Leading Libraries Series: Leading for Innovation
The Leading for Innovation set consists of the following modules:
You are in the Innovation cycle module
Innovation cycle
The big idea: Discover, create, experiment, iterate
It may seem completely obvious that one of the ways of leading in our organisations, services or places is to 'lead for innovation'. Of course leaders 'make change happen', promote new ideas and encourage novel approaches. But innovation is
much more than 'leading change' – modern public sector innovation approaches are also about creating a new sense of collaboration between service providers and the citizens they serve. They are based on the assumption that the best ways
of solving problems and acting on opportunities are founded in 'co-creation' between people with lived experience of the issue (people in places, users, citizens, local representatives) and people with professional expertise to bring to
the table (specialists, creatives, managers and all levels of staff). Yes, new ideas get created in the process – but so do new relationships, bonds and energy for change.
Innovation is not the same as 'problem solving' or 'solution implementation' – two activities that you will be familiar with already as a manager or a colleague. These processes are very important in the smooth day-to-day running of our services
and in making small incremental changes to the way we work – they assume we can define the 'issue' and quickly develop an 'answer' using best practice or borrowing from elsewhere.
Innovation approaches are much more 'open-ended' – they start with a very broad inquiry (a discovery phase) and move on to a phase of creation where as many ideas as possible are generated (even some quite wild ones!). Then a wide range of
small possible changes are experimented with in order to learn more about the situation or context. Only at the end of the cycle, when all the learning is gathered, are the most useful ideas selected and taken forward. Most complex innovations
are developed through an iterative (repeated) process of cycling through these phases, learning more and more as we go.
Learning to innovate
As with all the modules within the Leading Libraries series, you can lead for innovation 'from any chair' – the fundamental skills and processes are available to anyone who is interested in making something new happen, however small. Practising
innovation skills is transformative in itself – you will often learn as much about yourself as you do about the issues you are solving or the context you are in! Doing new things always contains an element of risk, which we can learn to
get comfortable with – getting more used to messiness, uncertainty and 'not knowing all the answers' – all aspects which are normalised in these new approaches.
As you work through this set of modules you will learn more about:
- the key principles of modern service innovation and its close relationship with 'design thinking'
- the set of core skills that an innovator brings to the table
- the value of inquiry, creativity and insight
- the need for experimentation and prototyping - taking small steps to address big issues.
Working on your own innovation challenge
The only real way to learn about innovation is to actually practise innovating! We strongly recommend that you bring an idea or issue with you from your own work to practise on – an 'innovation challenge' that you set yourself that you want
to learn about or make progress on. This might just be a 'thought experiment' – you may not be in a position to implement change but you can:
- go through the diagnostic phase
- design inquiries
- generate ideas
- run some small experiments to test out your ideas.
If you do have an aspect of your work that you can actually practice on 'live', even better! Think about a change you are working on in your role that could do with some more innovative approaches – you don't have to be the formal leader of
that change, just someone who has an active role in the process.
And even better still – bring some of your colleagues along for the ride! Many of the approaches and practices we will be sharing with you focus on dialogue and collaboration not the lone expert working in a 'darkened room'. If you work through
the exercises and videos in a group you will learn much more – your creativity will gain a boost from working with others and you can hone your inquiry skills together. It doesn't matter if you are all working on the same issue or opportunity
or whether you decide to pick your own areas to work on. The main thing is for you (and everyone else) to have a genuine interest in the thing you choose to work on and a willingness to be curious. If you know what the answer or solution
is already, you won't be able to innovate!
This module will introduce you to the Innovation Cycle and some of the key principles and qualities needed to 'make new stuff happen'. Identify your challenge, engage some peers and let's get started…
Continue to: Understanding innovation
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