1. 1 NEW SHOES TODAY • ROAD TO CREATION, INNOVATION AND CHANGE
THE BEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
INAXIS
Creation in Dutch Government
InAxis is a programme for administrative innovation of the Dutch Ministry of
Interior and Kingdom Relations. Nothing new here. Innovation is hot every-
where and you can find these programmes in governments all over the world.
What is special is the radical approach InAxis has chosen.
Paul van Hal, director of the programme, describes the vision in ten principles:
• Practise is the source of inspiration
• The innovator retains ownership
• We don’t have a focus, but we do focus
• We always make sure it keeps flowing
• Organise the energy towards yourself
• We do business with people, not with organisations
• We are not a knowledge centre
• The bearable lightness of being
• It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission
• Do, share and let go
Experiments
Paul van Hal: ‘One of our cornerstones is facilitating and financing governmen-
tal organisational experiments, and letting them spread all over the Netherlands.
An example of such an experiment is the small rural municipality of Ten Boer.
Many small municipalities use merging processes to upscale themselves.
Ten Boer had a different idea. It decided to outsource operational tasks and
a considerable portion of policy preparation tasks to the neighbouring, large
city of Groningen. That left a core apparatus to organise policy preparation
and outsourcing. Ten Boer thus keeps all its administrative responsibility and
say over its set of tasks. The best of both worlds, a small scale for policy
preparation and a large scale for operational tasks.’
Cherish the Nearling!
A feature of an experiment is that it does not always succeed, otherwise it
would not be an experiment. But does that mean it’s a failure? Not according
to InAxis. Paul: ‘There is something to be learned from every experiment, no
matter what the results are. We’ve adopted the new word nearling* for this,
a word for something that you have attempted but that did not lead to the
desired result. The idea or plan is good but the circumstances have changed.
Or a better option presents itself along the way. Or something goes wrong.
Or there are suddenly different priorities.
* For more info on the nearling and reducing risk aversion, see the website www.nearling.com
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2. 2 NEW SHOES TODAY • ROAD TO CREATION, INNOVATION AND CHANGE
The word nearling contributes towards enhancing a culture of innovation,
of entrepreneurship, of the power of deeds. It places emphasis on the fact
that initiatives are almost always worthwhile. Even if they do not lead to the
desired result. You don’t need to say that ‘you made a mistake’ or that ‘it
went awry’. No, you just say “you had a nearling”.’
Reducing Risk Aversion
InAxis wants to improve conditions for innovation in public service. The pro-
gramme for reducing risk aversion*, to achieve inhibition lowering is another
sparkling example. ‘In government, we often are overly averse to risk. To
innovate, sometimes you have to go about your work less cautiously. Push
the envelope of what is possible. Dare to do something that may go differ-
ently than you expect. Dare to do something that you may not have com-
pletely under control. That can sometimes fail. But you can learn so much
from it, that new innovative ideas are the result.
Not only what you do is important, but also how you do it. These are two
clarifications of our working principles:
We Work with People, not with Organisations
We have consciously chosen this approach, because when working with
organisations you can lose a lot of time talking about positions and skills.
We work with people who get things done and who are enthusiastic about
turning ideas into reality. We think in terms of networks. Then the organisa-
tion will come along on its own accord when the time is right.
The Bearable Lightness of Being
Even if innovating is not always easy, it does not have to be as heavy as lead.
We try when possible to opt for a light form and sometimes do not act nor-
mally. For example we had the nominees for the Dutch delegation of the 4th
European Quality Conference introduce themselves to the judges’ panel
with a theatre show. They had the time of their lives and everyone was
extremely enthusiastic.
Our attention also goes to reducing the administrative burden of government
regulations. That may not sound like fun. But InAxis has started ‘the Museum
of Superfluous Policy’*, officially opened by the Minister of Interior in 2006, and
exhibiting dozens of inspiring examples of unnecessary, contradictory, obso-
lete, complex, sometimes ridiculous rules and regulations – a playful and stim-
ulating way to become aware of the need to abolish superfluous policy.’
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