“If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.” ~Clint Eastwood
Kierkegaard once said, “Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.” In my opinion, this is especially vital when your company is looking to be innovative.
Everyone agrees that innovation is a good idea. Nearly everyone also agrees that innovation is the best (if not sometimes the ONLY) path to growth, profit and market leadership.
So, if innovation’s such an amazingly awesome thing, why is it so difficult for companies to actually do it? Are there hidden obstacles? Preconceived notions? Cultural roadblocks? Yes, yes, and yes. In a nutshell, people generally don’t like change. To really be innovative requires a whole bunch of change, flexibility, and willingness to take on the unknown. All three of which can be career (and company) makers or BIG-time breakers.
Out of the gate, you and your company have several innovation issues to overcome… Complexity, Giving Up, and Negativism. Complexity, or what I like to call “scope creep,” happens because people usually succumb to the thinking that “if we’re going to be innovative, we have to do things radically differently than the ways we’ve been doing them.“ Which is true, but it doesn’t mean making a mountain out of a molehill. Complexity expands the work required for innovation. And then, it drowns your organization by draining it of the strength, vitality, and clarity of vision required for true innovation. Expose it; measure it; and, remove it to refocus your team on new and better products/services, new and better customer service, and new and better marketing to get that innovative message out.
Giving up… the “I can’t” and “We won’t” syndrome. If you try something innovative in your company and it works the first time, you really didn’t innovate. Let me say that again… relentless persistence in overcoming real challenges is at the core of innovation. The innovative company must be committed to a goal that is a “stretch goal.” It must move the organization beyond where it currently sits. Just like the pain endured by the contestants on The Biggest Loser, it’s gonna hurt. Your people are going to want to quit. You have to be committed to making your company known for innovative thinking and results to attract and retain top people and to continuously produce relevant products and services. The days of the “cash cow” company are over. (Note the risks of the “cash cow” company… complacency, turf wars, and no control over spending… yikes!)
Finally, negativism can be wrapped up in two predominant thoughts: “We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work” (so, we’re still using the horse & buggy) or “We don’t want to try that because we don’t think it will work” (we’re scared because we don’t have a guarantee). Millions of ideas have been tried before the technology to make them work was sufficiently developed. Today’s smart phones were imagined decades ago when TV series Star Trek used a flip-open hand-held communicator. Technology and human imagination advances rapidly, making possible what didn’t work before.
The change required for innovation is the only constant and the rate of change is accelerating. To be a successful company, embrace change and see it as an enormous opportunity because while there is no guarantee, innovation marches on.
About Wendi McGowan