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Sustaining Innovation: Creating Nonprofit and Government Organizations that Innovate Naturally (Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Public Management Series)
 
 
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Sustaining Innovation: Creating Nonprofit and Government Organizations that Innovate Naturally (Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Public Management Series) [Paperback]

Paul C. Light (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

0787940984 978-0787940980 February 13, 1998 1
Paul Light has captured the spirit of innovation. It is not about spectacular acts by individuals who labor against the odds, but about the hard work of building organizations in which innovation is expected and possible. It is about tilling the soil so that ideas can flourish. Anyone who wants to take their organization forward toward natural innovation should read this book.
--Walter F. Mondale

Any organization can innovate once. The challenge is to innovate twice, thrice, and more?to make innovation a part of daily good practice. This book shows how nonprofit and government organizations can transform the single, occasional act of innovating into an everyday occurrence by forging a culture of natural innovation.

Filled with real success stories and practical lessons learned, Sustaining Innovation offers examples of how organizations can take the first step toward innovativeness, advice on how to survive the inevitable mistakes along the way, and tools for keeping the edge once the journey is complete.

Light also provides a set of simple suggestions for fitting the lessons to the different management pressures facing the government and nonprofit sector. Unlike the private sector, where innovation needs only to be profitable to be worth doing, government and nonprofit innovation must be about doing something worthewhile. It must challenge the prevailingwisdom and advance the public good. Sustaining Innovation gives nonprofit and government managers a coherent, easily understood model for making this kind of innovation a natural reality.

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Customers buy this book with Breakthrough Thinking for Nonprofit Organizations: Creative Strategies for Extraordinary Results (Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Public Management Series) $32.42

Sustaining Innovation: Creating Nonprofit and Government Organizations that Innovate Naturally (Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Public Management Series) + Breakthrough Thinking for Nonprofit Organizations: Creative Strategies for Extraordinary Results (Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Public Management Series)


Editorial Reviews

Review

"Paul Light has captured the spirit of innovation. It is not about spectacular acts by individuals who labor against the odds, but about the hard work of building organizations in which innovation is expected and possible. It is about tilling the soil so that ideas can flourish. Anyone who wants to take their organization forward toward natural innovation should read this book." --Walter F. Mondale

"Many governments cannot tolerate innovation. Some can survive the occasional innovator, but don't want to make it a habit. A very few try to institutionalize the process, to become innovating organizations. But it can be done, and no one is better qualified to show the way than Paul Light, one of the country's best analysts of the dynamics of public organizations. He's not only thoughtful and perceptive, but thankfully, he can write." --?Peter A. Harkness, editor and publisher, GOVERNING Magazine

Paul Light has provided us, at last, with a deep understanding of the elements of success in sustaining ?what works.' His systematic study of the characteristics of organizations that move beyond the sporadic innovation and the irreplaceable wizard will prove invaluable as both public and nonprofit organizations struggle to devise new strategies to serve shared social purposes." --?Lisbeth B. Schorr, lecturer in Social Medicine and director, Project on Effective Interventions, Harvard Univeristy

"Sustaining Innovation is a dynamic guide for any organization that is prepared to make a leap to natural innovation. [Light's] insight and support is useful for all leaders, regardless of the kind of zoo they run." --Kathryn R. Roberts, director, Minnesota Zoo

From the Inside Flap

Any organization can innovate once. The challenge is to innovate twice, thrice, and more--to make innovation a part of daily good practice. This book shows how nonprofit and government organizations can transform the single, occasional act of innovating into an everyday occurrence by forging a culture of natural innovation.What makes innovation occur naturally? Paul C. Light studied twenty-six nonprofit and government organizations in a wide variety of fields and discovered that innovating organizations have four broad characteristics: a commitment to controlling their environments (rather than the other way around); an internal structure that creates the freedom to imagine; leadership that prepares the organization to innovate; and management systems that serve the mission of the organization, not vice versa.Filled with real success stories and practical lessons learned, Sustaining Innovation offers examples of how organizations can take the first step toward innovativeness, advice on how to survive the inevitable mistakes along the way, and tools for keeping the edge once the journey is complete. Light also provides a set of simple suggestions for fitting the lessons to the different management pressures facing the nonprofit sector and government. Unlike in the private sector, where innovation needs only to be profitable to be worth doing, nonprofit and government innovation must be about doing something worthwhile. It must challenge the prevailing wisdom and advance the public good. Sustaining Innovation gives nonprofit and government managers a coherent, easily understandable model for making this kind of innovation a natural reality.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (February 13, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0787940984
  • ISBN-13: 978-0787940980
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #603,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great case studies; you go Minnesota!, August 15, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Sustaining Innovation: Creating Nonprofit and Government Organizations that Innovate Naturally (Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Public Management Series) (Paperback)
Book opens with a Zoo, and I was hooked. I read the book voluntarily for a nonprofit management class, and I truly enjoyed it (which I cannot say for the big ol' Jossey-Bass Handbook and others I was forced to read). If you're familiar with the framework systems of Bolman and Deal, this is written from the Human Resources perspective and shows innovative ways of allowing creativity to enhance the mission of the nonprofit (or government agency) while using great examples based on 26 programs in Minneapolis and surrounding areas of Minnesota. If this interests you, I also suggest "Sacred Hoops" by Phil Jackson, and a book I just ordered called "Hope, Human, and Wild" about the Parana capitol city of Curitiba whose mayor is very into the planning part of Human Resource frame, very systems framed as well. So I give it two thumbs up. Go Light. Stay thin, baby.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
When Kathryn Roberts arrived as its executive director in 1986, the Minnesota Zoo was as far from being an innovating organization as possible. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vating organizations, ordinary good practice, innovation investment fund, awesome vessels, innovating organization, using old stuff, organizational being, evolutionary tinkering, mask theater, innovative acts, making government work, internal management systems, public innovation, extension educators, rigorous management, internal collaboration, seed support, preferred states, government innovation, older organizations
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Surviving Innovation, Heart of the Beast, North Branch, Anoka County, Minnesota Zoo, Phoenix Group, Minnesota Extension Service, Domestic Abuse Project, Walker Art Center, Luther Theological Seminary, Office of Waste Management, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Cyrus Math, Episcopal Community Services, Land Stewardship Project, Kathryn Roberts, Road Runner, Central Community Housing Trust, Fond du Lac Community College, Twin Cities, Van de Ven, Advocating Change Together, Dowling School, Jeff Raison, May Day
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