Abstract
Draeger Safety UK based in Blyth Northumberland manufacturing breathing apparatus for the search and rescue market has been following the path to organizational learning for several years. So far, this path has entailed individual and group learning, leading to practical application of that learning and knowledge in innovative improvement projects and problem solving process. This paper examines the practical view from the trenches of the efforts of the organization at all levels to lift the barriers to innovation from several academic perspectives. These perspectives include Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model, Peter Drucker’s seven sources of innovation and Margaret Wheatly’s argument that innovation means relying on the creativity of everyone within the organization. However, the purpose of Draeger Safety UK in cybernetic terms is survival through the generation of profit from its core activity of breathing apparatus manufacture. Therefore resources of both time and finance must remain balanced between the activities that produce today’s profit and the innovation based forward drive to all round improvement that ensures tomorrows. Thus lifting the barriers to innovation is the conscious decision to utilise resources in equipping staff with the knowledge, tools and opportunities to enable innovation to take place. While at the same time the view from the trenches is the comparison of academic theory and practical reality.
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© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Brown, J. (2004). Lifting the Barriers to Innovation. In: Fitzgerald, B., Wynn, E. (eds) IT Innovation for Adaptability and Competitiveness. TDIT 2004. IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, vol 141. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8000-X_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8000-X_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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