Why Innovation Thrives at the Mayo Clinic:
This is a great example of an organization that set the standard for creating a culture of diversity and innovation. As this article discusses, Mayo Clinic developed the approach for cross-functional teams that is now implemented by many hospitals and corporations throughout the country. Cross-functional teams have been proven to be incredibly efficient at problem solving and are known to generate a significantly greater amount of innovation. The idea behind cross-functional teams is that you get a diverse set of individuals from all across the organization, representing many different branches and departments, and put them together on one team to work together to come up with creative solutions and new ideas. This illustrates how diversifying the skill set of a taskforce will produce unique results; due to the fact that they are capitalizing on a greater collective ability to approach a situation.
I find this article especially interesting as it combines two topics we have spent a lot of time discussing in class: diversity and organizational culture. Mayo Clinic has a long history of a organizational culture that formed around the central idea of a diverse set of skilled physicians coming together to provide the best medical treatments possible. As a result, Mayo Clinic is the most premiere hospital in the Midwest, and one of the most respected hospitals in the world. This adds further credence to the concept of diversity and specialization being an effective key element to an organizational culture.
Josh Throop
I love the idea group work that is diverse. As you pointed in your article I feel that the best way to get outside the box thinking is to have a wide range of individuals with different backgrounds to common up with unique solutions. I think that connecting it with organizational culture was a great way of showing a solid example of how a company can become successful by being diverse. If companies really start to focus on diversity in group think exercises or anywhere in the work place I feel like it would lead to nothing but a promising future for any company.
ReplyDeleteBrian Gabriel
This is the best way to collaborate knowledge and combine different outlooks! Very impressive and comforting that one of the best hospitals around is focused on diversity! Great article!
ReplyDeleteAlec