An August 23rd article in the Wall Street Journal, "Who Has Innovative Ideas? Employees," lays out seven steps for creating an innovation community and characteristics necessary for it to be successful. Written by JC Spender and Bruce Strong, the article makes some good points, not the least of which is to gather a broad range of viewpoints. The guys are preaching to the choir on this one.

Read full article

An article by Uri Neren, "Why Innovation Thrives at Mayo" as written for the Harvard Business Review and posted on Businessweek...

An interesting read and some interesting results regarding environments that display innovation. One reason in particular caught my eye: limited resources. Would you agree or disagree? Neren is working to create a World Database of Innovation - a collaborative effort between his firm and several universities. To date, the information he shares represents over 20,000 hours of work, over 200 in-depth case studies, and compiles the ideas of 4,500 or so innovation experts and consultancies.

The article is available here.

An interesting article on innovation by Scott Harris as posted on the AAMC website:

Transformation and Innovation Officers Shepherd Change Through Health Care System

One of his points: "In the spirit of making these connections, it is important for innovation leaders to become 'viral,' or available to all levels of the institution, in one way or another."

Sweeney is slated to speak at the upcoming Creative Leadership Conference sponsored by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) and the four Ottawa School Boards in November. We think this is going to be a great event and according to OCRI blogs so do they...

http://ocriblogs.com/2010/06/john-sweeney-on-deck-to-bring-humour-and-improv-to-the-leadership-conference/