The Problem: Too much civil service thinking is very convetional and there is not enough out of the box thinking informing policy.
The Solution: Create a ‘Corkscrew Unit’ of creative people to think up new solutions to policy challenges.
This idea is inspired by Winston Churchill’s call for ‘corkscrew’ thinkers in World War II, which proved key to victory; developing camouflage, new equipment, and the innovations at Bletchley Park.
We need to create a team of corkscrew thinkers again. Their role would be threefold:
1) To stand apart from the day-to-day workings of government, and instead focus solely on new and different ways to solve problems. By not having to implement policy on a day-to-day basis, they have the time and space to think about new approaches that most civil servants do not.
2) To act as point of contact and assessor for policy ideas from the wider public. A website portal would allow anyone to submit a policy proposal any time of year, in a maximum 1,000 word summary, which this corkscrew unit would assess. Any idea deemed useful would be passed to the relevant department to action. This enables the crowdsourcing of ideas in an efficient way, without placing an extra burden on civil servants.
3) To come up with new ways of solving entrenched problems, by redefining the problem and solution in a creative way, much like this website seeks to do.
In addition to the creative inputs into policy that this proposal would provide, it is also very low-cost; this team would be well-salaried to attract quality people but would otherwise have a tiny budget. They would be forced to think creatively to find ways of solving problems at minimal cost and maximum impact.
We have seen how Covid 19 has caused a wave of innovation bred by necessity, so having a team of people in a permanent state of invention would provide huge value to government.
Of even more benefit from this proposal, the team does not need to be large; it could start out with just 20-30 people. As long as they are open-minded and creative, the value they offer is not only in the ideas they come up with, but in the ideas they identify and pass on from public submissions.
To maximise the quality of submissions from the public, those that were converted into policy would receive financial reward. The MOD already operates a system like this called GEMS, where anyone can submit an idea that saves money or improves the workings of the MOD, and they receive a share of the savings if it is successful.
Having such financial awards for all useful policy ideas would entice a range of people to submit proposals for free, which the government would only need to pay for if they proved useful. Such a crowdsourcing exercise could prove very valuable, and also helps to enhance democracy by giving anyone in the country an opportunity to change policy for the greater good.
Churchill’s corkscrew thinkers produced results that were critical to us winning World War II. As we face our greatest challenge since that war, we should employ the same thinking to help us get through Covid and lead us to a brighter future.
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