
It’s hard to keep up with all the articles on innovation these days. There are so many outlets now where people are volunteering their experience and advice. A lot of the advice is quiet good. But, every now and then an article appears that assaults the senses like fingernails against a blackboard. Such is the case with “Why Companies Need Less Innovation,” by Pat Lencioni which appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek. I feel sorry for any company that takes this advice seriously.
In this article, the author begins with a very reasonable observation. Many companies do a great job of talking up innovation, and then disenfranchise workers by not doing what is needed to establish a productive and sustainable innovation culture. This is a horrible mistake that many executives make. Simply proclaiming that your company is building an innovation culture doesn’t make it so.
Unfortunately, the article takes a very wrong turn. Lencioni suggests that if workers are innovating, the result will be chaos. What tripe! Does Lencioni really misunderstand innovation so much as to equate innovation with workers gone wild abandoning their mission and acting on impulse? One hopes not, yet this is the message that comes through. Lencioni goes on to suggest that innovation should be the sole domain of the leadership team.
It is well understood that the ivory tower approach to innovation is a failed model. The leadership team doesn’t have the full perspective to be the sole contributors to the process. Yes, the leadership does have the best understanding of the company’s business needs and objectives. And their position gives them a perspective that the rank and file employees can’t share. But there are too many proof points that teach us that executives acting in such an insular manor are detached from the practical realities that the workers see every day. There are equally many examples of companies benefiting greatly from worker led innovation.
The leadership needs to play an active role in the innovation process, and as Lencioni rightly points out, they need to set the innovation agenda and ensure alignment and execution. However, it is a grave mistake to exclude the workforce from the innovation process.
Worried that innovating workers will cause disruption? Don’t be. Innovating doesn’t mean doing whatever strikes your fancy. For rank and file workers, it means thinking about your job as you do it. Asking yourself questions about what’s working and what’s not working. If something’s not working, what could be done to correct it? If something is working, could it be better? These thoughts and analysis must then be given a path through the company’s innovation process so that positive change can be initiated.
Will every worker contribute a ton of ideas? No. But, building a constructive process to tap into the collective wisdom of the organization will yield strong benefits and fuel innovation. It will not erode execution. Quite the contrary, it will lead to higher levels of execution. As a senior manager, I will choose thinking workers over mindless robots every time.
Bottom line… Execution, passion, and focus are not in conflict with innovation. Successful innovation requires brilliant innovation; winning business execution requires continuous innovation.










Connecting Innovation Dots
On his blog Medinnovation, Dr. Richard Reece discusses the interconnectedness of innovation across domains of innovation activity in this post. It’s interesting to see his commentary on 10 coming medical innovations in this regard. It is doubly so because this phenomenon is not unique to medical innovation.
Great and transformative innovation stem from the confluence of many different advances and observations. The accumulation of knowledge into the global pool of information provides the water of life for innovation. People seeking to find novel and valuable solutions to needs draw upon this fund of knowledge to synthesize new answers. This is the act of innovation creativity in its pure form.
We should understand the consequence of this as it relates to driving sustainable innovation in the enterprise. Knowledge worker need knowledge with which to work. Connectedness to knowledge of all types is an essential ingredient to create the working environment needed to drive continuous, value creating innovation. This must include seamless access to the enterprise’s internal knowledge, global knowledge from both inside and outside the company’s domain of expertise, and the tacit knowledge of team mates.
Have you ever noticed the degree of innovation serendipity? It is not by chance that different people seem to be creating the same innovation at the same time. Any really interesting, high value challenge is going to attract many potential innovators. Don’t flatter yourself and think you are the only one working on your great project. Also, many potential innovators have access to the same informational resources that you do. This means there is a reasonable chance that when you find a great solution, you won’t be alone.
Yet, it is also the case that most potential innovators have the same poor access to knowledge that you do. This means that you have an opportunity to create an innovation edge. By investing in establishing the best innovation intelligence infrastructure—one that provides seamless access to all sources of knowledge when and how you need it—you can tilt the scales of innovation providence in your favor.
This is a key lesson that innovation leaders must take to heart. You can influence the frequency and value of your innovation outcomes by making the right strategic investments in innovation infrastructure and methods. As we begin to emerge from the past years of economic malaise, companies are all beginning to renew their innovation agenda. Will you take the right steps to ensure that your innovation workers have the right tools to deliver the goods?
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