Seongdong-gu Staff Idea Discovery 'Policy Imagination Group S-LAB' Formed

Focusing on Discovering Resident-Centric Brand Projects through Free Idea Proposals and Open Discussions

Seongdong-gu forms and operates the 'Policy Imagination Group S-LAB' to gather employees' ideas for discovering lifestyle-oriented brand projects.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jung Won-oh) is forming the ‘Policy Imagination Group S-LAB’ to discover differentiated, life-oriented brand projects by uncovering ideas from employees with talent and skills.

The ‘Policy Imagination Group S-LAB’ is a policy discovery team composed of about 10 employees with rich field experience regardless of age, rank, or gender, who freely propose ideas through horizontal communication rather than vertical hierarchy.

‘S-LAB’ combines the S of Seongdong, the S of Smart, and the prefix S (Syn-) meaning ‘together’ with the English word ‘LAB (Laboratory)’ meaning laboratory or research institute, embodying the aspiration to ‘research and imagine smart Seongdong-type policies that embrace all residents.’

The district is recruiting employees who wish to participate regardless of age or rank until the 7th and will begin full-scale ‘policy imagination.’ Along with regular meetings once or twice a month, they will use an SNS messenger group chat accessible anytime and anywhere to continuously share ideas and engage in lively discussions. Proposed ideas will be immediately reflected in district policy projects, and if adopted as district brand projects, performance rewards such as performance grading will also be provided.

A district official said, “Last year, the district discovered several life-oriented projects such as the ‘Seongdong One Plus One Project’ to eliminate welfare blind spots, the ‘Fire Truck Sing Sing Project’ to secure fire truck access roads, and the establishment of the ‘Seongdong-type Smart Crosswalk,’ which received great responses from residents. To flexibly respond to the increasingly diverse administrative demands of residents, we referred to private companies’ cases such as IBM’s ‘Innovation Jam’ and SKT’s employee idea utilization and formed this policy discovery team.”

In the future, the discovery group plans to continue activities to discover various policy proposals, including inviting external expert lectures and benchmarking other institutions.

Mayor Jung Won-oh said, “The happiness of residents begins with improving inconveniences in daily life,” adding, “I expect that the policy imagination of Seongdong-gu employees will be a great force in freely imagining policies and turning those imaginations into reality to realize ‘Smart Inclusive City Seongdong,’ where no one is left behind.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.