Questions to Consider
From Innovationclass
Revision as of 17:50, 15 March 2008
(Feel free to break up the questions further - even singularly if you'd like - but I thought posting our answers under the questions would provide a rough framework for now and make it easy for us to see what question each of us was trying to answer through our post. This will, also, make it easy to see where we are having a hard time answering the questions. Try and keep the questions bolded and your responses not.)
What are their major ideas about who and what they are and what they do and why? What conflicts do you see between idea and practice? Between intent and execution?
When do their actions reinforce their image and identity and when do they contradict them or fall short?
Implementation? One of the key issues in regard to innovation is moving from idea to execution and then to results. So process is always an important element to consider when looking at innovation, particularly innovation within organizations. It brings to the fore a fundamental question: Can organizations be innovative? And them more questions arise, such as: How do we create and sustain a culture of innovation? What are the enemies of innovation and how do we not allow those to develop within our organization? How do we develop a manageable, functional organization that is still innovative? What is the relation between the organization and the individual when it comes to innovation?
And last, what about goals and evaluation? How do organizations (in your case agencies) know when they are succeeding or not? This brings us to the question of roles that individuals play within an organization and how we evaluate the individual contribution to the overall success of the organization. How will you decide in your groups to evaluate the contribution of individuals within your group? The typical dichotomy is quantity versus quality? What schema is used in the agencies that you are studying?
