Creating an innovative organization

Buffeted daily by market and consumer forces demanding change, how does an organization move to become the innovative organization of the future? As one linchpin of a broad scale reorganization of its national healthcare system, the US Department of Veterans Affairs set out to identify and promote innovative clinical practices. Leaders began with the approximately 35,000 registered nurses who make up the largest segment of health care providers in the system. This article discusses the characteristics of an innovative organization and identifies those issues that the Department of Veteran's Affairs determined as critical to becoming an organization that fosters and sustains innovation.