Why innovation thrives in the building of sandcastles
I'm off to keynote an event in Sydney, Australia; and after that, two weeks of family time in the tropics of Australia.
Years ago, inspired by similar times, I wrote about how innovation thrives in the building of sandcastles. It was a great post -- it made it into BusinessWeek. I thought it a fitting post to leave here while I'm away.
I will still be answering email and checking calls, but could just be a touch slow.
With that line of thinking,. here's my list of "10 Reasons Why Innovation Thrives in the Building of Sandcastles: and What We Can Learn From Such Creativity."
- Hierarchy has disappeared: In most cases, there isn't a boss, a reporting structure, or anything else that can cause organizational sclerosis. People just pitch in and do what needs to be done. The lack of a hierarchy is implicit to most successful teams.
- Creativity is implicit: Anyone can build a sandcastle. There are no rules or preconceived notions, other than some sand and water. The same thinking should drive corporate innovation efforts. Make do with what you've got and what you can find, and use creativity as your main asset.
- If it doesn't work the first time, do it again: It's inevitable that a rogue wave will destroy your work. This only encourages you to fix the design, or rebuild it altogether. Setbacks are meaningless, and indeed, are part of the plan.
- Experience doesn't cloud insight: Parents listen to kids, kids get bored and move on to another rampart and do something awesome. The key to sandcastle building is the combined insight of several different generations: likely one of the most important foundations for success in corporate innovation today. (See my 10 Ideas post for more on this theme.)
- Everyone picks up on the passion: People just join in and help to build. Eventually beach-neighbors join in, and the growing castle becomes a big collaborative effort. Organizations that can build similar levels of interest in the concept of innovation don't simply succeed: they exceed!
- Feedback is instant: You know right away how well your design works, particularly if it is at the waters edge, since everyone will make a comment on it as they walk by. That parallels' the instantaneity of today's markets: things are changing so fast, that you must have a constant ear tuned in to understand what your customers are telling you.
- Competition is easily scoped: Need new ideas? Want to learn from the competition? Spend a few minutes walking up and down the beach and check out the other sandcastles. Study their design, their assumptions, and see how you can improve upon them. Do the same in the corporate world: develop a finely tuned radar that signals to you how and where your world is changing.
- No idea is too dumb: There's not a lot of criticism and bias in the building of sandcastles. Any idea is welcomed. People can contribute the skills they have. Everyone is a designer, a builder and an owner. Somehow the combination just works.
- The reward is clear: At the end of the day, a great sandcastle provides a sense of accomplishment. Photos are taken, and the team talks about the experience. That's why every innovation effort needs to be celebrated, highlighted, and championed into the corporate record.
- It's fun: Enough said. If an organization approaches a problem the same way, innovation and creativity can thrive.
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Led Zeppelin Leadership: How do you innovate when you're dazed and confused ....
At a particular keynote last week, I met a number of senior executives who certainly agreed with my message - we need to constantly realign our company to the reality of change that surrounds it. That's where innovation comes from. But they also also indicated that they found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the rapid change occurring all around them.
There's been an increasing number of these individuals, and I've come to call them the Led Zeppelin refugees: they're simply dazed by the changes occuring in the high velocty economy, and are confused about what to do next.
That's why there's such a good question that flows from this: just how do you become an organization that is focused on innovation?
One of the easiest methods is simply by identifying the obvious and the not-so-obvious trends that will impact your business or organization -- and then taking the time to figure out what actions you must undertake to deal with those trends.
Ask yourself this question: are you prepared for what comes next in terms of your business? The likely answer is no: my experience is that many organizations still have a very short-term minded outlook. They're caught in an innovation rut, simply doing day by day the same old things they've always been doing, day in day out. And they don't really think about how their world is going to change.
That's why you should undertake a "trend-and-innovation" audit of your organization: quite simply, figuring out what comes next, and what you need to do about it.
How can you do this? By asking yourself a series of questions:
- How quickly is our marketplace changing? How quickly might it change in the future? What's the impact on what I sell, and how I sell it?
- How are our products changing? Willl they change faster in terms of features? Will support become easier, or more complex? Can we manage to operate in a faster market?
- Are our products moving upscale, or are they becoming commodities,such that you'll be forced to compete on price? Can we do something so that there is more of a service element to our product?
- What new competitors are appearing, or might emerge in the future? Is the basic business model threatened? Is there more likelihood of direct outreach to the consumer rather than through an existing distributor/wholesaler network?
- What moves could we make to make sure we can remain competitive? You really must ask yourself some probing questions as you go through this process. You need to challenge yourself and think what might really be different in five years, in terms of what you sell, who you sell to, how you sell it, and who you are selling against.
What you need to do is ask yourself these tough questions, so that that you're thinking about where there might be new problems and new opportunities that will impact your business in the future, not just in terms of what you sell, but in terms of the structure that you use to get things done.
And therein lies the rub: I think a lot of organizations fail to do this type of simple analysis. There are too many who sit back and react to change instead of thinking: "ok we know some big change is coming what the heck are we going to do about it?" Think of it is a forward-oriented innovation: it's a simple concept, and one of the most important things you should be doing.
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10 Great Words: inspirational innovation insight
Years ago, I wrote a little article, "10 Great Words," as a way of summarizing how to instill an innovative mindset.
It remains one of the most heavily viewed pages on my site. I use the words within my keynotes, providing motivational guidance to people on how they can challenge assumptions and eliminate habits.
I often notice people in the audience quickly writing the words down; I've heard of others who have printed off the list of 10 words and have posted them to their cubicle. Simply as a way to stay focused on creativity and innovation.
The list also made it into my Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast book.
I've just wrapped it up in a new PDF ; feel free to share the document with your staff, team, and leadership; it's proven to be a wonderful summary of how to stay motivated and focused on opportunity!
Download the 10 Great Words document 
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The Masters in Business Innovation
Years ago, I wrote of the need for a new type of business degree: a Masters in Business Imagination. I've also called it a Masters in Business Innovation.
I wrote an article around the theme, and it remains one of the most heavily trafficked pages on my site. I've wrapped it up in a PDF : feel free to read it, share it, distribute it, and encourage people to think about it.
It opens with these observations: "COMPLACENCY In a time of rapid, disruptive change can be a death sentence – not only for organizations, but for the careers and skills of those who work there!
It’s time to abandon the thinking that has had you anchored firmly to the past – and to shift your focus to the future, with enthusiasm, motivation andimagination.
You can do this by abandoning any pretense that the skills of yesterday will be important tomorrow. Figuratively and literally, it is time to move beyond the thinking that has led us to a world of MBA’s – Masters of Business Administration – and focus upon the critical skill that will take you into tomorrow.
The world doesn’t need more administrators. It needs more MBI’s – Masters of Business Imagination!
- Access The Masters of Business Imagination PDF
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What do innovative organizations do?
One of my recent keynotes for a global organization focused on the issue of high-velocity change. No matter who you are and what you do, there are certain realities: your markets, customer expectations, competitors, cost structure and business model continues to change really, really fast, and will continue to do so. This little video clip captures that message.
Innovative organizations recognize this reality, and orient themselves to a state of constant, forward-oriented innovation, not only to keep up with but to exceed the constantly rising bar of innovation that surrounds them. They do this by subscribing to several key ideas. Innovative companies:
- adjust to rapidly evolving markets: it doesn't matter what industry: consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, electronics, industrial supply, construction. Every industry is impacted by massive and sweeping change, in terms of product innovation, customer expectations, new business models. Look around you, and there's fast paced change.
- re-align for new workforce realities. With new career attitudes, the migration to the global, contingent workforce, and increasing skills specialization, deploying the right skills at the right time for the right purpose is becoming a core focus of innovation efforts.
- jump on rapidly emerging trends: new ideas now evolve faster than ever before because of the global infinite idea loop. New products, markets and innovation can now go from concept to market in a matter of months or weeks. Innovative organizations know where they are headed, because they are tuned into the global idea loop that envelopes them.
- track the impact of fast-science on product innovation: billion dollar markets are being born through global collaborative science. It's a trend I explore in my Future Trends document on this blog. Understand it, and innovate from it.
- generate ideas through generational collaboration: innovative organizations recognize that different generations have differing attitudes towards change. Rather than battling this reality, they work to ensure that they are getting the best ideas from the experience of longer term staff, combining that with the inspiration and innovative ideas coming from what I call Gen-Connect. Watch the cardboard people/plasma people video on this blog: it provides a good example of what can happen if you don't capitalize on generational insight.
- streamline process: innovative organizations focus on the concept of "agility" -- structuring themselves for rapid response, fast solutions to emerging challenges, and quicker focusing of resources on the changes occuring within the high velocity economy. Search this site for the phrase "agility," and you'll find a wealth of ideas.
- innovate upside down: innovative organizations recognize they can't do it all. They seek partners with everything they do, recognizing that there are of lot of really wonderful innovative ideas that transcend their organization and their culture. This allows them to discover new innovative ideas they hadn't thought of before; a process I call upside down innovation.
- continue to innovate in times of stress: it goes back to my recent blog post, Leading in turbulent times: How to innovate through the recession. Some economies might be in recession: but innovative organizations are already focusing on innovating for the inevitable upturn.
Watch the video
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You become innovative by identifying obvious and not-so-obvious trends that will impact your business or organization -- and then undertake change and actions to deal with those trends.
Earlier this summer, I taped a podast for Applix; they're a business intelligence company, that was bought up by Cognos, which was then bought up by IBM for $5 billion just over a week ago.
The podcast focuses on my ideas of the need for corporate agility in the high velocity economy. I cover a lot of ground here in terms of concepts of innovation. In particular, I stress that I think a lot of organizations that I deal with aren't really thinking about "what comes next?" - which means they are missing the very essence of how to start thinking about innovation:"
I think we’re still very short-term minded out there. I think a lot of organizations are just going from quarter to quarter.What should forward oriented organization be thinking about? Several things:
How quickly is our marketplace changing? How quickly are our products changing? What do we need to do from a cultural perspective and an organizational perspective, to be able to deal with a world in which our product life cycles are collapsing? A lot of organizations who don’t appreciate the new forms of competition that can walk into their marketplaces’ business models continue to evolve.How do they do that? By making innovation core to their "soul."
The word ‘innovation’ has to be a part of the responsibility of everybody in the organization and that’s what I find goes wrong in a lot of companies. I think what has happened is people have made innovation out to be one of these special things that it’s the people in the back room who design new products – that that’s innovation. To me, innovation is so much more than that.
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What do innovative companies do that other companies don't do?
Innovative organizations focus upon the concept of agility: they can manage fast change, new risk, business market turmoil, staffing challenges, and market commoditization. They can do this because they are relentless focused on the future and the trends that will impact them.
They ensure that they innovate and adapt based on rapidly changing circumstances, on a continuous basis. Innovation isn't just about new product; it's an inclusive mindset, in which everyone knows that they must stay relentlessly focused on the religion of innovation: how do we do things differently to run the business better, grow the business and transform the business.
How do they do this? By adopting several key guiding principles that form the basis for all corporate strategy and activities going forward:
- plan for short term longevity: No one can presume that markets, products, customers and assumptions will remain static: everything is changing instantly. Business strategies and activities must increasingly become short term oriented while fulfilling a long term mission.
- presume lack of rigidity: Many organizations undertake plans based on key assumptions. Agile organizations do so by presuming that those key assumptions are going to change regularly over time, and so build into their plans a degree of ongoing flexibility.
- design for flexibility : In a world of constant change, products or services must be designed in such a way that they can be quickly redesigned without massive cost and effort. Think like Google: every product and service should be a beta, with the inherent foundation being one of flexibility for future change.
- build with extensibility: Apple understood the potential for rapid change by building into the iPod architecture the fundamental capability for other companies to develop add-on products. Think the same way : tap into the world. Let the customer, supplier, partners and others innovate on your behalf!
- harness external creativity: In a world in which knowledge is evolving at a furious pace, no one organization can do everything. Recogize your limits, and tap into the skills, insight and capabilities of those who can do things better.
- plan for supportability: Customers today measure you by a bar that is raised extremely high -- they expect you to deliver the same degree of high-quality that they get from the best companies on the planet. They expect instant support, rapid service, and constant innovation. If you don't provide this, they'll simply move on to an alternative.
- revisit with regularity: Banish complacency. Focus on change. Continually revisit your plans, assumptions, models and strategies, because the world next week is going to be different than that of today.
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Messing with bits of business strategy ....
When you are on stage, you're mind is working at light speed, as you synthesize your knowledge to the trends impacting the crowd. You often don't get to reconcile a lot of it till later. I've had two weeks in the home office and have been working on my book, and preparing for a raft of upcoming presentations.
When you get breathing room, you can gain some insight from what you've been doing: : when it comes to innovation, I've been dealing with a lot of organizations who have had some very interesting, innovative approaches to business strategy. Here's a short list to think about as to how you stir up some innovation by messing with your business strategy:
- look out: don't ask what you can do to run your business better -- ask what you can due to run your customer, supplier or partner's business better!
- move beyond: most projects start out with one strategic goal in mind. Succesful innovators realize part way into the project that myriad other new, unknown, and very cool opportunities are opening up -- that they hadn't even thought of before. Keep your eyes open!
- turn the tables: a lot of companies are being WalMartized and HomeDepotized, and have to meet certain operational expectations. Innovators go beyond this, and do cool things that let them regain more control over the relationship -- usually with projects that give them more info on what's happening on the shelf than the "big guys" have!
- clarify fuzziness. In the last few years, companies have found that the reliability of information around chargebacks, end-cap fee management, promo display management and all the other esoteric stuff, has become extremely fuzzy, because they've lost control of the information. They've beat this back by making financial / accounting reconciliation important once again. It flows right to the bottom line .... and can be an easy win.
- be cool: smart people don't want to work for companies that have no innovation-oxygen. They're looking for companies that are busting their markets, ramping up growth, and who are willing to take a risk. Your brand isn't just your product -- it's your attractability-index! And here's an even better secret: even existing staff want you to be cool. They're seeing innovation, and they want you doing it too, even if they grumble and groan about it.
- build your street-cred: your customers, suppliers and partners live in a world in which everyone has instant insight, operational excellence, and staff who know what is going on. If you don't, you lose your credibility, and you lose more that that. You've got to continue to invest to keep up with the ever increasing minimum-bar-of-expectations that's out there.
- slice and dice: your a loser if you play in a commodity economy. Build the intelligence that lets you know where you can win by being premium, and toss the rest of your customers overboard.
- routinely innovate: lots of companies continue to struggle with SOX and Rule 404. Few approached it as an innovation opportunity; but those who did won big, as they got away from spreadsheet based compliance, and realized real business process transformation. View any emerging regulatory requirement as an innovation opportunity, and you're golden!
- extend and embrace: make your insight your partners insight, and let your transcations be there transactions! While "portals" sounds so-90's, it's still one of the leading edge innovation strategies out there, and it has a big impact.
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How to be innovative - with the Six C's of Innovation
Over the years, I've come to realize that part of the fuel that fires my passion for my work is my intense curiosity. I've also come to realize that thinking differently has become critical to my success.
So it is with you; in a time in which business models, markets, customers, industries and clients are changing at an ever more furious pace, thinking differently about the world around you is a powerful and important personal trait to possess. You also need to ensure that you provide for a culture of creativity within your organization so that it can evolve at a pace that the future demands of it.
That's why I'd suggest that you think abut instilling a culture of personal and corporate innovation by instill in yousrelf and your team, my "Six-C's of Innovation."
- curiosity
- creativity and rebellion
- collaboration
- change
- courage
- creating excitement every day!
And last but not least, creative companies create excitement, every day! I don't know how many surveys I have read which indicate that staff within many an organization are bored by their work. That's not the way to provide for creativity - it is by doing things differently that you can instill a sense of passion and purpose in even the most routine jobs.
Jack Welch might have come up with Six Sigma - but I think in a world of rapid change that my Six-C's provide a better framework for going forward!
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For innovative organizations, tomorrow is the new today
With all the organizations I've studied, I've long realized that innovation comes naturally to those organizations who are focused on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the challenges of today. By building a culture that is relentlessly turned to that reality, they easily succeed in doing things differently. And in doing so, they're the true innovators -- they've been able to throw off the shackles of yesterday's problems in order to concentrate on what they could be doing to adjust to tomorrow.
There are several key elements to this successful innovation culture:
- a growth orientation: they've managed to instill a culture that has everyone thinking about what can be done, rather than what needs to be fixed. It's a culture in which people are thinking less about the problems that have occurred, and more about the cool strategies that could be pursued. They don't run "change-management workshops" : they have strategic sessions on "growing the business." It's not an easy task, but innovative organizations have managed to get their people away from "right now" to "our next step."
- the ability to cost-manage and grow at the same time: give me a company that is focused strictly on cost management, and I'll give you an innovation lackard. Innovative organizations know that cutting cost and operational excellence is but one part of the equation. They also ensure that at the same time they hack away at cost, they are actively working on growing their market, learning how to do things differently, discovering new ideas, and seeking opportunity.
- a translatable vision: every single innovative organization has, at the root, at least one, simple, concrete idea (or more) that defines their innovation scope. One industrial company I worked with defined it this way: "at this point, we know we don't have the depth to generate innovation ideas entirely internally -- so we will see innovation partners to help us drive growth in our sector." Once that was defined, the rest followed, because it became acceptable to admit that innovation could come from somewhere other than internally.
- time to market is critical: the organization relentlessly lives and breathes the mantra, "it's all about our ability to get the product/service to market on time." With that key goal, they manage to harness their energy towards a growth and ideas agenda.
- internal collaboration: the organization has gone beyond seminars about teamwork, to a culture in which ideas are instantly shared, debated, transferred, analyzed and recomposed. There is no more debate about the need to break down silos; they are gone. What remains is a desire to learn from each other, and build on common insight.
- a transition at the top, of managers to leaders: innovative organizations have transitioned the roles of management. They've moved away from such mind-numbing activities such as day-to-day oversight, implementing procedures, generating reports, and all the other routine. Instead, they're redefining the organization by pushing decision-making to the lowest capable level; they defining goals and outcomes that staff can pursue; they, are putting in place collaborative and market oriented feedback loops. In other words, they're thinking about all the things the organization should be doing to survive and thrive in a fast-paced market.
- at every level, a tactical to strategic transition: at the same time that the role of management has evolved, so too has the role of staff. As part of the shift to innovation, the organization has transitioned the roles of many staff so that they provide a more strategic role ("what do we need to do to meet this new challenge?") rather than routine tactical activities ("I need to get this reconciliation signed off!") They've done this by automating a lot of the routine, day to day processes that can choke off innovation. They're freeing staff up from the performance of the mundane, to the enhancement of opportunity.
- a partnership orientation: innovative organizations recognize that they can't do it all. They look to actively work with their complexity partners in order to be able to do innovative things at the pace that the speed of change demands of them. Partnership is a key word: "we might not be able to generate all the ideas, but we sure as heck are going to know how to find them and capitalize upon them."
- global skills access is a key success factor: big or small, you can only drive innovation if you can access the complex talent needed to take you forward. Innovative companies have mastered the article of just-in-time skills access; they can access and focus a unique set of skills for a unique purpose at a moments notice.
To a degree, it's all about what leadership decides to do. And when it comes to innovation, there are three types of leaders. Only one can provide for a focus on real innovation. I spoke about this in one keynote, when I defined the three types of organizations that exist today, which you can watch here.
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At the Swiss Innovation Forum in Zurich, I took a look at the attitudes, ideas and cultures which always manage to stifle -- and kill -- any hope for innovation within an organization.
Key point? "Organizations fail, because their have failure engrained in their corporate culture!"
This clip is based on an article I wrote a few years ago about the innovation killers. I often tell a joke on stage that it sometimes seems that there are groups of people who wake up every morning and ask themselves, "what I am going to do today to kill off new ideas?"
Take a look at the list of innovation killer phrases. Take it into your next meeting, and start to take score of how often these phrases are used. That will give you a sense as to whether you are slowly dying from organizational sclerosis, or if you do have a corporate culture that permits innovation to thrive.
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10 More Ways to Instill Innovation
My post yesterday (10 Signs that you've got an innovation dysfunction) generated a bit of e-mail with a few questions as to what else you can do to stir up an innovative culture.
With some 80 keynotes under my belt through the last year, I've seen some of the best and worst approaches to innovation and creativity. Analyzing what I've seen, I've come up with a quick list of 10 more things that smart, innovative companies do to create an overall sense of innovation-purpose.
- Heighten the importance of innovation. One major client with several billons in revenue has 8 senior VP's who are responsible for innovation. And the fact is, they don't just walk the talk -- they do it. The message to the rest of the company? Innovation is critical -- get involved.
- Create a compelling sense of urgency. With product lifecycles compressing and markets witnessing fierce competition, now is not the time for studies, committee meetings and reports. It's time for action. Simply do things. Now. Get it done. Analyze it later to figure out how to do it better next time.
- Ignite each spark. Innovative leaders know that everyone in the organization has some type of unique creativity and talent. They know how to find it, harness it, and use it to advantage.
- Re-evaluate the mission. You might have been selling widgets five years ago, but the market doesn't want widgets anymore. If the world has moved on, and you haven't, it is time to re-evaluate your purpose, goals and strategies. Rethink the fundamentals in light of changing circumstances.
- Build up experiential capital. Innovation comes from risk, and risk comes from experience. The most important asset today isn't found on your balance sheet -- it is found in the accumulated wisdom from the many risks that you've taken. The more experiential capital you have, the more you'll succeed.
- Shift from threat to opportunity. Innovative organizations don't have management and staff who quiver from the fear at what might be coming next. Instead, they're alive from breathing the oxygen of opportunity.
- Banish complacency and skepticism. It's all too easy for an organization, bound by a history of inaction, to develop a defeatist culture. Innovative leaders turn this around by motivating everyone to realize that in an era of rapid change, anything is possible..
- Innovation osmosis. If you don't have it, get it -- that's a good rule of thumb for innovation culture. One client lit a fuse in their innovation culture by buying up small, aggressive, young innovative companies in their industry. They then spent the time to carefully nurture their ideas and harness their creativity.
- Stop selling product, and sell results. The word solution is overused and overdone, but let's face it -- in a world in which everything is becoming a commodity and everyone is focused on price, change the rules of the game. Refuse to play -- by thinking about how to play in a completely new game.
- Create excitement. I don't know how many surveys I saw this year which indicated that the majority of most people in most jobs are bored, unhappy, and ready to bolt. Not at innovative companies! The opportunity for creativity, initiative and purpose results in a different attitude. Where might your organization be on a "corporate happiness index?" If it's low, then you don't have the right environment. Fix that problem -- and fix it quick.
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10 Signs that you've got an innovation dysfunction
It should be pretty easy to walk into an organization and do an innovation audit -- that is, assess the likelihood that an organization can do remarkably new and innovative things. Here's what I would look for:
- People laugh at new ideas
- Someone who identifies a problem is shunned
- Innovation is the privileged practice of a special group
- The phrase, "you can't do that because we've always done it this way" is used for every new idea
- No one can remember the last time anyone did anything really cool
- People think innovation is about R&D
- People have convinced themselves that competing on price is normal
- The organization is focused more on process than success
- There are lots of baby boomers about, and few people younger than 25
- After any type of surprise -- product, market, industry or organizational change -- everyone sits back and asks, "wow, where did that come from?"
Innovative companies act differently. In these organizations
- Ideas flow freely throughout the organization
- subversion is a virtue
- success and failure are championed
- there are many, many leaders who encourage innovative thinking, rather than managers who run a bureacracy
- there are creative champions throughout the organization -- people who thrive on thinking about how to do things differently
- ideas get approval and endorsement
- rather than stating "it can't be done," people ask, "how could we do this?"
- people know that in addition to R&D, innovation is also about ideas about to "run the business better, grow the business and transform the business"
- the word "innovation" is found in most job descriptions as a primary area of responsibility, and a percentage of annual renumeration is based upon achievement of explicitly defined innovation goals
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