Fostering Creativity and Innovation through an Open and Collaborative Environment-A Case Study from Clean Water Services

摘要

Clean Water Services (District) is committed to protecting water resources in the Tualatin River watershed and strives to develop sustainable watershed solutions that address the complex environmental problems of today's water world. In 2016, the District started a journey to implement integrated planning and develop a "One Water" holistic approach to solve today's regional watershed challenges. While integrated planning on a watershed level requires nontraditional approaches to develop holistic watershed plans; it also requires a structured process to guide planning and implementation and stay on schedule. To balance these needs, the District developed the "hub approach", a well-defined business system process, to foster creativity and innovation. In this manuscript, the hub process and structure along with one of the example products, a watershed assessment Wiki, are presented, in order to demonstrate the District's effective utility management strategy and structure.