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Chapter 5
Supportive Culture
for Innovation
To me, an innovative culture is one where anyone can bring up new,
creative, and sometimes even backwards ideas, without fear of being
thought of as crazy, strange or funny … a culture where innovation is
rewarded and celebrated.
—An anonymous Virginia Mason team
member responding in 2002 to a survey asking
“What does a culture of innovation mean to you?”
Many healthcare organizations can cite a few firsts and showcase a clever idea or
two, but do they have a deeply embedded culture that enables innovation through-
out the organization on a daily basis? In their 1982 book that brought the term into
common ...