Ascendant's Innovation Maturity Model
The Innovation Maturity Model developed by Ascendant is a strategic framework designed to measure and benchmark the innovation journey of organizations, particularly focusing on the unique challenges and opportunities within government and public service delivery contexts. This model recognizes that innovation within public sector organizations is not merely about adopting new technologies or processes but involves a transformative shift in culture, strategy, and operations to better serve communities and respond to evolving societal needs.
What is the role of an Innovation Maturity Model?
Government and public service organizations often face complex, multifaceted challenges that require innovative solutions tailored to the specific needs of their constituents. Unlike private sector organizations, which may prioritize profitability and market competitiveness, public sector innovation is deeply intertwined with maximizing taxpayer dollars, improving citizen services, enhancing public welfare, and ensuring equitable access to resources. The Ascendant Innovation Maturity Model addresses these distinctive requirements to demystify the oftentimes complex path to innovation. By providing a structured pathway for organizations to systematically develop their innovation capabilities, this model allows public sector entities to assess where they currently stand in their innovation journey, identify gaps in their processes, and implement targeted strategies to advance through the model's phases.
By measuring and benchmarking progress, the model not only helps organizations understand their current state of innovation but also offers a clear roadmap for achieving higher levels of innovation maturity. This is particularly critical in the public sector, where the impact of innovation can lead to more efficient government operations, improved services delivery to the public, and better social outcomes overall.
The model is designed to reflect the nonlinear and adaptive nature of change in an organization, recognizing that each organization has a different starting point on their path to innovation, along with a set of unique assets, resources, capabilities, and challenges they are operating with. Whether an organization is just beginning to explore innovation or is already a leader in the field, the Innovation Maturity Model provides actionable insights and benchmarks to guide continuous improvement. Ultimately, this model aims to empower public sector organizations to become more responsive, resilient, and effective in meeting the needs of the communities they serve, positioning them as leaders in innovation on a global scale.
Categories of Assessment
Culture
Culture encompasses the evolution of an organization's approach to innovation through its mindsets, strategy, leadership, standards, and environment. It begins with risk-averse attitudes and minimal support for innovation, progressing to an organizational culture where creative problem-solving and adaptive thinking are embedded in daily operations. As the organization develops, innovation becomes a core component of its strategic vision, driven by proactive leadership that aligns innovation efforts with overarching goals. Standards and frameworks evolve from informal to rigorous, supporting scalable innovation practices. The organization’s environment transitions from traditional, minimal spaces to state-of-the-art facilities and digital systems to facilitate more creative and effective collaboration inside and outside the organization to foster continuous service delivery improvement and improved social outcomes.
Impact
Outcomes assesses the ability to use innovation as a catalyst for positive change inside governments and in the broader community of influence. This includes how well metrics are defined and used to measure and enhance service delivery and equitable social outcomes. Initially, metrics are unclear and ad-hoc service improvement changes are often untracked. As the organization evolves, metrics become regularly defined, utilized for decision-making and service improvements, linked to improved well-being in the community, and reported publicly. Eventually, robust, cross-departmental metrics and analytics are employed to guide strategic decisions, drive continuous service enhancements, and foster transformative, equitable outcomes that address community needs and set new standards of excellence.
Capacity
Capacity reflects an organization's ability to support and drive innovation through technology, budget, staff, supporting systems, and training. Initially, the organization may lack dedicated resources for innovation, with minimal support systems and no formal training opportunities. Over time, efforts begin to establish basic technology solutions, allocate incremental funding, and introduce staff to innovation roles on a limited basis. As capacity grows, dedicated teams, formalized systems, and structured training programs emerge, including a central innovation team led by a Chief Innovation Officer. The organization advances to securing strategic funding, implementing robust technology, and fostering comprehensive training that develops innovation champions across all levels of the organization. Ultimately, the organization reaches a point where innovation is deeply integrated across all areas, supported by adequate time, budget, and energy. With strong buy-in from leadership and staff, modern facilities, advanced technology, and scalable solutions are in place to ensure continuous improvement and adaptability in service delivery. This sustained capacity allows the organization to respond quickly to new challenges and opportunities, making innovation a core, well-supported function throughout the organization.
Skills
Skills focus on the development and application of key innovation competencies organizations need to be successful, such as data, human-centered design (HCD), behavioral economics, and strategic foresight. Initially, these skills are used informally, but as the organization matures, they become systematically integrated. Data management becomes structured and consistent, HCD is embedded as the foundational approach to problem-solving activities, behavioral economics is applied to drive impactful, evidence-based solutions, and strategic foresight is used to proactively and creatively solve for challenges that may be coming in the future. Advanced analytics and innovative practices are then used to address emerging needs to enhance operations and service delivery. This systematic integration of key competencies builds a culture of continuous innovation, where data-driven insights, empathy, and strategic planning come together to create solutions that are both forward-thinking and practical.
Ecosystem
Ecosystem evaluates how effectively the organization collaborates with internal and external partners to drive innovation. Initially, feedback and collaboration are informal and sporadic. As the organization progresses, it formalizes partnerships to work internally across silos and externally with residents, social service providers, academics, and startups, establishing structured mechanisms for collaboration. Eventually, these collaborations become integral to the organization’s innovation framework, with ongoing, diverse strategic partnerships and formalized programs that continuously build a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the community and source diverse ideas across a wide network of partners that create service delivery and community impact at greater levels than any one partner could have achieved alone.
Stages of Innovation Maturity
01
Initial Stage:
Recognize the Need for Innovation
At the Initial Stage, an organization is just beginning to explore the concept of innovation. There is no established culture of innovation, and any innovative activities that occur are typically ad-hoc, uncoordinated, and have minimal impact. These activities are not systematically monitored or evaluated, reflecting the organization's nascent understanding of, or commitment to, innovation's potential benefits.
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03
Structured Stage:
Establish the Role of Innovation
As the organization progresses to the Structured Stage, it begins to understand the critical role of innovation in improving operations and service delivery. Innovation becomes more formalized, with a clear vision and strategy guiding the organization’s application of innovation mindsets, principles, and processes. Comprehensive structures are established to support the implementation and delivery of innovation initiatives. This stage marks the transition from isolated innovation efforts to a more coordinated and strategic approach, laying the foundation for an organization-wide innovation ecosystem.
05
Transformative Stage:
Govern a Culture of Innovation
In the Transformative Stage, the organization has fully integrated innovation into every aspect of its operations and service delivery. Innovation is not just a tool for improvement; it is a core component of the organization's identity. The organization consistently applies innovative approaches to deliver better services and achieve measurable impacts that benefit the entire community, while consistently centering equity as a key outcome. This stage is characterized by a culture of continuous improvement and a focus on maintaining the organization's position as a global leader in government innovation.
02
Formative Stage:
Define Innovation Frameworks and Processes
In the Formative Stage, the organization starts to recognize the importance of innovation as people begin to see its potential impact. While innovation is not yet widespread, there are emerging pockets of innovative activity within the organization. During this stage, innovation tools and mindsets are introduced, and some staff members begin to engage with them. However, these efforts remain isolated, and the overall culture of innovation is still in its early stages.
04
Sustained Stage:
Build an Innovation Ecosystem
At the Sustained Stage, innovation becomes an integral part of the organization's governance processes and policies. The organization recognizes the need to sustain innovation activities and mindsets across all areas of government. Innovation projects are systematically managed, ensuring they align with strategic objectives and that resources are allocated effectively. This stage reflects a mature approach to innovation, where it is embedded within the organization's operations and contributes to long-term, sustainable improvements and social impact.