Sparking and Leading Innovation Women’s Leadership Institute December 5-8, 2010 Kathryn J. Deiss ACRL Content Strategist Photo by Tom Oliver

Photo by kelsmith1992 Who is innovative?

Creative Inventions Lightning Rounds - 60 seconds 1.Create an invention using your card and someone else’s 2. Write it down on back of card 3. Find another person and repeat 4. Find another person and repeat

Changing perspective jogs the creative impulse

The Adjacent Possible : a concept describing the power of combinatory connections/collisions Coined by scientist Stuart Kaufmann and cited in Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson

“Innovation is the embodiment, combination, and/or synthesis of knowledge in novel, relevant, valued new products, processes, or services.” Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap

 Innovations are those things that change the way we can do what we want to do  Innovation is disruptive  Innovation is both revolutionary and evolutionary  Society decides what is innovative

Directional vs. intersectional innovation  Directional innovation combines ideas within a field  Intersectional innovation combines ideas at the intersections of different fields resulting in an increased level of possibilities Source: Johanssen, Frans. The Medici Effect Photo by Brandon Cirillo

More stuff on the table! Photo by Lucy Lou

“Different is not always better but better is always different.” Rick Luce Emory University

Barriers to innovation  Organizational age  Individual & group skills lacking  Desire for perfection  Risk aversion  Natural tensions & dichotomies Photo by remuz

  Mature organization  proven track record  established resources  less likely to take risks  less flexible  reliance on and replication of past successful practices  improvisation more difficult   Young organization  sparse track record  volatile resources  more likely to risk  more flexible  no past to replicate   natural improvisation Innovation and org. age

Photo by James.Robertson Innovation Skills

Skills related to innovation  Right brain thinking  Play and non-verbal skills  Idea generating skills and tools  Leadership skills  Observation and analytical skills  Ability to question  Prototyping

Photo by moqub Sometimes you have to bust something up to achieve a breakthrough!

The desire for perfection interrupts the flow of innovation Photo by Leo Reynolds

Risk Aversion Photo by anarchosyn

Dichotomies  Stability  Standards  Expertise  Performance  Certainty   Disturbance  Unknown consequences & patterns  Play  Practice  Risk

Center on mission Lower barriers to external collaboration Embrace volatility Harvest external support Lessons from Nonprofit Innovators Change the prevailing winds

Operate “just beyond the possible.” Source: Paul C. Light “Sustaining Innovation” Photo by Bee Skutch

“You don’t see the world as it is; you see it as you are.” Luc deBrabandere Photo by in da mood

Political implications Cornelis Drebbel and £20,000 (1624)  Societal readiness  Patterns of behavior  Political climate  Building the message

“Innovation is the embodiment, combination, and/or synthesis of knowledge in novel, relevant, valued new products, processes, or services.” Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap

 What are the political implications of some innovations your unit has tried or wishes to try?  Who needs to buy-in?  What timing issues exist?  What is the readiness for the innovation?

Practices for Innovation  Identifying question/opportunity  Voluminous idea generation  Use of creative thinking tools  Tolerance for failure and time lags or jumps  Escaping “the end of..” syndrome; embracing “the beginning of..” way of thinking

Prototyping: a new skill

Prototyping  Observation of people & situations  Trials and tests  Three dimensional aspect  Inventive  Feedback loops

“Quick prototyping is about acting before you have got the answers… Good prototypes don’t just communicate, they persuade.” Tom Kelley, IDEO

What’s in a name? the GGNRA’s transformation by prototype Design by Michael Schwab From Golden Gate National Recreation Area to Golden Gate National Parks

Photo by yepperdoodle Use the unexpected to your advantage

Johnny Lee ChungJohnny Lee Chung: a case of unintended consequences Photo by fixpert!

Think of something in your department or institution that could benefit from a new prototype name or image As a group share projects and do a quick idea sort on one of these situations

Photo by Loensis Innovation Incubators

Innovation incubators  Places - physical & virtual  Skills - play, ideating, prototyping  Practices - processes and tools  Technologies - emerging tools for delivering and testing services

Planning an Innovation Incubator Use the planning handout to think through setting up an innovation incubator - let your imagination play! Discuss your planning thoughts with two other people in the room

Some Final Thoughts  We need to seek intersections  We need to engage in trial and error and prototyping  We need to adopt multiple perspectives  We need to face into the outside world

“The most successful people are those who are willing to give up their most successful strategies….” Richard Foster

Thank you! Keep in touch!