We view our work through a lens of innovation—helping people do new things, take risks, and advance the mission. LATIS has built a reputation for supporting the innovative work of our faculty, students, and staff and, through such partnerships, we have grown from technology innovators to advancing organizational strategy and collaborative problem solving across the institution.
We’re not consultants who swoop in to “fix” things—we’re colleagues who work with you, support you, and learn alongside you. Sometimes this means inviting us to help you coordinate an event or retreat, sometimes it might mean thinking through a new program or project, and sometimes it might just mean having some snacks and listening to your people.
Four strategies have guided our work to foster a culture of innovation and develop creative solutions across the college.
LATIS strategies for innovative thinking
1. Make Space
Innovative thinking is hard when folks are feeling overwhelmed or stretched thin. We look for opportunities to acknowledge the burdens people are under and also make space for new ideas.
The University is a large and complex place. It’s easy to come up with reasons not to try something different—“we tried that before, it doesn’t work”, “there’s no money”, “if that’s successful, we’ll be totally overwhelmed”. All of these are important perspectives, but we try to begin with an attitude of abundance: as an institution, we have tremendous resources, brilliant thinkers, and a diverse community of flexible, passionate people. We explore ideas with that in mind.
2. Get to the Table
To some, innovation means finding people with better ideas. But we believe solutions need to be developed together and by the people experiencing the problems. So we often provide more questions than answers. We seek to join conversations early and get to know people and organizations first because we can only be successful if we have the relationships to be heard and to be invited to participate. “Getting to the table” means investing time getting connected, being present where challenges are discussed, and being there to listen for opportunities to provide support.
3. Translate Strengths
Every organization has developed a unique set of strengths—people, resources, and capabilities—but a key question is how they can be applied to new situations. We bring what we’ve developed through past projects and work to identify how our strengths complement yours, and then we seek opportunities to fill in any gaps. We work to connect people with peers across the institution who can provide opportunities for growth and development. We look at how resources can be supplemented through collaboration across units and grant writing. And we support data and trend analysis so that opportunities for future improvement can be identified and capitalized on.
4. Link and Extend
We have over 35 people in LATIS. That means we’re able to leverage 35 different networks. This is one of our great strengths and we’re constantly asking “Who else should be in this conversation?”, “How does this align with what others are doing?”, and “What other challenges does this relate to?”. Ideas that seem daunting or impossible for one unit might seem a lot more realistic when the right connections are made and collaboration can take place.
The Strategic Innovation Office seeks to apply these strategies to work with you and your unit as you chart a course forward. Get in touch if you’d like to explore things together.