In Innovation the Cleveland Clinic Way: Powering Transformation by Putting Ideas to Work, Dr. Graham shares the following 10 “commandments” that channel the health system’s innovation efforts.
1. To foster innovation, the most qualified and creative individuals must have access and exposure to materials and resources to grow. Dr. Graham frames this like a chemistry experiment. “Innovation requires the basic ingredients for the chemical reactions that produce creative outcomes. The basic substrates are need, opportunity and ability. The catalyst may be the infrastructure that enables the development of ideas into meaningful inventions, but the pipeline is stocked by the environment that optimizes the interaction between material and makers,” he writes.
2. Innovation requires strategic infrastructure. To improve the likelihood of innovation, an organization can structure itself and its resources in a strategic way. “Whether fostering physical proximity that helps generate breakthrough ideas, establishing policies that reward creativity or celebrating ‘fast fails,’ the ways environments are structured influences innovation output,” Dr. Graham writes.
3. Managing innovators should respect the innovators’ individual processes, especially the commercialization process. “Some innovators choose to pass along the disclosure and return to their day jobs, while others desire a level of involvement that threatens to jeopardize execution,” according to Dr. Graham. Innovation leaders should be aware of this and act accordingly.
4. The path to commercialization relies on following best processes and practices. However, one must balance best processes and practices with the flexibility for customization.
5. “Innovation is a discipline that can be practiced, learned, taught and measured,” according to Dr. Graham, who writes there are rules, metrics and requirements that make innovation appealing to many innovators and their ideas.
6. Keep the commercialization process as close to the “center of the medical universe” as possible. Researchers and innovators are most successful when addressing needs that arise at the bedside or in clinical settings, so marketing those innovations in a manner that is closely integrated to the care setting is optimal.
7. Innovation relies on collaboration across disciplines. Many successful innovations come from the meeting of minds of those with slightly unrelated backgrounds. By encouraging this type of collaboration, new and creative ideas are formed, according to Dr. Graham.
8. The enterprise mission should guide innovation. “Innovation is nonlinear, fraught with failure and long to succeed,” writes Dr. Graham. “When the innovators and their organization are aligned regarding its importance to fulfill the enterprise mission, there is intellectual freedom and there are resources to produce results, despite the risks.”
9. Celebrate innovation’s process — failures included — instead of just the outcomes. Expectations can severely hinder innovation, especially when only looking at measures of success. Dr. Graham writes failure is a welcome byproduct, and it can even elevate joy when success is achieved.
10. Innovation is central to the academic mission. Dr. Graham writes it is the responsibility of healthcare to continually develop solutions.
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5 thoughts on the democratization of innovation from former Cleveland Clinic chief innovation officer
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