“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time.” Albert Einstein
Are you in an innovation rut?
Find out! Print the list below, and take it into your next meeting. Score one point each time a phrase is used, plus bonus points as indicated. Score more than 5, and you’ve got an organization that is innovation-adverse. Score 10 or more, and you are innovation dead. 15 or more, and you might as well close up shop – or immediately book Jim for guidance!
- “We’ve always done it this way” (3 bonus points):
- “It won’t work”
- “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard”
- “That’s not my problem”
- “You can’t do that”
- “I don’t know how”
- “I don’t think I can”
- I didn’t know that”
- “The boss won’t go for it” (5 bonus points)
- “Why should I care?” (10 bonus points)
10 Signs that you’ve got an innovation dysfunction
- 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?”
How do innovative organizations differ?
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
The fact is, every organization should be able to develop innovation as a core virtue — if they aren’t, they certainly won’t survive the rapid rate of change that envelopes us today.
