Back in the pre-computer dark ages I created a format for Innovation. This paper format poses a series of questions that have helped me to evaluate, analyze and expand the parameters of my ideas. The format was equally useful no matter what type of idea I came up with, from a new concept for an advertising campaign to a utilitarian modification of an existing object or a totally original invention that I had designed. Among other things it posed the three key questions of patentability: is it useful, is it unobvious and is it novel - a completely new creation? However, it also expected me to define the original catalyst for the idea and elaborate on why this was a significant improvement on current technology or strategies.
When, many years later, I found myself working in a Hospital setting, a letter that I had written became the impetus behind a new initiative that required workplace collaboration via participation in multidisciplinary teams. The challenges of performing modern Surgery in a vintage OR complex were frustrating the whole workforce; we produced a large dossier of suggestions towards the final objective, to "Create a Perfect Day in the OR." The project culminated in an OR Retreat held in Baltimore in 1997, but the collective effort and novel ideas of over a hundred employees were soon forgotten. There was no real mechanism for approval and implementation, so the proposed changes got backed up in unproductive Management committees, ultimately abandoned as priorities shifted in a different direction.
My personal attempt at "phase 2" involved three stages: Create an online data entry format so that any employee could sit at a computer consul and answer a series on online questions to input ideas, suggestions or even report safety issues. This "Bottom Up" stage would be done anonymously to prevent any possibility of an employee being targeted, but would include a key code to enable reward. The second "Side In" stage required us to form multidisciplinary "Think-tank" teams to review the data and prepare an equally multidisciplinary strategy for implementation. The final "Top Down" segment required Managerial cooperation. Sadly, this is the single most insurmountable barrier to idea generation in the workplace; most organizations prefer to pay huge consultancy fees to glean the information their own employees are more than ready to share.
I called my inclusive strategy for workplace collaboration the "Kaleidoscope of Innovative Momentum." The interaction between multiple points of light and color within the kaleidoscope exemplified the collaboration required to produce an innovative momentum. After discovering Wiki I realized that there are remarkable similarities in the basic concept. I have posted the full presentation of the Kaleidoscope of Innovative Momentum on my Blog: TRASSPARENCY FOR EQUAL ACCOUNTABILITY in MEDICINE under "AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION."
contributed by Kim Sanders-Fisher on Sep 6 4:36am
Page Last Updated: Sep 6 10:27am by Kim Sanders-Fisher