Innovation as Usual

CHAPTER 5

SELECT

HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE BETTER GATEKEEPERS

MOST IDEAS ARE BAD IDEAS

Leaders must help gatekeepers get better at judging and filtering new ideas

Johann Klein, a medical professor and future innovator, was in the business of managing hospitals, and at age thirty-four, he had become very good at his job. He was so good at it, in fact, that in 1822, despite his relatively young age, Klein was given the prestigious post of hospital director, presiding over the two maternity wards of the evocatively named Wien Allgemeine Krankenhaus—the Vienna General Hospital in Austria. As he took over, Klein launched a series of daring improvements that would eventually be copied by hospitals all over the world, gaining him a reputation as a first-rate ...