Ruminations II: Catalyzing Action

Monday, August 2 - 1:00 pm

Presentation Slide Links
Tony Bryk - Improvement Research
Louis Gomez - Nuts and Bolts: The Innovation Collaborative
Lindsay Martin - IHI's 90-Day Cycles: Bringing New Ideas into Action

What a breathtaking whirlwind of cutting-edge information! Tony, Louis, and Lindsay challenged our thinking in their presentations and gave us an opportunity to prototype rapid prototyping itself in our intimate breakout sessions. Our five big takeaways from this innovative experience were:

1. Research for policy and practice require different systems approaches.
2. Collaboratories are networked, social, formal & informal with shared norms and space for individual variation that institutionalize knowledge capture.
3. Starting small and scaling up (1-3-5-all) can accelerate the pace of research and innovation in 30- and 90-day cycles.
4. Mistakes are treasures. Failure should be an acceptable outcome some, if not most, of the time.
5. Context matters. Always question underlying assumptions before rushing to judgment.

Please feel free to share your own insights and observations in the comments!