OPM Innovation Lab Still In Progress

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said nearly two years ago that the agency was working to combat both the myth and reality of a government slow to adopt new technologies, partly by establishing an innovation lab in the basement of its Washington headquarters to test technologies, unique workspace configurations and other flexible workplace tools.

When asked recently by Wired Workplace about where this initiative stands, OPM said it's "still a work in progress."

As Berry described it, the lab would study options for employees outside the traditional desk, chair and cubicle model. "We don't have to buy one cookie cutter for every federal employee," he told attendees at Government Executive's Excellence in Government Conference. "Let's test as much flexibility and let people buy what they want to buy and create their own work environment."

For an initiative that's supposed to combat the perception that government lags when it comes to adopting new technologies and embracing innovation, it's certainly slow getting off the ground.

Dan Helfrich, a principal and human capital expert at Deloitte, said Friday that while he would not comment on OPM's innovation lab specifically, the approach for any innovation project in government should be from the bottom up.

"When you attack innovation with a top-down construct, i.e. with a mandate or huge program, you are starting at a bit of a deficit," he said. "An innovation lab or associated concept is going to work because we create an environment where creative, bottom-up ideas from the organization are cultivated, not because we create a program or edict that says 'thou shalt innovate.'"

What are your thoughts on the slow progress of OPM's innovation lab? Does it fuel the perception that government is slow on innovation and adopting new technology?