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Paul C. Light is NYU Wagner's Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service and founding principal investigator of the Organizational Performance Initiative. Until joining NYU, Light was the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, founding director of its Center for Public Service, and vice president and director of the Governmental Studies Program. He previously was director of the Public Policy Program at the Pew Charitable Trusts and associate dean and professor of public affairs at the University of Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Light has written 22 books, including the award-winning Thickening Government and The Tides of Reform. His research interests include bureaucracy, Congress, entitlement programs, executive branch, government reform and nonprofit effectiveness. website

I want to talk to you today about innovation, I used to be known as the coroner of innovation. I would go and look at groups years after they had been deemed innovative. Oftentimes, the leaders had left or been ground down in trying to promote the innovation, the innovation had been rejected by an organization or it had just died. The reasons are not as important as the lesson that the innovations had not been sustainable for a long period of time. I have spent a lot of time doing site visits to look at innovation and sustainability, and this lesson has been pervasive across the board.

One of the biggest lessons is to know when to stop, when not to come up with a new idea but to decide when to move up with an existing one. Sometimes, organizations need to take a break. Not-for-profit groups are under a lot of pressure to come up with the next new thing, the thing people will want to invest in. It is not difficult to innovate once. Sometimes, it's as simple as placing an online idea generator and providing incentives for innovation in a company.

I remember once I asked a non-profit group what kind of things could help them when it came to innovation. His answer was that it would be great to have a stapler beside the copy machine. He needed to have the chairman of the board's signature to purchase simple supplies. It used to be that we needed to take a vow of poverty in this business. Now, donors expect you to have good stuff; they want to see corporate furniture and up to date computers. You need to have the stuff to deliver the goods. You also need to compensate people fairly, regardless of whether you are not-for-profit or non-profit.

Sometimes, the people that have the ideas for innovation are afraid of losing their jobs if they bring things up—an increase in efficiency sometimes means jobs become redundant. You need to make risk-taking part of the organization; you need to do even more than just build in room for mistakes. Trial and error becomes trial for error in a lot of situations. The Minnesota zoo celebrates risks. They give an award for the person who makes the biggest mistake in trying to make things better.

Organizations that sustain innovation change the way they think first. What you want is an innovation to be sustained until it becomes the prevailing wisdom.

Characteristics of high performing innovative organizations

1. Relevant to its external environment. Being alert to the future is important. We can't know what is ahead. We need to know that the future is changeable and organizations need to hold reserve funds in order to be flexible in case of emergency or uncertainty. Whether it's about how we do our work, how we network or how we come up with new ideas.

2. Very agile. Relatively flat, easy to move. We want few layers between the top and the bottom. If you have more than six layers between the front line and the top, there are too many layers for innovation and effectiveness. The federal government is a good example. There are more layers there than almost anywhere else. They are very slow to respond. Hurricane Katrina is a good example of this affecting the speed of response. The Red Cross agility problem was not a lack of heart. It was a lack of organization. You need to move people to a new idea, and your people need to be used to moving. Cross-training is also very important. You need to interact with all levels of your organization in a genuine way.

3. Adaptability. We often think that we need charisma in our leaders to be adaptable. It is a nice to have but it is not essential. What you really need is creativity distributed across your organization. It's impossible to pick a person to come up with an innovation. You will fail if you look at innovation this way; you do not know where the the next brilliant innovative idea is going to come from. You need to access innovation through idea generators, where you ask for new ideas and business plans for those ideas. You need to put some money behind it. The genius will likely not come from somewhere you expected it to. It is important to share a lot of information; you need to saturate your organization with what is going on, scenarios of the future and financial information included. You will then obtain quite a bit of input and ideas to generate change.

4. Alignment. Metrics are not all there is. Sometimes it can be about altering the quality of life. Changing the social equilibrium requires metrics to see what the situation was in the beginning and anticipating what it becomes. An alertness to the future, hedging your bets, having a reserve fund, remaining agile, talking to one another, being careful that people are not being locked in to jobs that they are not truly involved in improving. People who go to work in the morning and are motivated by their opportunity to make a difference are the kind of people that can cause an organization to truly be successful. They know why they exist, they know who they serve and they know how to make things better.

Discussion

• India and China - I talk to a lot of U.S. citizens that think that there is really no threat. The innovations coming from India and China are astounding, and we need to be more innovative in our product development, learn to work better together. We really need to compete to keep the upper hand.
• We want to be innovative to the point where we will achieve the success that we pursue.
• We need to be open to ideas and open to sharing them. People need to move outside their organizations to succeed. They need to stop from time to time and take stock of what they have done.
• Innovating is stressful work. You have to take a break from it every now and again. It isn't innovative to put a stapler beside a copy machine; it's just common sense.
• We have to pay decent wages and offer debt forgiveness. The young people coming in are not going to accept the conditions we have established right now.
• Budget defines vision. How can non-profits budget for risk and mistakes? I can not overemphasize the value of a line item investment fund, call it R&D, innovation, whatever you like, but it is present in successful organizations. It needs to be spent, though. It isn't a reserve fund; it needs to be spent in a careful way.

Close

Ellen Eubank of the Community Affairs Office of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis:

Thanks to everyone for coming to this conference. It has been a fascinating few days and we have all made some important connections. One final thank you to all the key leaders that acted as presenters and to all of you for taking the time to be here. A special thanks to the planning team, Matt Ashby and Innovation Labs. I hope you have enjoyed your time with us.

Idea Wall
The following notes were taken from the notes left by participants on the Idea Wall

• Sparks create innovation.
• Connect to create.
• An issue surfaced: need for better board leadership.
• Innovation is achieved through building diverse networks and relationships.
• Innovation is driven by the networks you keep and the quality connections you make.
• Innovation comes not from new ideas but from new connection between two ideas.
• Reach out to diverse networks of professions (individuals) and build a network with the idea of adding value.
• Capital comes in four forms:
  • Financial
  • Intellectual
  • Social
  • Political
• Use not abuse.
• Innovation is about connecting (ideas, people, concepts, resources, etc.)
• Creativity is based on collaboration.
• Innovation/success is around us, unassembled. Can I see clearly enough to assemble it?
• Focus on the network that can build innovation – not the single person.
• Build networks by adding value to them BEFORE you need their help.
• Inventory current assets and connect them together.
• Innovation is about connection not invention.
• It’s not the individuals; it’s the connections that lead to innovation.
• Select ideas most attractive to your network.
• Mobilize networks.
  • Connect, connect, connect.
  • Capture, not create, value.
  • Build your network; mobilize network around the idea.
  • Find ways for network participants to thrive in cooperation.
• Social connections are as important as money.
• How can/do I help maintain community visibility in small rural towns?
• Connect! No need to invent/reinvent.