Artists as Innovators

Mexico City, Mexico

The Action

Innovation labs have become de rigueur for many city governments, but Mexico City’s Lab for the City (Laboratorio para la Ciudad) was one of the first and it cut a unique figure—putting design and creativity at the center of urban innovation and expanding upon the role of government in society. The lab, led by artist Gabriella Gomez-Mont, had a multi-disciplinary staff who set out to create and moderate new spaces (whether physical, virtual, or political) where difficult issues could be discussed, new ideas could surface, and new tools could be developed and tested (it closed in December 2018 after city leadership changed).

Democracy Challenge

Governments are inherently risk-averse—and rightly so, given the fact that millions of people rely on their essential services. To ensure that “disruption” does not happen, institutions erect rigid bureaucracies with clear lines of authority and detailed rules and procedures. It is not surprising, then, that would-be innovators find it difficult to respond nimbly to rapidly changing economic, social, and technological realities through experimentation and collaboration. Instead, they may encounter legal prohibitions, turf wars, resistance to change and large gaps in communication—qualities that erode staff morale and public trust and contribute to perceptions that democratic government is not fit for purpose in the 21st century. 

The lab assures that Mexico City residents have the right to be part of policymaking.

How It Works & How They Did It

In 2013, Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera asked artist and filmmaker Gabriella Gomez-Mont to create a new city department. She created Lab for the City (Laboratorio para la Ciudad) as an experimental think tank inspired by the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston. Most of the lab’s early staff was under the age of 30 and had never worked in government before, although most had been involved in some kind of community work or civic activism. This creative outsider lens gave the lab a unique profile among city innovation offices. 

Identity 

The lab was a creative office within government that worked the gaps between urban, political, social, and cultural issues and looked for productive ways to “disrupt” the status quo. This meant facilitating connections between siloed departments within the government, as well as opening a space for civil society to engage—recognizing that activists have plenty of interest in urban issues but limited (if any) interest in government. 

It played a lead role in expanding the concept of what government can and should do—looking beyond service provision toward a convening and mediating role for society at large. As an active manager of a new civic commons, lab staff worked to reduce tensions, to offer “translation” services between different communities or professions, and to develop new urban languages and political forms. 

In short, the lab played the role of the artist—challenging people to see in new ways, speak with new tongues, and create new forms together. 

Structure 

The lab had 20 staff members as of mid-2017, with a notably diverse palette of backgrounds: political scientists, social scientists, civic technologists, artists, designers, activists, and historians. They reported directly to the mayor’s office. The city paid staff salaries, but the bulk of the lab’s funding came from foundations, including Hewlett and Omidyar. 

Strategy & tactics: how they work 

The lab’s early projects often injected art and design into civic spaces, and the lab maintained a focus on design thinking and engaging designers in civic problems. But the lab also came to serve as a more general commons where the Mayor’s Office could send: (a) problems or ideas without an obvious home or starting place—including those that are complex, interdisciplinary, daunting or simply uncharted—or (b) problems or ideas which have fallen through the gaps between government departments. The lab was a place where these issues could be approached thoughtfully, creatively, and with broad participation.  

Once the lab took on (or was tasked with) tackling a particular issue, it started a conversation, bringing in stakeholders early and working alongside them as they navigated whatever ideation, design, and implementation phases are necessary. The lab also created or entered partnerships to tackle specific policy issues, including a partnership with Code for America to support six programmers who created apps for city agencies. Its “rooftop conversations” (so named because the lab’s office was an airy space on the roof of a city building) launched policy dialogues on creative industries, water management, mobility, politics, and more. 

The lab played a lead role in a wide range of projects, including: 

• Crowd-sourcing a constitution, 
• MapatonCDMX, 
• Digital debate, 
• Open Contracting, 
• Design for the City: a guild for civic-focused designers, 
• Pedestrian City design challenge, 
• Playful City: games as catalysts for urban experiences (see Juguetetes Urbanos), and 
• Peatoniños: turning streets over to children’s play.

A working group model was used frequently, and the lab strived to share “joint custody of the kids” as much as possible, meaning that the agencies or organizations represented in the working group are just as proud and boastful of results as the lab was. 

How’s It Going?

Seeding an ecosystem

As of mid-2017, 3,000 government officials had passed through lab trainings, and six coders and volunteers had been placed with various ministries through a partnership with Code for America. This has created, from scratch, a distributed civic technology ecosystem within city government. 

Opening and leveraging data

When the lab was born, Mexico City government was a completely closed information space in which civil servants could be held personally liable for any misuse or disclosure of data by third parties. The lab worked with the mayor to adopt open data policies and began hosting a Data Fest, which doubled in size from the first to second year. Recognizing that the city also needed to build an apparatus for data-driven policymaking, the lab developed a Memorandum of Understanding with five academic institutions to make use of the vast wealth of information held by city government. “Can you imagine the information that is locked up there?” Gomez-Mont said. Projects included creating a “digital health file” for citizens. 

First among equals

As one of the first innovation labs housed inside a Latin American government, LabCDMX forged a path for others to follow. As of May 2018, there were at least nine city innovation labs, part of a larger movement to embed innovation and agility within all spheres of government. In 2016 this rich field allowed the Inter-American Development Bank to examine Latin American labs to identify key factors for success in driving the adoption and scaling of innovations on central issues. 

Considerations

• Finding passionate people. A key challenge has been finding and matching the right people to projects, knowing that an emotional connection to a subject makes all the difference. “We believe what drives more organic work is the passion and desire of the team members,” Gomez-Mont said. The lab’s challenges included designing better incentives for city employees to engage with its initiatives and reaching employees who feel isolated within the bureaucracy.
• Managing expectations. The lab had 20 creative people, working in an institution employing 240,000 people, in a metropolitan area of over 20 million people. What could they reasonably achieve? One common expectation of innovation labs is that they should serve as research and development shops, with the flexibility and risk tolerance to hatch ideas, design new programs or build and test products which are then mainstreamed across government. But even if product generation is the explicit goal, disseminating innovations is neither simple nor automatic, and it often depends on building person-to-person relationships of trust. This relationship building is the real work of many government innovation labs, and the lab excelled at it. In results-focused political environments, however, it may not be enough to win over skeptics and critics who expect to see new programs and products spinning off regularly. Therefore, labs must communicate and manage expectations about outcomes while continually cultivating relationships with supporters.
• Surviving changes. The lab is one of several first-generation innovation units which did not survive a change in political administration. Being closely linked with a powerful political figure can make a lab effective, but it comes with risks to the project’s long-term sustainability. 

Point of Contact

Gabriella Gomez-Mont 

Co-Founder and Director 

Laboratorio para la Ciudad 

[email protected]

Who Else Is Trying This?

• Boston, Massachusetts, US: The Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics is an innovation team based in City Hall and designed to develop projects and experiments that improve residents’ quality of life. The “mechanics” on staff are drawn intentionally from varied backgrounds, from computer science and engineering to design and community organizing. Their projects include improving the user interface for school enrollment, adding photo feedback to the 311 app, and sponsoring a competition for compact living designs and more delightful public spaces. They use a three-stage model of explore, experiment, and evaluate. Read More 
• Portland, Oregon, US: In 2013 the Portland City Council created the Innovation Fund, designating millions in Special Appropriation funds to fix problems and encourage a culture of innovative thinking among city staff. Funded projects range from “Data Sharing with Faith-Based Nonprofits to End Homelessness” to “Sports Training Collaboration to Address Childhood Obesity.” Submissions in the first year were reviewed by a panel which included the Portland State University Center for Public Service, and in subsequent years the process was streamlined and opened to all city employees. Read More 
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada: For decades, Toronto’s city government has been supporting a rich start-up and innovation ecosystem by positioning itself as a catalyst, collaborator, and funder. It works to fill gaps in the local economy by identifying key industries and convening partners to collaboratively create the necessary support services. A key tenet is that innovation does not happen in isolation but is supported by a diverse network of people working to move a concept toward a commercially viable enterprise. Read More 

Additional Reading 

The Impossible Possible City (Curbed, 2018) 

Q&A: Gabriella Gomez-Mont, Laboratorio Para la Ciudad (Metropolis, 2016) 

Case Study: Mexico City Fellowship Program, Codigo CDMX 

This action was originally developed for Big Bold Cities, an initiative of Living Cities and the National Democratic Institute (NDI); republished here with the permission of Living Cities.