Surprise by Design: The Risks for Social Innovation when Surprise is Imposed as a Governing Strategy

Abstract

Social innovations are at risk at a time when surprise is employed as a unilateral government strategy in order to shrink and refocus government operations. Social innovations involve collective efforts, frequently spanning public and private stakeholders. The needed trust and reciprocal understandings are undercut when government employs the logic of reengineering combined with surprise as a strategy— what we term “Surprise by Design.” This contrasts with past federal restructuring initiatives that employed a mix of administrative expertise (top down) and frontline continuous improvement (bottom up) as strategies for negotiated changes. Surprise is a particular type of top- down imposed change, which disrupts patterned roles and routines in order to impose a reconceptualization of how government will function in society. This article documents surprise as a change strategy and identifies needed adjustments to two relevant lateral models for negotiated change. By taking this into account, social innovation initiatives can be more resilient in the face of Surprise by Design.