management and Budget

A lot of times what we’re really talking about is mid-level managers and their ability to manage the risk. The mid-lev managers will tell you there’s a reason why you do [things a certain way]: Nine times out of 10, somebody made a mistake and there was an oversight hearing, or someone got in trouble. That’s why a process went into place. A lot of times, what you really are trying to do is to foster an environment that allows new employees, or junior employees, to take risks, because they look at things from the bottom up. They can see ways that you could improve a process. What they need is coverage from above.

Beth McGrath, director of federal sector at Deloitte Consulting, former deputy chief management officer at the Department of Defense

Barriers to innovation are present in both the public and private sector. However, in government, they are characterized by too many layers of oversight, distributed accountability, and an incentive structure that values safe outcomes over transformational change.  Those attributes, wrapped in a risk-averse culture not only perpetuate the status quo, but also stifle innovation at times when it’s most needed.

Fostering innovation requires a mission-focused, enterprise perspective and the application of commercial practices with a business-mindset. Innovators deliver capability to market faster, iterate improvement, show a willingness to try new things, and, above all, demand results.  Overcoming cultural resistance to change and risk are crucial and will likely be the most challenging facet of any project – ownership, leadership, and an intolerance for the status quo are critical to successful innovation.

Paul Posner, director of the Graduate Public Administration Program at George Mason University, former Government Accountability Office director of intergovernmental programs

(No statement)

Franklin Reeder, founder of the Center for Internet Security, former director of the White House Office of Administration

The greatest barrier to innovation, in my opinion, is fear of failure and the often over-estimated political fallout.  As Grace Hopper is reported to have said: “it is better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”  Those who fail and fess up promptly are seldom punished. The real disasters occur when innovators refuse to admit failure and persist.

Stan Soloway, President & CEO at Celero Strategies LLC, former Professional Services Council CEO, former deputy undersecretary of defense

The greatest barriers to pushing the envelope in government are essentially the same as they are elsewhere: leadership and culture. But in government, one has to deal with multiple “leadership” communities (career and political, media, and, perhaps most importantly, congressional and oversight), each of which also has its own culture. Thus, those who have succeeded in driving innovation to scale and beyond a niche area, are those who have had strong, sustained leadership support at the very top of their chain of command, and have been able to effectively engage and communicate with other stakeholder groups that, under other circumstances, could be barriers to success. It’s all about real change management…something we do far too little of in government.

Linda Springer, former Office of Personnel Management director

It’s easy to wear down federal government innovators. Statutes and regulations — the need to create them or the roadblocks they cause — can force innovation traffic off the path to realization. Two options offer hope for a route that has fewer obstacles: demonstration projects and administrative authorities.

Both of these approaches have helped innovative solutions prove their worth and gain advocates for broader implementation. It may seem indirect, but the end result is worth the effort.

Max Stier, president and CEO of Partnership for Public Service, former deputy general counsel for litigation at the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Our government is designed to perform reliably, not to adapt to changing circumstances or to explore new ideas. It tends to reward the status quo and is risk-averse because of the fear of political repercussions. Successful agencies have leaders with a vision, individuals who are willing to try new approaches and create an environment where employees are encouraged and rewarded to take risks, and to drive change to better serve the American people.

Robert Tobias, director of business development for American University’s Key Executive Leadership Programs, former president of the National Treasury Employees Union

Successful federal innovators recognize that “innovation” is not the work of an isolate; rather, it occurs when a person recognizes that innovation is a group endeavor,  has the personal leadership competencies necessary to create trust among dispirit stakeholders, the willingness to use a collaborative problem solving process to create something new that no stakeholder had considered before, and the competencies necessary to implement what has been created. 

Steve Watkins, founder and president of Watkins Communications, former editor of Federal Times

Within the federal sector, there are many barriers that often trip up innovation when it dares to show itself: A culture that favors risk aversion and a check-box style of bureaucracy; excessive middle management layers of approval; the fear of job loss associated with work that may no longer be necessary; politics; the challenges of making a new operating model fit into existing budget/appropriation/planning cycles; and plain old fear of change, to name a few. Overcoming these hurdles requires an almost heroic level of dedicated, engaged and sustained leadership from the top to grind through those barriers. There are other ingredients needed too, but without strong, lean-in leadership, nothing else matters.

One might think that the ones in charge are in the best position to implement change. They have authority, they have influence, and some even have control over purse strings. But federal executives can be the most shackled to bureaucracy, celebrated for successes but also held responsible when programs go bad – particularly if those programs strayed from the same old way of doing things.

So when executives are willing to push the envelope themselves to improve how their agencies function, while also providing top cover for the teams that implement change or the individuals that proposed the change from the start, it’s worth celebrating.

NOMINATE HERE

Winners of the Vanguard Executive of the Year awards demonstrate the leadership needed to drive change. They recognize the potential of a shift from the usual way of doing things. They are willing to push back against bureaucracy to ensure the best ideas, whether their own or that of their team, don’t whither on the vine. They also are all in – providing the engagement and the resources needed to accomplish the task and maximize the odds for success. And when that success happens, they share the lessons learned – good and bad – to allow others in their agency and beyond to repeat and improve upon the approach.

Simply put, these are feds that get it – feds that implement change not because regulation says they must, but because the potential return makes the prospect impossible to resist.

Federal Programs of the Year

Agencies and industry work in partnership all the time, but every year a few programs stand out as especially successful collaborations. These are programs that build powerful synergies between the organizations involved, that find new solutions to longstanding problems and that transform the government and the nation for the better.

Winners of the Vanguard Federal Program of the Year awards are examples of ideal partnerships between agencies and the private-sector. They are the teams who were not afraid to buck tradition and try something different. They are the leaders who organized their personnel in novel ways, to good effect. These are programs that stand to be transformative because their leaders took risks and tried innovative strategies.

Unsung Heroes of the Year

No agency leader can succeed without a team of talented employees, and sometimes a few of those employees are the true source of a new idea, an innovation that elevates a program from successful to truly excellent.

While they may be ingenious and creative, though, their contributions often go overlooked. They are unsung heroes because few people, even within their own organizations, grasp how significant their contributions were. The Vanguard Unsung Hero of the Year awards honors those men and women, shining the spotlight on them and giving them the recognition they deserve.