Are generational differences in the workplace becoming a problem?

Steve Baker (writer at Business Week) at Blogspotting posted responses to such a question.  It’s an interesting thought worth further exploration.  Very interesting thoughts from the Twittersphere.

The tweets uncovered a gem of a story, too.  A gem that could provide a model for health care delivery innovation exploration.

Nick Eaton and seven of his young colleagues at the Spokane Spokesman-Review have been given the task by their editor (Steve) to “reinvent how a newspaper functions.”

We are charged to take a blank sheet of paper and come up with a way to make the Spokesman newsroom efficient while completing all if its objectives. The eight of us are meeting every day, often for several hours at a time, to work through this process.

A few guidelines and limitations have been laid out, but their remarkable task is fundamentally unpolluted.

Here’s the gist:

Our goal, as I understand it, is to come to Steve with a report by 5 p.m. July 10. He may or may not eventually implement our recommendations (we can have many), but he has promised to take them seriously.

Lots of work.  Lots of ideas I’m sure.  Very, very intriguing approach.

Interesting dialog:

There is skepticism and fear in the newsroom, of course. Many veteran Spokesman employees don’t like that Steve has selected eight young journalists and put some responsibility of the future of the newspaper into our hands. We don’t have the experience, they say. Steve sees it the opposite: We don’t have a stake in how newspapers have operated for 150 years, we don’t have a stake in who is in what editor position, we don’t really even have a stake in how the newsroom is currently structured.

Could a similar approach be used in health care?  Yes.  Could it be useful and productive and spark needed delivery innovation?  Yes.  It seems a perfect model for a hospital innovation center.

This entry is filed under Innovation.