From making innovation a part of a health systems culture to honoring and celebrating new ideas, three health system chief innovation officers share how they make innovation a priority within their organizations.
Note: Responses were edited for length and clarity.
Elizabeth Hagerman, PhD. Chief Innovation Officer of UW Health (Madison, Wis.): As leaders, if we approach challenges with curiosity and treat them as opportunities for innovation — instead of reacting with fear and skepticism — creative solutions have a better chance of flourishing.
Practically speaking, this means asking what it would take to make a new and interesting idea successful before identifying all the known hurdles to success.
Of course, not all ideas will be implementable, so discernment, good judgment and vision are necessary complements to curiosity when leaders are cultivating innovation.
Jesse Goodwin, PhD. Chief Innovation Officer of MUSC Health (Charleston, S.C.): At MUSC, we believe transformation and growth are critical to our future, which is why innovation is embedded in our vision, values, pillars and standards of professional behavior.
To ensure that it is a recognized component of all leaders’ roles, innovation is a regularly occurring item on leader meeting agendas and all new leaders receive an orientation on the topic.
Additionally, as part of our annual pillar goal process, leaders are encouraged to set a team goal to identify a creative solution to a pain point. Teams present their ideas to executive leadership each spring — further solidifying a culture of innovation.
Thomas Graham, MD. Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer of Kettering (Ohio) Health: By practicing innovation as a process-oriented, metrics-driven specialty.
Remove innovation from the perception that we are around to catch lightning bolts at the Eureka moments and demonstrate how we make ideas actionable by filtering raw creativity into demonstrable advancements and attaching mechanisms by which results are measured.