Public Value in Public Service Transformation by OECD

Author:OECD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: socialissues/governance
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2019-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

Development of the approach

The story of MONUM is not static: it has developed over the years with various narratives that have given operating coverage to the team and in essence, justified its existence in the city (the unit survived Mayor Menino’s retirement, a rare accomplishment given that mayoral changes have proven fatal to many other innovation units (Tõnurist et al. 2017)).

MONUM was not started around a large-scale new initiative. It started small and it is arguable that not having a big project to finance the team also meant that MONUM had to take a very “lean” approach to working within the city government of Boston. And they had to prove their worth to a very pragmatic mayor. As such, for a long time MONUM had neither budget nor staff. In fact, it did not show up in the budget until four years after starting up. All the founders had other roles in the city. MONUM went from five team members in 2012-2013 to seven in 2014-2015 and to the current 13 people in 2017. MONUM also employs a plethora of fellows during the summer, an initiative that was originally started in 2007 under the Director of Emerging Technologies and senior adviser to the mayor on innovation.

Resources come from both inside the city government but also from outside grants. The expansion in recent years has mostly come through the inclusion of grant funding from private foundations, such as Bloomberg Philanthropies and the MacArthur Foundation, while the City Hall covers the salaries of core staff and a small amount of risk capital. Currently, MONUM’s budget is around USD 1 million per year, which is spent mostly on salaries. With the inclusion of a larger grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the operating model has changed slightly, because it allowed the team to concentrate more on core issues – “unlocking more time in cities also requires money.” They can now think about diffusing their working methods into the city more systematically, building up a broader capacity for change, rather than only chasing after “quick wins” and demonstration effects. As such, it is not surprising that over the years, the storyline has moved from “a start-up in government” to MONUM as a “design school.” Here, internal narratives become instructive to analysis: “Pitch, narrative, importance of storytelling in the way we work. You need elements of truth, but also need to be inspiring” (MONUM fellow).

At the same time, their early reputation as a technology entrepreneur has stayed with them – they are best known for being an “i-team” (e.g., Carrera et al. 2013; Crawford and Walters 2013; Puttnick et al. 2014; Agawu 2017). As MONUM was not given funds of its own, they focused on how citizens could more productively interact with the city. There were several visible wins with apps early on in the lifespan of MONUM, including Citizens Connect (equivalent to New York City’s 311 that allows community members to report issues directly to government and track responses) and the Where’s My School Bus app. The widespread use of the latter earned MONUM a lot of credibility.

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