Want Evergreen Innovation? Subtract, Don’t Add. An Interview with Innovation Expert, Brian Elms

In this episode of No BS Bureaucracy, Mike Sarasti and Mark Wheeler join forces with public sector innovation guru Brian Elms, of Peak Academy and Change Agents, to explore how to make continuous process improvement part of the bureaucracy— revealing that to make local government services better, the best addition is a good subtraction. There are too many insights in this episode to list! 

Don’t Quit When You're Ahead - Brian emphasizes that innovation in government is an evergreen program - there needs to be on-going training and investment in the work of process improvement. Apparently, innovation in government is like doing laundry; it's never really done!

Compound Interest -  Not every innovation needs to be groundbreaking; often, small, continuous improvements can lead to significant cumulative effects.

The Art of Subtraction -  In a system that loves to add—more programs, more process—Brian advocates for simplification and subtraction as the rule of thumb in process improvement.

Efficiency is a Trigger Word - If you’re looking to have zero impact, by all means focus on efficiency and streamlining as a strategy. No one knows what these terms mean or how to achieve them - without leadership, training, and direction.

Brian and Mike also introduce their new venture, RVRWRK (“river work”) https://rvrwrk.com/ aimed at supercharging problem discovery and process mapping for governments. RVRWRK combines Mike, Brian, and third co-founder Jose Otero’s decades of experience in local government process improvement with low code tech and AI agents. The aim is to drastically cut down the time spent on the discovery and validation of stages, allowing clients to quickly and confidently advance to the improvement work.

After an advertisement from 'We Bureaucrat' for Aromatherapy IoT, the crew enters the Stage Side part of the podcast and recount their latest live shows including Vampire Weekend, Steve Wilson Jr., Blondshell, and Amyl and the Sniffers. Mike and Mark plan for a Three Points Festival 2024 adventure in Miami.

Follow Brian Elms at: https://brianelms.com/ and https://changeagentstraining.com/ 

Follow RVRWRK at: https://rvrwrk.com/

Thanks to Earl Grant for his voice on the faux advert and Raker for our musical intro/outros. https://open.spotify.com/track/4JqywsINKEWZucDNYlnBBU?si=da45e2c66825465b  

#localgovernment #publicsector #innovation #generativeAI #changeagents #rvrwrk