Photo: Los Angeles GovJammers testing prototypes with citizens on the street. Credit: Global GoveJam.

Ezequiel Williams is an entrepreneur, business designer, co-founder of Contexto, and organizer of the Miami Service Jam and Miami GovJam, supported by Knight Foundation.  

This year Miami will participate in the Global GovJam, an international workshop focused on making government more innovative and user-friendly, for the first time. On June 10-11 Miami GovJam participants will join people in 37 other cities in an event aimed at teaching innovation techniques to government workers and people passionate about civic life.

The GovJam movement started in Canberra, Australia, in 2012 with a group of 80 people. In the months that followed the same people were inspired to scope or launch over a dozen innovative public projects. In 2013 innovation consultants Markus Hormess and Adam Lawrence of WorkPlayExperience took the event global, bringing almost 30 cities on board. Since then, the event has expanded to attract the attention of senior government officials in Australia, France and the United Kingdom.

The Miami GovJam offers local government workers and other professionals the opportunity to learn and practice design-thinking techniques applicable to government in a hands-on, project-driven workshop. Participants, also known as GovJammers, will work in small teams around a common design theme to conceive, design and prototype a new public service. Jammers will publish short videos of their prototypes on the Global GovJam website under a Creative Commons license to widely share their projects.

Design thinking is a method of creative problem-solving that focuses on creating solutions that are user-friendly, efficient and responsive to people’s needs. This approach has gained significant traction in the last decade. The government of the United Kingdom routinely uses design thinking for problem-solving, and Australia’s Taxation Office, the equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service, has successfully employed design thinking to make their services more accessible. Several U.S. government agencies are incorporating design thinking in their work, including the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Far from being a novelty, organizations that are serious about employing design thinking at the core of their operations show substantial positive results. The Design Management Institute, with funding from Microsoft, has begun to track the performance of U.S. companies that employ design thinking. Results show that companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, IBM, Target and other design-centric companies have outperformed the S&P 500 by as much as 219 percent in the last 10 years.   

Employing design-thinking practices in local government in Miami could yield tangible results in terms of cost reduction, increased customer satisfaction and revenues. The Miami GovJam will offer Miamians a chance to connect with a global community, learn design-thinking tools and methods, build their creative confidence, network with colleagues from other governments and agencies, and sharpen their ability to innovate and make a measurable difference in the public sector.  

The Miami GovJam starts at 8 a.m. on June 10 at the Wynwood Warehouse Project. To learn more, visit miamigovjam.com or @MiamiJams on Twitter. Register for Miami GovJam on Eventbrite.

Connect with Ezequiel Williams on Twitter @ContextoTweets.