Transformation is what you want. Innovation is the work to deliver transformation.

Over the past decade, healthcare has been flooded with conversations about transformation and innovation. From the frenetic pace of startups to shelves lined with books and articles, we’ve witnessed remarkable successes—and plenty of disappointing outcomes. Along the way, buzzwords and lofty declarations have sometimes outweighed meaningful results, leaving many leaders asking: What’s next for innovation?

Having spent more than ten years in an innovation role—still focused daily on transformation—I’ve developed a perspective that may be useful.

Recently, during a rich discussion with friends, a respected colleague asked me: How do you define transformation? My answer became the title of this article: Transformation is the outcome you want; innovation is the work that delivers it.

“Innovating” is the behavior we need to master. To stay ahead, organizations must build the capacity to transform—and that begins with creating the skills, tools, and behaviors required to innovate.

What to Avoid

• Empty declarations. Don’t proclaim that you’re going to transform your organization, customer experience, or employee experience without clearly defining the outcome. What does transformation look like? How will you measure it?
• Unclear expectations. Avoid announcing change if you can’t articulate what every level of the organization needs to know, do, and use to achieve it. As Buckminster Fuller advised: "Don't bother trying to teach people a new way of thinking. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking,"
• Idea over impact. Don’t reward “shiny” ideas—reward measurable results.

What to Do

1. Establish a transformation performance model.
2. Build a complete system encompassing mindset, toolset, and expected behaviors—the “to innovate” system—with rigor and discipline. Reward scientific-method thinking.
3. Create a partnership playbook to rigorously select and manage partnerships—most fail because they start without it.
4. Engage employees at scale through a problem-driven system that targets clearly defined challenges.
5. Launch an Impact Academy to train all employees in the knowledge, tools, behaviors, and metrics that power your transformation system.

This approach has helped my teams and me achieve meaningful results with the people we serve. It’s also the system that led me to a breakthrough opportunity: transforming how inpatient kidney health is monitored, managed, and measured to deliver better outcomes.