Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Acknowledgements
- Summary
- one Introduction
- two Public services innovation: perspectives on innovation in organisation and management
- three The housing association policy environment, regulation and innovation
- four Classifying and measuring innovation
- five In search of the innovative housing association
- six Managing innovation
- seven Conclusions
- References
- Index
six - Managing innovation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Acknowledgements
- Summary
- one Introduction
- two Public services innovation: perspectives on innovation in organisation and management
- three The housing association policy environment, regulation and innovation
- four Classifying and measuring innovation
- five In search of the innovative housing association
- six Managing innovation
- seven Conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
Most people are clinging to the bank, afraid to let go and risk being carried along by the current of the river. At a certain point, each person must be willing simply to let go, and trust the river to carry him or her along safely. At this point he learns to ‘go with the flow’ and it feels wonderful.
Once he has gotten used to being in the flow of the river, he can begin to look ahead and guide his own course onward, deciding where the course looks best, steering his way around boulders and snags, and choosing which of the many channels and branches of the river he prefers to follow, all the while still ‘going with the flow’. (Gawain, 1982 quoted in Quinn, 1988, p 164)
The way in which housing associations manage the rugged terrain of innovation will be explored in this chapter. The chapter is built around the experiences that our case-study associations have had on their innovation journey. These associations, from stage one of the research, provide our richest evidence of ‘going with the flow’ and their endeavours are drawn upon extensively and reported in the body of the text. The chapter also presents the stage-two case-study selected from the innovative associations discussed in Chapter 5. The sample for these associations was based upon a number of factors. The type of innovation (total, evolutionary, expansionary, developmental) was proportionately selected from within the database. A description of the innovation was examined to ensure that a variety of innovation examples were captured, including housing production as well as housing management ones. This resulted in the selection of fifteen stage-two cases, of which four did not proceed. The remaining eleven cases were undertaken through a mixture of telephone and face-to-face interviews and the analysis of documents. Illustrative examples of how six of these stage-two casestudy organisations experienced their journey of managing the innovation process are highlighted at appropriate junctures in boxes.
The structure of the chapter follows the process theory framework presented in Chapter 2 (Van de Ven et al, 1989, 1999). We elaborate on the framework to illustrate the detailed aspects of each temporal period of initiation, development and implementation. Lessons on the management of innovation are drawn out and notable issues include the role of teams and teamwork, projects, pilots and experiments, and various forms of project management.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Managing Public Services InnovationThe Experience of English Housing Associations, pp. 77 - 98Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2001