Feature Roar of Taleo) ACLEVER switch of titles did nothing to tame the judges in the Lions’ Lar. The concept ~ borrowed from the BBC's Dragons’ Den — was to scrutinise people with ground-breaking ideas for the future of the Department. DWP Philip John, Kathie Lindsey and John McGregor were selected from hundreds of nominated candidates and put under the spotlight by the ‘Lions’, about their suggestions. They were among an elite selection of candidates from departments ‘across government. The Lions included none other than regular ‘Dragon’ and entrepreneur, Peter Jones. Other challenging judges included Governmer Communications Permanent Secretary, Howell James, and Emst & Young's head of government services, Robin Tye. > CIVIL SERVICE LIVE EXCLUSIVE DWP trio survive the Lions’ Lair! The venture was part of Chul Service Live — an event designed to encourage innovation amang civil servants. It took place over three days at the QEII conference centre in Westminster and proved an excellent chance for various departments to show how successful new ways of working have been, John Pinching caught up with DWPs three innovators. FLUSH OF INSPIRATION Kathie Lindsey Job: Jobcentre Plus Admin Officer, Bristol Idea: To put hippos (not literally) in toilets across the Department, The eureka moment: “| used to be known as the "brick lady’ because | had an idea to put house bricks in cisterns to save water. | then heard about ‘hippos’. They are heavy-duty plastic bags that are placed in the cistern and save nearly 50 per cent of water per flush! This would be both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. In the Lair: * and mast of them gave the thumbs up. Peter Jones was quite rude about it, 10 | dwpeople | May 2008 The presentation went well He didn’t really understand why you couldn't just adjust the water flow. | have been invited to London to promote the idea to a minister, so I'm really pleased, 15 minutes of fame: The ‘Brick Lady’ checks out her performarFeature GETTING THE MESSAGE Philip John Job: Jobcentre Plus Admin Support Officer, Bristol Idea: It's simple — but aren't the very best ideas? This involves reminding people by text message that they have ‘an appointment. The eureka moment: “At jobcentres a great deal of time and money is wasted due to ‘fail to attends’™ I thought a simple text message, which gives details of the date and time of the appointment, may make everyon life easier. We had a short trial that proved very successful.” In the Lair: "To be honest | don’t really know much about the technology so they told me to go out and do the necessary research. think they were all quite surprised that we weren't doing this kind of thing already. During my presentation Jones told me that he Contract claws: Peter fones (far right) reads the riot act — with the intention, presumably already knew what an SMS was and to get on with it! im confident that the idea will be used nationally *A common Jobcentre Plus term used to describe people who fal to attend, f delivering it Philp John makes fis case MAKING UP THE NUMBERS Job: DWP Project Management, Newcastle Idea: At last, a facility that works ‘out benefit arrears with 100 per cent accuracy! The eureka moment: “At work my performance was suffering because of glitch in the system, which happened when the programme was updated in the 1990s. Consequently, many of the figures were incorrect and had to be worked out manually, and that can take ages. Initially, for my own benefit, llused my spare time to create a fail- safe system on Excel. When it worked my manager decided that everyone in the team should use it. Now I'm John McGregor hoping it will become a standard facility across Jobcentre Plus.” In the Lair: “It was filmed in exactly the same warehouse they use on TV. We were all made to wait in a room before facing the Lions. Those that went first never returned, so we couldn't find out what to expect. | have to admit, facing the Lions was pretty terrifying, Peter Jones asked some difficult questions but, atthe bar afterwards, he was a completely different person. Sofa, so good: John (left) chats with an ideas champion May 2008 | dwpeople | 11