The Australian Department of Social Services

Harnessing Internal Intellectual Capital

The Australian Department of Social Services (DSS) wanted to engage with its staff more efficiently and broadly.

They were looking to mine the collective knowledge and diverse expertise of their staff for ideas about how to improve organisational strategy and tackle the big challenges facing the department.

DSS decided to use MindHive – in a big way.

They brought in over 2200 staff members and asked them help develop ideas and solutions to the big issues in an open, collaborative environment that allowed people to contribute where they could, when they could.

“MindHive represents an easy way to collect a wealth of policy and programme knowledge from DSS staff with a wider range of backgrounds and experiences than would otherwise be available.

It allows policy makers and programme designers to ask anyone, regardless of their level, role or location, for feedback to gain the most insightful, innovative and broad range of policy advice available.

It also facilitates conversations with people in other government agencies, academia, the not-for-profit sector and the private sector that would otherwise be impossible.”

Representative
Department of Social Services
Australia