—

As Americans head to the polls on Election Day, Parade runs Attention, Mr. President: No Politics, Just Our Solutions, a piece featuring ideas for the next President from a host of smarties, including the former U.S. comptroller general David M. Walker discussing the fiscal cliff, Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children’s Zone on education — and Sarah Stein Greenberg, managing director at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (and a Monitor alum) describing some tools for Fostering Innovation. Whoever wins today (and god knows I have my preference), these are smart ideas to heed. I love this, from Sarah: 

Each federal agency that reports to the President should pick one thorny problem to tackle. Each week they try a solution and by Friday they owe the President a report on the results: What failed, what was learned, and what’s next.

This should not seem like a crazily impractical idea. This is how innovation actually works. Come on, Mr President. Make it so.