Navigating the Innovation Journey: Adapting to Change and Cultivating Impact
Discovering the strategies of fostering innovation within a large, complex healthcare organization undergoing significant transformation.
“Driving a culture of innovation is a transformative process in itself.”
Actionable Takeaways:
- Embrace the Tension Between Today and Tomorrow: Acknowledge the inherent conflict between current operational demands and future-focused innovation efforts, and proactively manage this tension.
- Stay Flexible and Resilient: Keep the ultimate goal in mind but adapt your approach to navigate unexpected obstacles and celebrate incremental progress.
- Cultivate Influence from the Top Down and Middle Up: Secure buy-in from senior leadership while actively engaging with champions and key influencers across the organization.
A Legacy of Innovation
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), a 140-year-old institution dedicated to ending cancer, has a long history of innovation. The Strategic Innovation team, formed in 2008, has pioneered human-centered design in healthcare.
A New Vision, A New Challenge
With new leadership and an evolving enterprise strategy, MSK faces a period of significant transformation. The Strategic Innovation team saw this as an opportunity to reorient their focus and empower enterprise-wide innovation. However, they encountered resistance due to change overload and the prioritization of immediate operational needs.
Navigating the Innovation Terrain
Despite these challenges, the team persevered, guided by four key principles:
- Embrace the Tension: Acknowledge the inherent conflict between today’s operational demands and tomorrow’s innovation ambitions. Recognize that driving a culture of innovation requires change management and transformation.
- Stay Flexible and Resilient: Maintain focus on the long-term vision, but be adaptable in your approach. Break down goals into smaller, achievable milestones, and celebrate incremental progress.
- Cultivate Influence: Secure buy-in from senior leadership, but also cultivate influence from the middle up by identifying champions and demonstrating value by addressing tangible problems.
- Persevere: Stay committed to the importance of innovation and make strategic choices to foster a culture of innovation, understanding that transformation takes time and resilience.
Adapting the Strategy
Recognizing the organizational context, the team shifted their approach:
- Partnering with Key Stakeholders: They actively sought opportunities to collaborate with other departments and leaders to identify and address immediate needs, demonstrating the value of innovation.
- Building Coalitions: They focused on building relationships with innovation champions and influencers across the organization, creating a network of support.
- Sowing Seeds for the Future: The team continues to lay the groundwork for a broader culture of innovation by fostering excitement, building skills, and providing a community for internal innovators.
Enterprise-wide Innovation
The journey to enable enterprise-wide innovation within a complex organization like MSK is not without its challenges. However, by embracing the tension between today and tomorrow, staying flexible and resilient, and cultivating influence from all levels, the Strategic Innovation team at MSK is paving the way for a future where innovation is embedded in the organization’s DNA, ultimately advancing their mission to end cancer for life.