Goats

What do we know about goats?  We usually see them with their heads down munching away on grass and cruising on the side of hills. Picture the walk to Byron Bay Lighthouse ( if you have been there) and you know what I mean, the goats teeter on the side of the cliffs, oblivious to the height and steepness of the cliff face and munch away -  just like these two crazy characters.

Let me briefly introduce Laguna Beach, an affluent California City -  22,723 people, 10,821 households with a population density 2,313.8 people per square mile (893.4/km²). Houses are positioned on cliffs and very prone to the danger of fires due to the 'brush' that covers the cliffs. The City had to think outside the square when it came to fire control as they were prohibited to backburn.

Now I'll introduce the goats and you probably know where I am going! 

The council has its own goat herd which it moves from cliff top to cliff top to eat the 'brush' and control fire hazards, but lets not stop there - as a side line they get a revenue stream through selling the surplus goats

I just thought I'd add this as a fun blog.  It's been done for centuries but I still thought it innovative of a small council to buy a herd of goats for themselves.

Mayor's Challenge - Bloomberg Philanthropies

Back to City Hall.

The City of San Francisco is one of 20 finalists (out of 305 cities across America) in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor’s Challenge.  Bloomberg Philanthropies, for the first year, challenged American cities to come up with a bold, innovative idea that could provide local solutions to national problems and possibly win $5million.  

Shannon Spanhake, who works in the SFO Mayors Innovation Office, took time out in getting the final cut to NYC, to speak with Ellen (my colleague from Sutherland Council) and I about the Program and their initiative. 

Shannon is fresh back from ‘Ideas Camp’ where 4 people from each of the finalist councils spent 2 days in New York with top innovators across the Nation to get their initiative ready for implementation and voting by the judges.  They brainstormed using many tools including ‘rapid prototyping’, ‘user and human-centred design, ‘waterfall modelling' and spent a great deal of time assisting and collaborated with each other. It’s a competitive but there is also the incentive to collaborate as the main objective is that the initiatives are replicable across cities says Shannon.

I asked how the City started to prepare for the Challenge.  The most important ingredient, Shannon advised, was partnering with the private sector – sourcing the innovative companies to get on board and opening it up to all citizens and businesses was vital to them.  Their brainstorming events were sponsored by local Businesses, they networked to get the best minds, creative and enthusiastic citizens in the room and gave them 30minutes to push out ‘crazy’ ideas. 

Shannon had a team of city government executives and private sector firms who then chose the initiative to put forward to the Challenge.  The Initiative is about enabling graduates to move more easily into the work force as the first step has many hurdles and jobs are scarce, especially in government at this time.  They hope to match graduates with professional development opportunities through micro-volunteering on city government projects.

Now we sit back until April to find out who wins

Signage, Bike Paths & Community Gardens

This seems clear - all streets outline clearly what day and time street cleaning is due

I wasn't allowed in the playground!! Actually this was the only sign I saw in the Golden Gate Park that had restrictions.

 

Cyclists can't get hit by a drivers door opening on them when bikes get the inside lane.
Bike lane, then parked cars then the road.

A well kept community garden spotted in the inner city

Social Media in the City of San Fran

36  Facebook pages

33  Twitters accounts

13  UTUBE Channels 

Something tells me SFO is not shy of social media – however there was a time……….

The City/County of San Francisco started planning to use Facebook in 2008. Fear of the unknown, Ron Vinson, (Director of Media in the Department of Technology), tells me did exist in the beginning.  The city wasn’t sure what might unfold and whether it would be necessary to police comments so they pursued the idea of just using Facebook as an information provider without allowing comment.  This didn’t actually eventuate, it was an open forum from the start because 1. - the City believes in taking risks but more importantly, 2. - wanted to use the medium as the powerful engagement tool that it is.

Ron says “it’s all about the content. You need to put the fun stuff on there”.  Build community engagement and awareness through innovative ideas that promote business.  For instance they ran a competition where people took a photo of the food on their plate before eating when out at a restaurant - it raised awareness about the businesses and was entertaining to see the different food displays.

Now Twitter (SFO tweets its way to the top) has taken over from Facebook.  The Mayor is a profound Twitter user, Customer Service takes inbound requests from twitter and the City puts trivia questions up, reminders on events, questions on various city issues and commuter or parking information changes.

It’s where the public is – governments need to reach out to their public. 
“Who needs offices” where Ron’s parting words.

Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation (MOCI)

San Francisco calls itself ‘the Innovation Capital of the World”.  “Its’ part of our DNA” they say and I am beginning to understand why.

City Hall

Office and staff titles at the SFO Council have the “innovation” label embedded and no one blinks an eyelid.  Its’ not an abstract, scary, or over abused word because the City defines innovation simply as “finding new ways to solve old problems”. 


Mayor's Office

Speaking with the ‘Deputy Chief Innovation Officer to SFO’, Shannon Spanhake, the word continuously and easily rolls off Shannon’s tongue as she explains the exciting and innovative programmes the office designs and implements.  

The Mayor's Innovation Office (MOCI) has three strategic focus areas: economic development, citizen engagement, and government efficiency. It has been operating for a one year and has two rules – 1.  Everything is done through partnerships and with citizen engagement and 2.  ‘Platform play’ they only pick problems to solve that have a platform on which they can invest and build on.  Over such a short time and with only 2 staff, a number of extremely successful projects have taken hold in the city and continue to grow exponentially. Check out crowd sourcing examples,ImproveSF and OpenCoSF http://innovatesf.com/improvesf/SF to name a couple.

Weekend innovation discoveries

Just a couple of small weekend innovation discoveries

Menus, quotes or thoughts are written under umbrella's where people sit

Two seconds left to cross the road folks!!!

Once the walk sign is finished, pedestrians get a 10secound count down.  I know this is used widely around the world (I need to get out more) but I was intrigued to see that there is not a lot of jay walking, only a few people bolt across the road on '0'. 
 

Fitness Court

An outdoor gym I discovered today whilst cycling to the Golden Gate Bridge , sponsored by the National Fitness Campaign .  I talked to users who advised it was very easy to use with clear instructions for all levels, it was low maintenance, vandal proof and fun. At 7.30am there weren't many people there, but on my return cycle it was well utilised.

It reminds me of the outdoor gym at Manly Lagoon and the wide range of people who use it in many different ways.  People either meet to train on it in groups or simply stop for five minutes on their way past during a walk or run. 

A Visit to IDEO

IDEO is a global design firm.

  I met with Hilary Hoeber who leads the portfolio on driving public sector innovation.  We spoke on a number of subjects ranging from - human-centred design thinking (concentrating specifically on peoples' perceptions, needs and behaviours around a process), social innovation and IDEO's initiative OPEN IDEO, innovation toolkits, the act of prototyping to provoke the system - to the innovative initiate of Michael Bloomberg's 'Mayor's Challenge' which Hilary is a judge.

Bikes are raised overhead for
daily storage
 

It's a very funky space (of course being a design firm) filled with lots of colour, creative architecture, couches, art walls and kitchen space overlooking the Bay. 



Great coffee and lunch area overlooking
Harbour and views of Bay Bridge

Due to privacy issues, I didn't take photos of work spaces but here's an idea of the corridors!!!! The bike rake is special


Work spaces were open and very colourful due to all the white boards covered in post-it-notes which they move around with them to discuss ideas or take to meetings.  They live by post-it-notes, I'm told. They use them for brainstorming, capturing stories and crazy ideas, interviews, representing thoughts, drawing pictures and anything else useful - it's a very visual environment. IDEO have 7 specific brainstorming rules and here's the link to IDEO's human-centred design toolkit that has step-by-step descriptions of their innovation process: http://www.ideo.com/work/human-centered-design-toolkit/ (click link at bottom of page).

Before I leave Sydney shores

Last week I discovered a great idea the City of Sydney Council have implemented
 

Every morning the City of Sydney outdoor staff put out deck chairs, tables and umbrellas at the Wynyard Park and around Town Hall.  I walked past chilled out office workers, tourists and the general public having a lunch time snooze, reading a book, soaking up the sun and generally relaxing.  What a lovely way to kick back when in the city.

INTRODUCTION

I am leaving the Sydney summer and surf to hit the cold northern California and freezing New York weather.  Why? I was selected by the LGMA after an extensive application /interview process to participate in the International Exchange Program.  Each year two NSW local government employees are sponsored by the 'Local Government Manager's Association' (LGMA) and the reciprocal California body 'The League of California Cities' to undertake an exchange program.  The idea is to investigate a topic in your field of expertise -  I will be looking at improvement, innovation and change management ideas and initiatives to share and bring back that may improve productivity in local government. 

It is a fitting time for local government to investigate innovative approaches to services. Councils face increasingly complex issues such as: changing demographics; changing and more challenging community and business expectations; pressures to increase and improve services and increasing fiscal restraints and reform.

My role at Warringah Council, a northern beaches Sydney council, is Business Improvement Facilitator. My home host council is San Jose City Council, capital of Silicon Valley. I am on the lookout for new and innovative approaches to improving the business of local government.  In between meetings and conferences I aim to post creative and innovative ideas I come across on a daily basis for the duration of the 3 week exchange.  I hope you enjoy them and I look forward to your comments and feedback.