Barriers to Innovation and Inclusion

I am a bit of a space freak (several people will read this and say “A bit???”), so this touches on two of my interests.

NASA’s Inclusion and Innovations Council recently had a all-day report period on barriers to inclusion and innovation at the agency.  Changing the institutional behaviors that stifle people’s incentive to provide ideas and input has been a priority at the agency since the loss of Columbia.

One of the reports was not presented as a printed report or a displayed set of slides.  It was a video posted on YouTube, and charted the process in which a NASA employee attempts to contribute an innovative idea to a project.

Barriers to Innovation and Inclusion.

Next, read Wayne Hale’s blog entry about this video.  Recognize that this is a person who has worked in an organization where this type of behavior not only stifles innovation, it can cost lives.  Yet the behavior exists in many places, including many libraries.

Does this seem familiar?  Have you known someone who had an idea, perhaps outside of his or her job description, who was “handled” in this sort of way?  Have you been this person?  Have you been this person’s supervisor, or someone who was approached with an idea?  Did you discuss chains of command, or supervisors, or that it had been done some other way for years?

This is not an issue just for NASA; this is an issue for any organization that risks demoralizing employees and locking themselves into bureaucratic irrelevance.  This might be your library.  Watch the video, and then watch yourselves and others to ensure that you are not part of the problem, but part of the solution.

One part of the solution is to generate ideas, good ideas about anything and everything you observe.  Express them to anyone who can use them; express them in a constructive, positive way, and give people every reason to consider them for adoption.

Another part is to watch for ideas from others.  Encourage them to brainstorm and to express their suggestions.  Be supportive, offer constructive advice, and be that echoing voice during staff meetings or at the break room table saying “That sounds like it has potential!”

Yet another part is to watch yourself, ensuring that when someone makes a suggestion or presents an idea, that it is the suggestion or idea that is discussed, not the bureaucratic structure or the current procedures that dominates your response.

Think about how much better your library, as well as everyone else’s library, can be, if we only encourage innovation and inclusion.  Think about it.

found via Librarian in Black