How to Build a Lasting Culture of Innovation (and What Not to Do): A Conversation with the Experts

Publishers often struggle with innovation. Attempts to introduce new people and ideas often fail to deliver meaningful and long-lasting change, leaving managers and leaders wondering what went wrong. Worse, repeated organizational attempts to create change can lead to a culture of cynicism around change management and fear of the dreaded re-org. They say that 'culture eats strategy for breakfast,' so it's tempting to think that the answer is to change the culture of an organization rather than just its products, processes, or even people. The focus on culture is laudable but can also be a trap because it's often rooted in the same paradigm that change is finite, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Truly innovative companies don't treat change as a single event to be managed but create business structures that enable and support innovation. This session explores how organizations can enable a culture of true innovation by hearing how experienced practitioners have succeeded (and failed!) in their attempts at building a culture of innovation: • A change expert in helping transform organizational culture. • A people expert in recruiting and managing people who can help organizations become more innovative. • A veteran - someone who's been there and done that, with the scars to prove it. Through listening to real-world examples as well as practical advice, participants will leave with a better understanding of the value of a culture of innovation, how to get started on building one, and tips on some of the do's and don'ts. || Learning Level: Mixed-Learning || Speakers: Katherine Christian; Kelly May; Sara Rouhi; Ann Michael

SSP Annual Meeting Session Learning Level

Mixed-Learning

Publication Date

2022 | Jun 02

44th Annual Meeting (2022)

34

“Building a More Connected Scholarly Community” The last 19+ months have been a fascinating contradiction, making us feel both painfully disconnected and also perhaps more bonded than ever before. How can we take the strengths we already possessed as a community, fold in lessons learned during the pandemic, and aim for being an even stronger, broader, and more connected community? Our Annual Meeting brings together academics, funders, librarians, publishers, service providers, technologists, and countless others with a communal interest and stake in the dissemination of scholarly information. We look forward to the 44th Annual Meeting as an opportunity to reconnect and to connect anew.

Ann Michael

1

Chief Transformation Officer, AIP Publishing

Ann Michael leads the Transformation Office at AIP Publishing, charged with increasing organizational velocity, flexibility, and strategic alignment in data and analytics, new product development, and ongoing product operations. She also serves as Board Chair of Delta Think, a consultancy focused on strategy and innovation in scholarly communications. Since its start, the focus of Ann’s career has been organizational evolution and working with groups that are data-driven and future focused.

Katherine Christian

2

CEO, Altmetric

Kathy is the Altmetric CEO and Digital Science Chief People Officer. She has been with Altmetric since 2014 but originally joined as the COO, working closely with Altmetric Founder and CEO Euan Adie. In 2017, Euan decided to step down from the role of CEO and promoted Kathy in his place. Prior to Digital Science and Altmetric, Kathy worked at Elsevier for 6 years and before that, she spent over 9 years in drug development, primarily with J&J. Kathy has an MBA from London Business School (but don't hold that against her).

Kelly May

1

CEO, May Strategy Group LLC

Sara Rouhi

6

Director of Open Science and Publishing Innovation, AIP

Sara Rouhi is the new Director of Open Science and Publishing Innovation, reporting to Chief Publishing Officer, Penelope Lewis. Rouhi is charged with developing new publishing models and sustainable business strategies to accelerate AIPP’s mission to advance open, equitable research communication and empower researchers to accelerate global progress. Sara joins AIP Publishing from Public Library of Science (PLOS) where she was Regional Director, Publishing Development, The Americas. In this role she focused on engaging with high-level stakeholders, including funders, policymakers, and institutional leaders in local scholarly communication ecosystems. Before this role she built up PLOS’ institutional business models and partnership base as Director of Strategic Partnerships, launching three new, non-APC business models (including the 2021 ALPSP Innovation in Publishing award winner, Community Action Publishing) and implemented over 200+ partnerships globally. Sara is active in the scholarly communications community as a volunteer and thought leader, speaking frequently on open access, equity in publishing, and diversity in scholarly communications. She is was Board Member for the Society of Scholarly Publishing (SSP) from 2022-204 and was the recipient of SSP’s Emerging Leader award in 2015. She is active in the Washington DC improv comedy scene with her troupe Sistine Robot and she tweets/bleets @RouhiRoo and @RouhiRoo.bsky.social.