Building a Culture of Innovation

Female doctor discussing something on tablet with nurse

In our Four Focuses of a Leader model that helps simplify leadership and amplify our leaders’ impact, our fourth and final focus of a leader is inspiring operational innovation.

Innovation is our primary gateway for continuing to remain relevant in the marketplace and stay competitive with other health systems in the region.

Innovation can be about an explosive new idea that disrupts the whole industry, but it’s also about continuous improvement and our commitment to get better all the time.

In our health systems, pushing the boundaries of innovation allows us to drive growth that’s sustainable, substantial, and repeatable, and it gives us opportunities to have impact at scale.

Implementing strategies in our resilience, engagement, and experience focus areas will require creativity, ingenuity, and innovation, but establishing innovation as a focus of its own reminds us that we must commit to continuously pursue new opportunities to develop our people and processes in order to leave a lasting legacy in our communities.

Are You An Innovator?

When it comes to innovation, we can often feel like it’s too far beyond our reach.

We think of major inventors and creators like Henry Ford, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs and write ourselves out of the pursuit because we don’t have the same lightning-in-a-bottle ideas their brilliant minds contributed.

But, all of us bring a unique history and experience to the table and each of us is an expert in our own domain:

The admissions staff is an expert at navigating check-ins and handling insurance. 
The environmental services technician of your facility is an expert on every detail of the building and knows where your weak links are.
The mid-level manager is an expert on where even the best processes and procedures break down and cause problems for employees and patients.

Innovation isn’t about having the most impressive credentials or the highest degree, it’s simply about having an open mind and the willingness to see. 

It’s noticing where something continually goes wrong, where frustrations continue to arise and it’s asking “how could that broken piece of this equation start to get better?” It is the continuation of the discussion of finding ways to improve employee engagement and the patient/customer experience.

Innovation is the Backbone of Healthcare

Innovation is a core focus of a leader because it is about change, making things better, finding solutions, and creating new opportunities for transformational impact and legacy.

Innovation is the backbone of healthcare. It is in our DNA and is the driving force behind everything we do. 

Sometimes innovation is done through organization-wide initiatives to improve our quality, expand access to services, reduce our costs, and increase our level of service. Those initiatives are critical, but equally important is building a culture of innovation—where everyone is searching for a better way, every day.

Imagine if every employee on your team was focused on finding a better way. That your team was constantly thinking – “How can we do that better?”

What could be possible if each employee wanted to continually improve their skills and grow?

Granting Permission to Innovate

In the past, instead of giving our employees permission to innovate, we focused too much on telling our them what they did wrong—which results in defensiveness, dissatisfaction, and a deep divide between leaders and employees.

In this model, employees become separated from ownership of their role and their job is reduced to only something they do, not something that they're deeply invested in and committed to.

Refocusing our approach to innovation changes the conversation. It becomes a rally cry that calls us higher and transforms the outcomes and impact of our jobs to something that each employee can own.

It has a positive, reaffirming energy that engages the hearts and minds of our employees and encourages all of us to give our best gifts and make a bigger contribution.

If we have a culture of innovation, we engage people instead of command people.

Instead of “telling” people we have to cut our budget, we ask our team “how can we innovate a better way to reduce our budget?”

This engages their mind, they have a little more control over the situation, and they're more likely to support the decision they had a part in making.

KEY IDEA: People resist changes that happen to them, but they embrace changes that happen through them.

Making employees a partner in change helps them feel included, heard, and respected, and helps you gain fierce advocates and champions for your innovations and improvements. When employees were involved in creating the solution, they will be more than willing to help promote the change throughout the organization.

Integrating Innovation into Your Existing Processes

Though we have a thorough process for implementing institutional innovation, for organizations who are just getting started, becoming more innovative doesn’t have to be an overwhelming endeavor.

Creating a culture where innovation is celebrated can start with something as simple as developing a tool or process where employees can submit ideas for improvement.

It can be opening the channels of communication between front line staff and senior leaders allowing employees to bring real-time insights to the table and ensuring that these dedicated and intelligent team members can not only bring their creative solutions forward but have their contributions considered and taken seriously.

This ideally happens throughout the organization, but is a must at the team level to build this culture of innovation.

In addition to a regular cadence of open forums to gather insight, we recommend doing all you can to integrate the language of innovation into all of your existing touchpoints and conversations:

Include it in your huddles – “Does anyone have any innovative ideas?”
Talk about it in department meetings “Let’s talk about our innovation projects”
When people run into obstacles ask “How can we innovate here?"

Most importantly, use the innovation language in your 1:1s and reviews with your employees and routinely ask what ideas they have to make things better.

In their annual review, also include a section on professional development—ask them to develop a plan for where they want to grow this year and have them take ownership of their plan.

Igniting Passion, Creativity, and Contribution in Our Teams

To successfully embrace innovation, we need to fundamentally shift our relationship with our team and make them partners in change.

We want to give them greater ownership and not only inspire creativity and passion, but reward that initiative and insight as notably as we can to continue to encourage an ongoing commitment to innovation.

Offering financial rewards, public recognition, and instituting innovation contests can help ignite not only a passion for innovation, but a renewed sense of purpose, fulfillment and engagement for your employees.

Going all-in on innovation can help to elevate every initiative at your health system, because you'll be fully harnessing the intellectual prowess, talents, and skills of your team. By shifting your focus, you can clear the path for your employees to break free of the limitations of their role and make an even greater contribution to your patients and organization.

Cultivating a Mindset of Ownership and Accountability

When we can push our team to embrace innovation more deeply, we begin to change their mindset and shift the energy from survival to seeking to achieve excellence.

No longer will employees be going through the motions, barely engaged and seeing themselves at the mercy of leaders who aren't invested in their success. They'll see leaders who are calling them higher, challenging them to give more, celebrating their talents, and giving them the freedom to test, try, and potentially even fail when chasing a new innovation.

When we shift our culture and allow for innovation and creativity to thrive, we'll begin to see a new mindset of ownership and accountability emerge:

Encouraging Autonomy: A culture of innovation often values individual and team autonomy. Team members are encouraged to take ownership of their work, make decisions, and experiment with new ideas. This autonomy fosters a sense of responsibility and accountability as team members realize that the success of their innovations depends on their own efforts.
Risk-Taking and Learning from Failure: Innovation inherently involves risk-taking, and not every innovation will succeed. However, in a culture of innovation, failure is seen as an opportunity for learning and improvement rather than as a personal failure. When team members understand that they won't be punished for taking calculated risks and that failures are opportunities for growth, they are more likely to take ownership of their initiatives.
Empowering Problem-Solving: Innovation often begins with identifying and solving problems. In a culture of innovation, team members are encouraged to identify problems and devise solutions. When they see that their ideas can lead to positive change and are supported in implementing these solutions, they take more ownership over the outcomes.
Open Communication: Effective communication is essential for innovation, and it requires individuals to take responsibility for expressing their ideas, concerns, and feedback. When team members feel their contributions are valued and that they have a say in the innovation process, they are more likely to take ownership of their roles in the organization.
Recognition and Rewards: Incentives, rewards, and recognition for innovative contributions can motivate team members to take ownership of their work. Recognizing and celebrating individual and team achievements in innovation reinforces the importance of accountability and ownership in the organization.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Healthcare innovation often requires collaboration across different departments and disciplines. When team members from various backgrounds come together to solve complex problems, they naturally take ownership of their roles in achieving a common goal, knowing that their expertise is crucial to the success of the innovation.
Leadership Example: Leaders in a healthcare organization play a vital role in shaping the culture. When leaders themselves exhibit a mindset of ownership and accountability in pursuing innovation, it sets a strong example for the rest of the team. Leaders who are willing to take risks and openly acknowledge both successes and failures can inspire others to do the same.
Clear Goals and Metrics: Setting clear goals and metrics for innovation projects helps team members understand their roles and responsibilities in achieving these objectives. When they have a clear understanding of what is expected and how success is measured, they are more likely to take ownership of their contributions to the project and get better results along the way.

When team members feel that their contributions are valued and that they have a stake in the innovation process, they are more likely to take responsibility for their roles in driving positive change in healthcare.

Embracing the Quest Mentality

Building a culture of innovation is the ultimate quest. We don’t have to know everything to get started, we just have to start.

We have to embrace the opportunity, the excitement, the risk, and the challenge that lies before us, and work to achieve the ultimate reward of fixing what’s broken, improving what wasn’t working, and giving our patients the absolute best.

It’s a journey that will require us to give everything we have and to work hard to become better than we’ve ever been, but it will leave us completely fulfilled and engaged as we pursue our great mission and elevate our impact as leaders.

If your team is ready to begin building a culture of innovation, we'd love to speak with you! Contact our team to get started today.