~ Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things. ~
Theodore Levitt
I recently participated in a Creative Innovation Workshop provided by Welsh Innovations in Healthcare (WIsH) and expertly facilitated by Judith Proctor.
On the lips of the attendees, which included medics, nurses, allied health professionals, managers, coaches and IT professionals, were questions like:
How do we innovate...
-when we don't even have time to see all our patients?
-when we struggle to get the funding for even basic equipment?
-when our managers don't encourage innovation?
-when there's a blinkered focus on blunt targets?
Certainly there are challenges to face when innovating in the healthcare environment - the group cited problems with existing cultures or changes in the working climate that made it difficult to pursue an innovation project through to a fructiferous conclusion.
Aside from these initial grumbles, there was also hope and stories of success. One member had developed an innovative surgical technique; one had a service re-design solution; another had generated a model for knowledge and skills management. Some had worked on their projects outside of their work time.
It was encouraging to see that the spirit of innovation is still going strong. After all, it is innovation that has produced huge leaps forward in how we deliver services to the public.
So how can we create space for innovation to flourish whilst ensuring that we are meeting the immediate needs of our individual patients and the communities we serve? Balancing competing demands and optimising time to care needn’t stifle innovation. In fact it is often out of necessity that the best ideas come to the surface. And it's at these times that supporting innovation becomes even more important. Yes, innovation actually supports productivity! Now all we need to do is think and act.
It is the approach to creating and innovating, to thinking and acting that can make all the difference in releasing the desired benefits.
There are plenty of resources available to support your creativity and innovation. Here are a few tips to get you going:
On being creative
- Take your time to generate all your thoughts and ideas about a situation before focusing on one solution. Keep your mind free, open and receptive.
- Think from different perspectives:
a) Solution perspective - doing x would be great and it would also solve problems y and z
b) Problem perspective - x is a problem for us and we could solve it with y and/or z
c) Idea perspective - Idea x has popped into my thoughts. What uses could there be for idea x?
- Step away from the problem. You may get some insights elsewhere which will shed light on the issue
- Keep notebooks to write down ideas, thoughts, sketches, diagrams and mindmaps. A blank paged notebook is usually best (in A4 or A3 size). You could also use a pocket notebook, the voice recorder on your mobile phone or the sketch pad on your PDA / smartphone
- Do something different - take a different route to work, for example, or go for a walk in your lunchbreak. This can help you detach from habitual cycles of thinking and give you a new perspective on a problem
Talk to people. Talking helps us organise and present our ideas and the feedback you get could stimulate even more ideas.
- Write down what assumptions you are making when you generate your creative solutions - are these assumptions correct? What could be possible if they weren't?
- Do some informal research on other innovations happening in healthcare and in other areas. Can you build on these ideas?
- Think what really bugs you? Is there something just itching to be improved? How can you turn that pain into pleasure?
- Try some blank page thinking - how would you do / create / invent something if you had to do it from scratch?
Getting from idea to implementation is the next challenge. Here are some tips on the whole innovation process
- Evaluate your ideas. Which ideas are worth investing resources in? How does the innovation fit in with priorities? Test out the best ideas on a smaller scale first. If relevant, build a prototype - don't be afraid to go "Blue Peter" and use cheap materials like cardboard (if appropriate and safe to do so!)
- Get people on board. How can you get people interested? Involving people in the process and decisions early will be appreciated - people are much more likely to adopt something new if they played a part in its design or application or if they were (at the very least) consulted!
- Get a sponsor for your innovation project - someone senior in the organisation
- Figure out what resources you need along the innovation journey. Can you get them?
- Consider carefully how the project will be managed
The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement have a great process for generating, testing and implementing innovations, which you can download here
And don't be afraid to share! If you're doing something great why not make it even greater and help spread the innovation across the organisation, community, region, country, world...!
Go create...
Next Streamflows Courses:
Process Mapping for Improvement 25 June
Recommended Reads for Creativity and Innovation:
Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono
Rethink: How to Think Differently by Nigel May Barlow
Creativity Tools from the NHS Institue for Innovation and Improvement
