Fostering innovation in a large human services bureaucracy

One of the fundamental challenges facing human services organizations is ho w to foster innovation by drawing on the experience, knowledge, and creativ ity of staff members. However, innovative behavior is often hard to find in bureaucratic organizations, and may even be discouraged. The author descri bes a program designed to make it possible for staff to develop and test ou t new ideas in the context of a large, public agency. The program involves the creation of a special fund managed by staff that awards small grants in response to staff initiated proposals. In the first three years, nearly $6 0,000 was awarded to 27 separate projects. The fund provides a potential me chanism for empowering staff, addressing agency problems, and ultimately ch anging the nature of the organization.