DEFINING INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION

Innovation cuts through all sectors, industries, and communities. Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas that lead to the largest, far-reaching transformations that improve lives.

The solution to a problem may involve improving an existing thing (kaizen) or creating a disruptive solution. Each change may be part of a series of actions that affect outcomes and behaviors, and that in turn unleashes new pathways and business models.

Innovation can be incremental or disruptive. It can be deliberate and planned or spontaneous and serendipitous. It can be quick, cheap or prolonged and expensive. It can lead to immediate gains or deliver long-term impact. It can be sustainable or hard to maintain. It could be an absolute mess and a colossal failure. Or it could be an unqualified success.

Government projects, when they take time to execute, can find themselves in a space that is so fluid that the project may lose its relevance before it solves the problem it was created for. They may find out that the criteria used to measure success may have been unclear from the beginning.

A common ‘innovation trap’ happens when institutions expend so much time and resources on an innovation project when a simple straightforward solution would have been better from the start. But once begun, it may be hard to justify the project, and even harder to pull back.

The more innovation is supported by a clear strategy the more it can succeed. But there is no one way to innovate and often the journey can be difficult and treacherous.

By Sana Bagersh