Stephen Abram points to a thought-provoking article at Report 103:
http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2009/04/libraries_and_a.html
“A Dozen Ingredients for a Culture of Innovation”
http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20090407
I pulled out some highlights from some of the sections that speak to me. Please read the whole piece, take it to your staff meetings and ponder how you might incorporate these ingredients in your institution.
1. Top Management Buy-In
If top management do not embrace innovation, they can hardly expect their employees to do so either.
2. Trust
3. Priority of Innovation (Often Confused with Time)
If you want a culture of innovation in your firm, creativity and innovation have to take priority over excessive reporting, PowerPoint slide making, long meetings, reading irrelevant e-mails and other tasks that take priority in non-innovative firms.
4. Freedom to Take Action
In a culture of innovation, employees should constantly be experimenting with new ideas and reporting on results whether negative or positive.
5. Freedom to Make Mistakes
6. Rewarding Rather than Stifling Creative Thinking
7. Collaboration Tools
8. Places and Opportunities to Talk
9. Places and Opportunities to Work in Isolation
10. Access to Information
11. Transparency
The more employees know and understand about the operations of their firm, the better they are able to help the firm innovate. Moreover, transparency leads to trust. And we have already learned about how important that is to a culture of innovation!
12. Humour