New ideas are energizing and revitalizing – right?
Hmmm…not always. Actually, unique, original perspectives elicit, on the whole, more negative than positive reactions. How? Why? Seriously, doesn’t everyone love innovation?
Innovation looks much less like a sparkling diamond and more like a lump of coal in the beginning, just waiting to be shaped and transformed into something of value. Tragically, too few can visualize the potential in a lump of coal. Furthermore, our organizational cultures often unintentionally thwart innovation. So rather than innovation, we settle for a new container, logo or even price. We trademark to protect our “intellectual property,” which even further prevents innovation.
When will we recognize that the most effective defense of our competitive advantage won’t happen in a courtroom? Sustainability will only happen in a culture that props up the lumps of coal and encourages uniqueness in its most raw form.
Makes sense – right? How do we get there? Before innovations can become a vital component of our cultures, we have to embrace some new views:
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It takes serious courage to bet on something unseen.
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You don’t get to excellence by eliminating risk.
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Innovation requires giving up control.
Let’s look at these new cultural challenges more closely.
1. Innovation requires giving up control:
Do we hire people to perform tasks vs. not to think about new ways of doing things? Frankly, it scares us to think that employees could be out there coming up with their own ideas about how things could be done. “Do, don’t think” is often the unspoken mantra.
2. It takes serious courage to bet on something unseen:
Ideas are easy – innovation (what people will actually pay for) is hard. Ideas are shaped and even completely transformed when put through the blender of both Socratic and unfiltered Input from others. It’s naïve to think the best ideas come only from those already sophisticated in the respective area of focus. Fresh, valuable products and services also come from those without bias – those often excluded individuals, who aren’t already subject-matter experts.
3. You don’t get to excellence by eliminating risk.
Obviously, preventing errors and costly mistakes is necessary. If not balanced with promoting excellence, however, our efforts are wasted. The two are complementary, but definitely not the same thing. Our brains function in one of two states at any given time: fear or vision. Fear always seems more motivational, at least short-term, but without vision and its accompanying risk, cultures grow stale.
Imagine if the BlackBerry, iPod, post-it-note, electric screwdriver, sandpaper and computer mouse had remained someone’s lump of coal.
Do you really want innovation? If so, it’s time for a new pair of glasses.
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Grant Stanley
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Marty Fattig
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tallen
