Kowabunga! Riding the Wave of Corporate Creativity & Innovation!

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Giving Thanks to the Original Innovators of The Americas

I am no fan of the Columbus Day holiday that is still unfortunately observed in the U.S.  My hope is that in time this day will instead honor the 2.5 million Native Americans or American Indians who are all who remain in the U.S. of the 50-100 million inhabitants of the Americas who were here when the European invasion and genocide began.  

And so today, on this Columbus Day, in recognition that he did not "discover" America, I choose to honor a some of the countless, little known innovations made by the wonderfully creative indigenous Americans that have ultimately benefitted the entire planet.

• Almanacs:  Containing meteorological and astronomical information, these were invented by the Mayans around 3,500 years ago.  
• Calendars:  Developed throughout N. America, Mesoamerica, and S. America, used since 600 BCE.  So precise that by the 5th century BCE they were only 19 minutes off!  
• Chewing gum: Made from the spruce tree in New England. The Mayans were the first people to make it from latex gum. 
• Long-fiber cotton: Its export helped to fuel much of the Industrial Revolution throughout the world.  
• Embalming: Egyptians began their mummification around 2000 BCE, 3000 years after the Chinchoro of S. America began the practice.
• Foods, Glorious Foods!

Approximately 60% of the food upon which the world’s population depends was developed centuries ago by American Indian agrarians who domesticated crops including: six species of maize/corn (150 varieties), five major species of beans, hundreds of varieties of potatoes, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, a range of nuts, avocado, wild rice, and more.

Popular snack foods derived from American Indian agriculture include potato chips, french fries, and popcorn.

And where oh where would humanity be without chocolate (Mayan and Aztec) and
vanilla?! 

• Gold plating - The Moche (Peru) dissolved gold using an Alum/Saltpetre/Salt mixture which was then deposited onto copper vessels. 
• The Incan highway system with roads and bridges all up and down South America and foot messengers who would have put the Greek marathon runners to shame.
• Medicine:  Aztecs far surpassed simply knowing which bark made good aspirin or could be used to for quinine to treat malaria, or which berries treated scurvy. Using their sophisticated obsidian knives, Azteks knew how to perform a variety of surgeries, from the mundane to brain surgery.   
  Anesthetics:  American Indians used coca, peyote, datura and other plants for partial or total loss of sensation or consciousness during surgery, whereas non-Indian doctors didn’t have effective anesthetics until after the mid-19th century.  Other medicines include Novacaine, syrup of ipecac, and astringents.

• Political theory: The Iroquois Confederacy of upstate New York represented a union of six tribes.  Benjamin Franklin and other founding fathers borrowed heavily from the democratic Iroquois “federal system” of government when they planned the union that became the United States.  The U.S. Constitution bears more resemblance  to the model of the League of the Iroquois than the Greek Senate or English House of Lords.  The whole idea of abalance of powers, of electing representatives, of governing by consensus all came from the Indians who were generally ruled, not by a “Big Chief,” but rather by a council of elders.
  

• Rubber products: Rubber balls, rubber balloons: The Olmec (Mexico) produced rubber balls by mixing rubber tree sap and latex around 1700 BCE.  Along with the Maya, they discovered the process of vulcanization in waterproofing such items as capes, shoes, bottles, tarpaulins, ponchos, and baskets.
• Sports: Field and ice hockey and lacrosse (Canadian First Nations). Basketball was played by the Olmec over 3,000 years ago following their invention of the rubber ball. 
• Sciences:  The science of ecology as well as the American Indian belief system teaches that all life is interrelated and interdependent. This relationship is expressed in American Indian oral traditions and conservation practices.

American Indian mathematic achievements include the development of highly accurate calendars and place value arithmetic. The Mayans of southern Mexico and Central America were the first people to use the concept of zero in mathematical calculations.

Also:

• Diapers, asphalt, megaphones, hair conditioner, hammocks, the spinning top, sunscreen, syringe needles, petroleum jelly, and freeze-drying foods such as meat jerky.

 

Much is owed the the indigenous peoples of the Americas.  This includes acknowledgement for their creative and innovative genius.  Speaking of which, I want to thank my friend, Northern Cheyenne artist Christopher Rowland for use of his wonderful paintings, titles listed in order, below.  To see more of his work, go to http://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.56597471651.78999.570531651&type=3.

And for those who would like to support their legal and economic rights, the following organizations work diligently on their behalf, and need our support: 

• Native American Rights Fund: http://www.narf.org
• National Congress of American Indians: http://www.ncai.org
• Native Web which lists multiple organizations: http://www.nativeweb.org/resources/organizations/human_rights_organizations/

And one organization that supports American Indian innovation initiatitives: 

• The American Indian Institute for Innovation: http://www.theaiii.com/index.php?page=home

"Gifts" 70"x40" oil on canvas (1991).  

"Little Man" 48"x36" oil on canvas (1997).  Son of Scalp Cane, Northern Cheyenne.

"Blessings" 28"x22" oil on canvas (2005).  Buffalo Calf Trail Woman, a warrior woman of the Northern Cheyenne.

Steve Jobs: Thank you, Dreamer Extraordinaire

I am sad to have just learned of Steve Jobs' passing.  The news arrived via a friend's email that I received on my wonderful MacBook.  

To watch this tribute:  http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/10/jobs/

He was the epitome of one who ceaselessly asked, "What if?" and "Why not?"  I find the quote of his below to be inspiring and moving.  

At a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, Jobs shared the philosophy that drove him.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life,” Jobs said. “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Sweet dreams, Steve.  And thank you.

 

 

 

"Namaste" - Truly seeing and honoring our colleagues

The next post will look at collaboration, which, as has been previously stated, is lifeblood to creative problem-solving and innovation in organizations.  Fruitful collaboration can only be built on a foundation of trust, and that, only from authentic relationships.

To the latter point, I want to start by sharing some poetry and prose by two writers which speaks to the humanity that connects us in our day-to-day working relationships, and the need to affirm this.  For me, as for many, I believe that connection is related to spirit or spirituality, which I define as: that which is invisible to the eye, but which binds us to life, to our creative spirit, and to one another. 

In Indian culture, "namaste" means, "I honor the divinity within you."   

The Hindus greet one another by bowing with folded hand against the breastbone.  This miniceremony means: “I salute the divinity within you.”

No workplace can be truly alive until we see the divinity within one another, until we experience behind the breastbone the breath of life, until we insist that our work will not be the humdrum product of a sleeping spirit but a glorious monument to who we really are.                   

John Cowan
from The Common Table 

 

Threads

Sometimes you just connect,
like that,
no big thing maybe
but something beyond the usual business stuff.
It come and goes quickly
so you have to pay attention,
a change in the eyes
when you ask about the family,
a pain flickering behind the statistics
about a boy and a girl in school,
or about seeing them every other Sunday.
An older guy talks about his bride,
a little affectation after twenty-five years.
A hot-eyed achiever laughs before you want him to.
Someone tells about his wife’s job
or why she quit working to stay home.
An older joker needs another laugh on the way
to retirement.
A woman says she spends a lot of her salary
on an au pair
and a good one is hard to find
but worth it because there’s nothing more important
than the baby.
Listen.
In every office
you hear the threads of love and joy and fear and guilt,
the cries for celebration and reassurance,
and somehow you know that connecting those threads
is what you are supposed to do
and business takes care of itself.

Jame A. Autry
from Love & Profit

 

                     

What Does "Innovation" Mean? Many Things.

A friend recently said he didn’t know that when I talk about innovation I am referring to improvements in processes, workflows, and efficiency, in addition to new product and service development.  So, let me set the record straight.  

According to The American Heritage Dictionary (2006), “innovation” is defined as:
n. 1. The act of introducing something new. 2. Something newly introduced.

In Oxford American, it’s:
Change, alteration, revolution, upheaval, transformation, metamorphosis, breakthrough; new measures, new methods, modernization, creativity, ingenuity, inspiration....

So, as the terms "new methods" and “new measures" don’t exactly indicate radical marketing breakthroughs or revolutionary unique products, being innovative can simply mean applying ideas to doing routine procedures in somewhat more efficient or more effective ways. 

Making Improvements in Processes vs. "Process Improvement":
The term "process improvement," for some, brings a system like “Six Sigma”* to mind.  Although there is resounding evidence that formal programs such as Sigma have made significant contributions toward achieving greater efficiency and eliminating waste, this sort of system has been found to be detrimental to the creative process in research and development departments, such as the one at innovative 3M, as reviewed in an interesting Business Week article. 

Many of us would agree that it's a matter of balance, and one solution certainly does not fit all situations.  Of course, R&D programs should discipline themselves to be as efficient as possible in their planning, collaboration and communication processes, in vetting ideas, and rapid prototyping, without being hindered by some of the Six Sigma-type constraints.

K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Silly!):  For some of us, the term “process improvement” simply means what it always has: modest improvements in how we do things.  Such as, “Let’s start writing the dates completed on the boxes that we’ve sorted through so no one wastes time going back through them.”  It can be any “new method” that’s never been done before that helps us to achieve greater efficiency in our workflows or improve quality – like the 100+ ideas that each Toyota employee is encouraged to contribute to their company every year. 

Most of us have numerous process and work-flow improvement ideas pop into our heads at work all the time.  As Langdon Morris has written, part of innovation involves the creative tension of “seeing things as they are and things as they could be.”  Unfortunately, many people are not empowered by their employers to share their suggestions, let alone see them discussed or implemented.   This all too common situation is a tremendous waste of brainpower and resources, frustrates employees, and contributes to low moral and higher turnover.  

 

Many Forms of Innovation:
At a conference on innovation, Brownell Langdrum of Draw Success (www.DrawSuccess.com) supplemented her own list of types of innovation with ideas generated by a group of chief innovation officers from companies such as Google, Mattel, and Hewlett-Packard.  A few of these are included below.   If you go to her full document, you will find that some of the descriptions are, fittingly, quite original.  Actually, the list itself could be a very useful tool for generating ideas!!

 

First, let’s look at some of forms which are perhaps less recognized as “innovation, but which relate to
Improvements in internal operations:

Efficiency Innovation:

Efficiency innovation delivers ways to improve efficiency and the speed of effectiveness.  It can include internal systems and processes or ways to expedite the customer/client experience.

Financial Innovation:
This form of innovation conveys ways to increase sales, reduce costs, improve tracking of expenses, and reduce accounts receivable, along with other ways of managing finances to enhance profitability.  It also includes ideas to improve tax/audit compliance.

Process Innovation:
Process Innovation encompasses the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. 

Note: I’m a big fan of efficiency, so I believed that process improvements imply greater efficiency.  But, it was pointed out to me that changes that improve quality do not always result in greater “efficiency,” in that these can slow speed of operations down.  I think the argument can be made that improvements in quality are ultimately more efficient uses of time and effort, but for now, I yield to these as being two distinct forms of innovation.

Systems Innovations:
This form of innovation includes introducing a new infrastructure or system, which could produce new sectors, and induce major change across several areas of business.

  

And now for some of the more 
Flashy Definitions of Innovation:

Breakthrough, disruptive or radical innovation:
These forms of innovation involve launching entirely novel products or services rather than providing improved products and services along the same lines as currently marketed.  Breakthrough innovations are rare because of the risk and uncertainty, but they can deliver tremendous rewards.  They require large leaps of thought and a high-risk tolerance. 

Business Model Innovation:
Business model innovation involves changing the way business is done, whether in terms of sales and distribution, marketing, pricing or any other core business strategy.

Incremental Innovation:
This is when one adds something extra to a product or service that the competition doesn't have or isn't doing.  Or, when one makes something last longer, more convenient or faster.  

Marketing Innovation:
This involves development of new marketing methods with improvement in product design or packaging, product promotion, communication or advertising, pricing or distribution.

Product Innovation:
Product innovation is the introduction of a good or service that is new or substantially improved, which may include improvements in functional characteristics, technical abilities, ease of use, or any other dimension.

Service Innovation:
Service Innovation, compared to goods or product innovation or process innovation, delivers ways to improve the delivery of a service or expertise and is both interactive and information-intensive.

Technological Innovation:
This may include coming up with new technologies to solve a problem or new uses for existing technologies.  Solutions may be high-tech (i.e. computer systems) or low-tech (a better mouse trap).

 

In summary, when I use the term “innovation,”  I mean a range of ways of putting good, new ideas into action within operations, workflows, and processes as well as in the marketplace and in solving social, environmental, and economic issues.  The organizations that will survive and thrive in this rapidly changing environment welcome and apply ideas on a wide range of topics – the more the merrier!  

* Wikipedia: Six Sigma is a business mangement strategy originally developed by Motorola, USA in 1986.  As of 2010, it is widely used in many sectors of industry, although its use is not without controversy.  It seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. 

What Role Does Leadership Play in Innovation? -- Every Great Show Needs Great Directors & Producers!

I recently posted about the “Creative Geniuses” that are found throughout organizations.  Again, each of us carries creativity within us.  Some of us may need coaxing in order for our creativity to reemerge.  For all, a certain amount of support and structures are needed in order for our ideas to manifest.

In the recent "Leader as Conductor," post, I outlined some specific ways that managers can foster innovation in organizations.  But in what capacities?  In his terrific white paper, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” Langdon Morris of InnovationLabs outlines two other essential types of roles necessary to create an innovative culture:  “Innovation Champions” and “Innovation Leaders.”  

 Innovation Champions:  They support innovation by helping creative people overcome the obstacles that otherwise inevitably impede their innovation efforts.

Innovation Leaders:  They define firms’ expectations and policies to favor innovation. 

Working in partnership, these two distinct role models set the stage for creating the environment to grow, direct, and apply the creative genius within an organization.  As Mr. Morris writes, “The genius of firms like Apple, Cisco, and Toyota… [is that] their leaders seem to have found a way to standardize the process of innovation.”  

INNOVATION CHAMPIONS build the practical means for effective innovation by:

• “Finding creative thinkers and encouraging them [often through coaching and mentoring] to think and work in new ways” or to "seek new experiences that spark new ideas;“ and
• “They create a regular operations context in which sharing and developing new ideas is the norm.” 

Champions might have any title in the organization, from that of senior manager to front line operations staff.  Regardless of title, they “provide the bridge between the strategic directives of senior managers and the day-to-day focus of front line workers.”

“Hewlett Packard’s MBWA (mgt.-by-walking-around) was a great innovation champion technique for learning about innovation efforts and supporting them.”

Innovation champions “are usually persistent networkers… [who] know what’s going on many levels.”  They know who has the skills, talents, and resources; who needs what; what’s not working, and what can be done to move the process forward.

In his best-seller book The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell outlines three roles he sees as key to the success of ideas taking hold in organizations.  As Mr. Morris sees it, all three of these mantles are embodied in effective innovation champions:

• Mavens who have deep knowledge that they are keen to share.
• Salesmen who like to influence others to take action.
• Connectors who have strong relationships with many people.
  
  

Collaboration & Trust:
Champions forge collaboration and trust while also helping to develop infrastructures that support innovation.  This includes creating environments that allow for the face-to-face partnering that is indispensable.  “They build collaboration, and they build the trust upon which effective collaboration occurs.  Innovation is a collaborative endeavor… There is little innovation without collaboration, and there is no collaboration without trust.”

All the World's a Stage...
My undergraduate degree was in theater (Go, University of Detroit!).  As one whose right brain is well developed and who naturally thinks in terms of connections and similarities, I'll share how I see the roles of champions and leaders in terms of the parts they would play in artistic productions, as in theater or film. 

I envision the role of champions as similar to that of theater or film directors.  Collaboratively honing the production vision, they take the various tools and perimeters; the scripts and story-lines; the stage/sets, budgets, and timelines given to them by the producers; the talents, experience, strengths, weaknesses, and personalities of the actors, design and crews -- and they orchestrate all of these.

Sometimes, depending on the size and budget of the production, the role of director is shared and divided among various people who serve as executive director, art director, assistant director, etc.  Similarly, there is (or should be) more than one champion within an organization.

Champions and directors work with "the talent" to create a shared, organic vision and then to manifest it.  While keeping their focus on the progress of the various production teams, they also work closely with the individuals.  They coach the actors to explore and hone their roles and to interact in the most effective ways with the other cast members.  They work similarly with the design and set crews.   

Key to the success of many directors is that they develop trusting relationships with the various individual artists in order to bring out the best in their talents, while building the collaboration and high trust that is needed for great ensemble productions and (what is called in the non-theater world) high-functioning teams.

Enter the other indispensable player... 
INNOVATION LEADERS influence the core structures and the basic operations of an organization in order to support innovation.  Such core structures include:

• The design of the organization
• Policies and underlying principles – “The Rules of the Game”
• Metrics and rewards.

In keeping with my theater arts metaphor, I think of innovation leaders as the "producers."  Without a producer’s backing, there will be no show.  Producers don't have to be particularly creative themselves, and they don't need to be involved in a hands-on manner.  Nonetheless, they either "set the stage," or else they sabotage the production by the resources they provide (or fail to) and the perimeters they establish.  Some leaders are creative themselves and will be involved artistically, just as some producers are.  (Examples of top leaders with a hands-on approach: Immelt at GE and Iger at Disney, who has helped to design games himself.)

Given that innovation needs to be treated as a strategic concern, “innovation leaders are typically, though not exclusively, senior managers” who have the authority to make key decisions, related to questions such as:

• Do budgets include a line item such as “investment in innovation”? 
• Are there seed funds to invest in promising new ideas, or teams of people to manage ideas that do not fit inside existing business units?
  -- If not, then innovation isn’t likely to happen.

In his book, Permanent Innovation, Mr. Morris asserts, “There is no innovation without leadership... Top managers can be powerful champions of innovation, or dark clouds of suppression…. They [need to] work diligently to eliminate the many obstacles that otherwise impede or even crush both creativity and innovation.”  

In closing, dear audience... 

Hat’s off to those Champions and Leaders who orchestrate creative genius and make the great innovations that move us all forward possible!

(Blog author, on another stage, long ago... )

 

Click on the link to download a free copy of Langdon Morris' excellent book:  Permanent Innovation: The Essential Guide to the Strategies, Principles, and Practices of Successful Innovators

And for his white paper: "Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders"

 

 

More YouTube Brilliance & Inspiration!

The next couple of posts will contain more words on the forms of leadership needed to champion innovation, and on collaboration, which is lifeblood for innovation.  But first, here are some additional videos hosted through YouTube exploring creative thinking that will be sure to inspire and tickle:  

• Think Again (ABC Training Video) (4:09): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NPL2f0WVEM&playnext=1&list=PL16FEE0B9133286CC
• Be infectious (3:05): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63onoo6JURg
• Using the stairs (1:48): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRmifpeZO18

And finally, as much as I am an evangelist on behalf of creative thinking and innovation, I’ve got to hand it to IBM which hired some very creative talent to produce these lovable videos poking fun at the innovation movement.  Well done!

• IBM Innovation Man (:31): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudaxA80eI4&NR=1
• Innovation Man Drill Sergeant (:29): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXrIoF-sVi8&feature=related
• Buzzword Bingo (:31): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgeLY7CL5IE&feature=related
• IBM Innovation Station (:33): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wqclq0dx3U&feature=related
• Ideating (:29): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziOG_GHNVq0&feature=related

 

EnJOY!!

Leader as Conductor: Orchestrating the Creative Genius Throughout the Organization

As discussed in previous posts, it is commonly held that there is creative genius in each of us.  But, along with our innate curiosity (creativity’s inextricable partner) most of us found our creativity repressed by the tender age of thirteen by the pressure to “fit in,” not be seen as “weird,” [i] not ask too many questions, and as we got older, to go by “The Rules,” and do as we’re told if we want to succeed.   I wholeheartedly agree with Langdon Morris of InnovationLabs who wrote that “It may only take only the right mix of context, curiosity, support, and environment for it come abundantly forth.” [ii]

And so, smart managers understand that good ideas come from everywhere in organizations.  “Hence, the average Toyota worker, including those on the assembly lines, is said to contribute on average more than one hundred ideas each year.”  Despite some of its recent troubles (and current tragedies in its homeland), Toyota is universally recognized as the most efficient auto manufacturer on the planet.[iii]

Gathering and Channeling the Collective Genius:

Referring back to the top layer of the cake as described in “Let Them Eat Cake!” a couple of posts ago, below are some suggestions I have found for creating an entrepreneurial environment throughout the organization, as recommended by the innovation leaders surveyed in the 2010 IBM CEO report. [iv]

 

Create and Communicate a Shared Vision of What Innovation Looks Like in Your Organization:

    Use cross-departmental input to create a shared language and lexicon.  (Jorge Barba) [v]
    Go beyond the mission and vision to make innovation the responsibility of each and every employee (“50 Ways…”) [vi]
    Involve as many people as you can at the beginning to get upfront buy-in.  (“50 Ways...) 

 

Co-create A Vision for Innovation with Everyone in Your Organization:

Help employees to present their ideas and make their cases:

• Establish an Entrepreneurial Environment: Ideas come from everywhere. Give every “intrepreneur’s” idea an objective hearing. Provide management support in building the business case* in presenting the idea. (“10 Crucial Elements…,” Jim Miller) [vii]

* I discussed this point in my 2/12/11 post on "A Shared Failure to Communicate". 

• Ask employees what gets in the way of their ability to offer contribute creative solutions and innovation, and work to remove those blocks.   

Create Efficient Systems for Collecting Ideas:

• Create formal opportunities for offering ideas: Intranet repositories using an idea 
  management software, internal conferences, etc.  (“10 Crucial Elements of Building an Innovative Company,” Jim Miller & “”50 Ideas…, “) 

Embrace the Numbers Game:

• “…Harness everyone’s creativity by involving them in the ideation process; generate lots of ideas, for only a few winners will result, and then broadening your view of innovation to not just technological, products, or services, but also innovate the business model.” (Jorge Barba)
• Have a number of ideas in the works. Short and long-term, incremental, and discontinuous.
•  “The main difference between companies who succeed at innovation and those who don’t isn’t their rate of success – it’s the fact that successful companies have a LOT of ideas, pilots, and product innovations in the pipeline.” (“50 Ways…”)

Create Efficient Systems for Low-Cost, Rapid Prototyping:

• “Fail often to succeed sooner.”  Tom Kelley, GM IDEO.
• Prototype using videos and models or other quick and cheap methods early on to visualize which projects to further develop and which to discard. (“Get Creative,” Bloomberg Businessweek [viii] and “50 Ways…”)

Support Cross-departmental Collaboration:

• Reroute reporting lines and create physical spaces for collaboration. …collaboration requires more than lip-service to breaking down silos… team up people from across the org chart. 
• ‘You have to…get down into the plumbing of the organization and align the nervous system of the company.” (J. Andrew, BCG) [ix]
• Provide “Skunkwork” spaces with visual tools like white boards everywhere, even on ceilings and floors. (“50 Ways…”)
  • Encourage informal, cross-functional networking and exchange of ideas through shared space, social activities, etc.  (“10 Crucial Elements…,” Jim Miller)

 

A nd ... Let Go!

• “Innovation requires no fixed rules or templates – only guiding principles.  Creating a more innovative culture is an organic and creative act… Don’t make your innovation processes so rigid that they get in the way of informal and spontaneous innovation efforts.”  (“50 Ways…”) 

 

 

I’ve only scratched the surface here regarding employee partnership in innovation.  Please, share your ideas, experiences, and success stories!

---

[i] Get Weird! 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work, John Putzier. AMACOM,  2001.

[ii] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[iii] “The World’s Most Innovative Companies,” Bloomberg Business Week. (April 24, 2007).

[iv] IBM Global CEO Report from 2010: Capitalizing on Complexity 

[v] Jorge Barba, http://www.game-changer.net/

[vi]  “50 Ways to Foster a Culture of Innovation,” The Heart of Innovation. Idea Champions

[vii] Jim Miller, “Ten Crucial Elements of Building an Innovative Company”

[viii] “Get Creative,” Bloomberg Businessweek

[ix] Boston Consulting Group, “Innovation 2010: A Return to Prominence and the Emergence of a New World Order”

 

Yankee Democracy at Work… The "Ingenuity" Lies Within the Ranks

This week, we'll take a not-so-happy look at the state of affairs in many organizations: underlying blocks to innovation.  Gotta look at what’s broke to be able to fix it!  Next week, I promise the happier view, looking at solutions and inspiring best practices being used by innovative companies. 

According to Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Most Innovative Companies” article, “Most businesses operate in ways that are antithetical to innovation.  They want stability, predictability, avoidance of risk…”  But “innovation is more about managing risk” than avoiding it…” [i]  The functions of quality control and Six Sigma are about “control.”  “The cultures of most organizations are set up to resist fluctuation and purge deviants,”[ii] known to others as “the innovator’s DNA.”

“But innovation is all about novelty and the unexpected…. innovators upset the apple cart, and move the cheese!” [iv] “In almost every company there are the ‘rebel’ thinkers, people who are always looking for ways to improve things, solve problems, individuals that look to the future, not the present or the past.” [v]  Research varies, but reports that 50-90% [vi] of all new product innovations “fail” at even the most successful companies. 

Given this predominant modus operandi, most organizations have a lot of work to do so that employees will feel safe enough to openly share their ideas and take risks.  A great amount of trust must exist in an environment in order for innovation to take place.  Very hierarchical “Win-lose organizations usually are not trusting environments…” [vii] In short, a sense of trust, safety, and partnership are key to innovation which is “a collaborative endeavor… There is little innovation without collaboration, and there is no collaboration without trust.” [viii]

Parallel Organizations: “Skunk Works”:

Some believe that it may be more efficient for large organizations to start satellite entrepreneurial organizations to germinate and develop the innovative ideas, rather than undertaking the significant task of changing the ways and culture of the primary organization.  These sub-organizations are often called “skunk works” or “skunkworks”: “groups within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy,” tasked with working on various projects. (Wikipedia)  The term "Skunk Works" is a registered trademark of Lockheed Martin, which by some accounts, was responsible for the creation of both the practice and term around 1943. 

This model will be explored in an upcoming post, as well.  However, I will say that I am highly skeptical about the wisdom of viewing this approach as the panacea.  It may be best for some rapid solutions or time-to-market “hits.”  However, it does not solve two significant and interrelated problems.  By simply handing over creative thinking and innovation to the parallel, more agile “David” structure versus forcing the larger "Goliath" organization to reshape its management practices leaves the same problem in place: the creative ideas and full range of talents of all of its employees continue to be blocked and wasted.  “Skunk work” organizations can only do so much.  What if the creative genius of everyone within the entire primary organization was cultivated and set to work – what would be possible then? 

As the 2010 Boston Consulting Group report recently summarized in this blog pointed out (and other studies concur) – U.S. businesses do not have time to leave the creative thinking to the few.  All hands are needed on deck.  For the first time since Bloomberg Businessweek began ranking the Most Innovative Companies in 2005, the majority of corporations in the Top 25 are outside the U.S. as new global leaders emerge from Asia.

From My Soapbox… 

I believe the primary shifts that need to occur boil down to this:  “In many organizations, the real thinking is seen as the purview of a privileged few.”[ix]  There’s the rub!  From my professional experience, from what I learned in my organizational development master's program, and based on the research I have conducted thus far, innovation and management bottle-necking cannot co-exist.  That’s what many of the IBM CEO study innovation leaders were telling their colleagues.  “Flatten thy organizations!”  Lose, or certainly lessen the hierarchy. 

 “People are dying to bring their passionate, authentic selves to their jobs.  In most cases, their jobs often won’t let them.  These people often represent the undervalued intellectual capital in a company.  Choke personal creativity, and you choke that organization’s chance to flourish.” [x]

As the saying goes, “A good mind is a terrible thing to waste.”  Sadly, most organizations, from corporations to small nonprofits to governmental agencies, are wastelands of brilliant, potentially profitable or otherwise beneficial ideas that were smothered by others before they were allowed to see the light of day.

And on a More Cheerful Note…

In the next post, I’ll share specific practices being utilized by some to create a “thinking organization that encourages discovery and celebrates new ideas and the people who generate them.”  And then how they gather, vet, and prototype those ideas.  I hope you'll send in suggestions for some of the best practices you've encountered, as well!  

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[i] “The World’s Most Innovative Companies,” Bloomberg Business Week. (April 24, 2007).

[ii] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[iv] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[v] “Fostering an Innovative Company Culture,” EOS Strategies White Paper. (2010).

[vi] “50 Ways to Foster a Culture of Innovation,” Idea Champions puts it at 50-70% and Wikipedia offers the 50-90% figure.

[vii] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[viii] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[ix] “Fostering an Innovative Company Culture,” EOS Strategies White Paper (2010) attributed to Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D., “Thought Partnerships Build A Company's Thinking Skills.”  (2003). 

[x] “Fostering an Innovative Company Culture,” EOS Strategies White Paper. (2010).

 

 

Let Them Eat Cake!

A couple of weeks ago, I delivered a training session on some of the
ingredients that are necessary in order for organizational cultures to become more innovative.  The stand-out leaders in the 2010 IBM CEO report recommend some high-level management approaches for fostering innovation, such as the need for managers to create cultures in which questioning of the status quo is welcomed along with calculated risk-taking, and where creative thinking is encouraged at every level of the organization.  

This all sounds great to me, but exactly how do managers go about putting all this into place?  As most of us know, management by mere decree alone doesn’t generally work.  And, even with the best of strategic intentions on the part of leaders, as the saying goes, “Culture eats strategic plans for breakfast.”  So, how does one go about making the changes needed to cultivate productive, innovative thinking throughout an organization in a systematic, self-perpetuating fashion?   

– And that’s what we’re talking about: creating cultures of ongoing innovation.  Producing a successful innovative product or service once does not make a company innovative.  The ability to do that repeatedly is what makes them innovative. “The genius of companies like Apple, Cisco, and Toyota… is that their leaders seem to have found a way to standardize the process of innovation.”  (Langdon Morris, InnovationLabs)

In the next few posts, I will pass along some of the research I have gathered on HOW TO create an organizational culture with the structures and processes and spirit that standardizes innovation as a way of operating, and that allows businesses to grow market-share and nonprofits to accomplish their missions more effectively. 

But first, I will share the model or metaphor that I believe is helpful in envisioning and differentiating between the basic components necessary for innovative culture to exist – that of a three-layer cake! 

The Bottom Layer: Organizational Development 101:  These are the basic, fundamental structures and processes that are necessary for any fairly stable, functional organization with semi-aligned vision, mission, accountability structures, management training, etc.  These require ongoing maintenance and “tweaking” in order for some level of organizational health and stability to exist.  Without these basic pieces in place, not much will flourish for long, let alone innovation.

–However, even in a troubled organization, wise senior managers will solicit the creative thinking and ideas of his/her staff on ways to get basic operating systems and structures working more efficiently.  Then, in the process of rebuilding the organization’s foundation, the way is being paved for a culture in which employee input, creative problem-solving, and innovative thinking can become the norm. 

Top Layer: Key Structures for Innovative Culture:  This is the layer within which the  additional structures needed for innovation are put in place, such as:

• Shared agreements on what innovation should look like within a particular organization.
• Efficient systems for the ongoing collection of a range of ideas solicited from everywhere both inside and outside the organization.
• Low-cost prototyping systems for rapidly vetting ideas and determining which should be explored and which shelved.
• Reward systems for experimentation that reframes what has typically been called "failure" as learning instead; etc. 

And lastly -

The Icing: Daily Operations Re-thought!!  The icing is the “fun” or "Fun-Ovator" stuff.   It entails continually experimenting with creative ways to run daily operations in more interesting and creative ways, which will result in producing an ongoing spirit of experimentation, “play,” and creative thinking.  This includes reconsidering things such as:
how meetings are run; how recruiting and hiring and job descriptions are done; being more creative with celebrations and incentive and reward programs; and so on.  

The icing really helps to shift culture so that creative and innovative thinking become the “norm.”  The HR departments of Southwest Airlines, Google, Virgin America and other innovative companies intentionally describe their cultures as “fun” and seek employees who are excited by the idea of jumping in their “sandboxes" of ongoing experimentation.  

 

TO BE CONTINUED...
Subsequent posts on some of the great recommendations I've gathered for creating the canvass needed for innovation to flourish in organizations won’t deal much with the bottom layer of the cake, because anyone who has studied management or organizational development, either in school or in the field knows these basics.  However, as we look at the structures and processes that support innovative thinking, it will become apparent that these bear a striking resemblance to what many of us learned (at least in school) were management best practices!