Around the Corner

Like many of you I was fascinated by the stifling innovation video. Did you know that video was filmed by the Barriers Analysis team at NASA's Johnson Space Center? The characters in the video act out familiar mindsets, assumptions and processes that all too often put up roadblocks to innovation and inclusion. Justin Kugler tells the story of the video on the Open>NASA blog in his post called Pathways Beyond the Barriers. Kudos to NASA for being transparent about their efforts to change the culture of bureaucracy!

You'll read words in Justin's post from the language of innovation: inclusion, acceptance, spark, learning, building, investigating, fostering, people, trust, optimism, openness. Innovation is an attribute of an organization's culture and the words used by that culture speak to how and whether innovation is nurtured within the organization.

The characters in the film had to make a series of judgments. It's no easy task to make these judgments, but they are grounded in our values. Our values are the foundation of our culture and they are revealed through the language we use every day.

There is some interesting research emerging on how the values of innovation can improve management and organizational performance. Last month I attended the Gartner Symposium and heard a luncheon address from Gary Hamel of the London Business School. The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine have both named Hamel one of the world’s leading management experts . I was fascinated by what he had to say. His point was that today’s management techniques and organizational models were developed for the Industrial Age, mostly by men born in the mid-1800’s. Industrial-era management is ill-suited for today’s knowledge economy, and we need new thinking. I will blog more about this in a later post, because I really think Hamel is onto something vital, but you can read more in his latest article for Harvard Business Review, “Moon Shots for Management.” Here he suggests a set of 25 ambitious goals for 21st-century management to “shoot for,” including:

- Fully embed the ideas of community and citizenship in management systems

- Reduce fear and increase trust

- Create a democracy of information

I think the challenge for the public sector will be evolving management systems in a manner that recognizes our unique obligations to the public trust and sound use of tax dollars. There are many hopeful examples, however, including NASA’s. Another example of innovative management thinking is GSA’s support for my starting this blog. It took the work of numerous organizations, including legal, communications, IT, and my supervisory chain, to get it going. Yet no one ever said it couldn’t be done. Indeed, everyone had the perspective that this is a good thing and let’s see it done properly. And for that, I am very appreciative.