An Interview with Alec Ross, State Department Senior Advisor for Innovation. Alec Ross joined the State Department in April 2009 after coordinating hundreds of policy advisers for the Obama campaign.
He is in charge of developing the concept of 21st Century Statecraft, using communication technologies and social networks to help governments connect with their constituents and help build American leadership. He is also spearheading Civil Society 2.0, a program to train grassroots organizations around the globe in how to use Web sites, text messaging campaigns and other new tools to reach out to their communities. Alec visited the Fletcher School during the fall semester of 2010.
One year later, he spoke with us about his job, the limitations of new media tools for governance, and how the Arab Spring is changing 21st century statecraft. MHL: How have you been lately? AR: I’ve been great. MHL: Why’s that? AR: Because I’ve got a really cool job. MHL: What’s the best part of it? MHL: Yes. MHL: Right. AR: You know, this is at the core of much of what we do. How Do We Get Smarter on Innovation? I wonder how the innovation community – corporate people, consultants, academics and others – can get smarter on innovation.
In particular, I wonder whether we still need books and whether it is still worth the effort for authors to write them given the low book sales due to the insanely high number of books being published. There must be better ways to share insights and knowledge. Here are some of my suggestions: • Blogs. Obviously already an important factor • Digital documents (PDF)
. • Short videos with explanations and key messages • Physical events. . • Virtual events. . • Books. What do you think of this? Before writing this blog post, I had a brief Twitter conversation. @risgaardknudsen yes for understanding 80% in 20% of the time. @innovationfixer Yes, will need to as ppl have less time available to read books / Yes – ppl have overloaded email inboxes, tough work/life balance. @ovoinnovation Books still relevant, but ideas must be boiled down, and must be actionable. InShare10. Innovating for a Better City. The following was published in McKinsey & Company's "What Matters" on December 3, 2011. by Mike Bloomberg Fifteen years after founding my company, I wrote an autobiography that forced me to look back on my experiences – not something I had had much time for.
In doing that, I realized that my chief function at the company had morphed from managing day-to-day operations into soliciting new ideas and driving the best of them forward. “I make sure we allocate resources to new, innovative, and risky development projects,” I wrote in Bloomberg by Bloomberg (Wiley, August 2001). “My job is to ensure that new products come alive at Bloomberg and to integrate them with the rest of our system.” When I first ran for mayor of New York, many people were skeptical that an outsider could run the biggest city in the country.
In general, government tends to be risk averse, because taking risks means taking on special interests. That’s why many officials tend to play it safe. Empower your team. 21st Century Statecraft. Alltop - Top Innovation News. The Alive Web [INFOGRAPHIC] LeadingThoughts - LeadershipNow.com. Www.innovationtools.com/pdf/innovation_update_2005.pdf. Chinnovate.