German, You bring up a good point. Building a culture of creativity and innovation requires a daily focus on supporting this type of environment. At times when budgets are tight and people are required to do more with less it becomes even more important to have a createive and innovative culture that makes the necessary changes to ensure continued institutional effectiveness and improvement. This is a difficult task. However, engaging employees in the process and empowering them to be creative and innovate in adapting to necessary changes is essential. People generally like to be involved in creating solutions to address challenges and opportunities. As you mentioned the day to day operations can overwhelm this process at times and I think it takes intentional effort by leadership and management teams to ensure that the collaborative creative environment endures. Dr. Blake Faulkner