Implementing Innovation: Fostering Enduring Change in Environmental and Natural Resource Governance

CHAPTER 6 Fostering Enduring Change

CHAPTER 6 Fostering Enduring Change THIS BOOK BEGANWITH A SIMPLE QUESTION: Why are some innovations implemented, while others are not? The conventional framing of innovation places great weight on the role of the individual. Based on the evidence presented in this book, this emphasis is misplaced . Individuals are clearly important in the innovation process, but there also are limits on what individuals can do within the broader structural and cultural institutional context. Innovative practices are embedded in larger institutional processes that affect effectiveness of innovations, especially during the periods of implementation. Implementing innovation is simply more challenging than conventionally understood. This finding is significant on both theoretical and practical levels. From a theoretical standpoint, innovation often is addressed at the operational level without regard to the broader institutional context in which it is nested. This leads to innovation being treated as a technical phenomenon, abstracted from the conditions that influence implementation. These theoretical assumptions permeate the beliefs of those who practice innovation at the operational level and those who seek to foster innovation at the collective or constitutive level. A more realistic theoretical understanding of the conditions that engender success and failure in the implementation of innovation can contribute to more sound practice. From a practical perspective, scarce resources are vested in innovative practices. As a society we need to be judicious in how these resources are allocated. Public managers, nonprofit organizations, and foundations invest in new practices. Understanding the conditions that foster a greater chance for implementation success over time is essential for actually improving society at large. Otherwise we are left with a heap of innovative practices that may have showed promise but did not realize their 171 172 CHAPTER 6 potential. Additionally, when innovation is ineffective, it contributes to innovation fatigue. As innovative practices are devalued through misapplication or misguided use, practitioners and policymakers lose important tools from their already meager policy tool kits. Clearer understanding of the conditions under which innovation stands the best chance of longer-term implementation can help us better prioritize scarce resources and use innovation more wisely. Many theories suggest how issues come onto the agenda or how policy is changed or how institutions persist over time. Bringing these theories together and leveraging their collective power provides a more comprehensive understanding for how innovation is implemented. No single theory fully captures the dynamics of all three case studies. But collectively the integrated theory provides a more robust framework for understanding the complex dynamics of implementing innovation and how we might better understand these processes to foster more effective social and environmental outcomes in the future. Chapter 1 laid out factors associated with the implementation of innovation. These conditions are revisited here and presented in table 6.1 to illustrate how each case study met these conditions and what the patterns across the case studies reveal about the potential for facilitating enduring change through innovative practice. GREAT OUTDOORS COLORADO Whether consciously or not, GOCO founders and managers dealt positively with many of the implementation factors at the individual, structural, and cultural levels. In this case study, all the factors aligned to mutually support the innovation. The mission of GOCO was to help the people of Colorado “preserve, protect, enhance, appreciate, and enjoy our parks, wildlife, trails, rivers and open space through strategic grants, partnership and leadership.”1 As a quasi-governmental agency formed through the initiative process, GOCO had a dedicated funding source and little oversight from the General Assembly of Colorado. Its mandate was to help cities, towns, counties, nonprofits, special districts, and statewide organizations with land protection. The agency provided direction to local land protection efforts through grant guidelines, but ultimately it was dependent upon local governments and organizations to take action if land protection was to occur. The competitive grants process demonstrated how local, state, and federal agencies and organizations could work together to create a more effective and innovative solution for protecting land. Culture From a cultural perspective, individuals are embedded in routines and tend to subscribe to certain frames of meaning that guide their action. To move from an embedded routine, cultural institutionalists see framing events or shocks as op- Individual Structure Culture Great Outdoors Colorado • Highly motivated group • Norms/harmony not an issue because new group • Congruence not an issue because no dominant agency/culture • Clear rules and communication • Financial incentives support innovative practices • One political structure; political structure opened through initiative process • General Assembly...