successful solutions for them. In 2006 Cheskin identified five different types of innovation cultures common to organizations:
• Structured Innovators
• Creative Innovators
• Dynamic Innovators
• Ad Hoc Innovators
• Innovation Outsourcers
Each requires a different approach to engage innovation—in some, like innovation outsourcers, it’s probably not even worth trying to innovate from inside the organization. To be successful, an organization must honestly know itself and choose a path that works for it.
Why Aren’t Organizations Creative Enough? It’s not that companies aren’t creative, it’s that most don’t realize that that are. “Creativity,” as a term, has been so poorly defined that it’s now confused with “wild and crazy” approaches, wacky ideas, and frivolous effectiveness. However, creativity is simply the ability to create new and appropriate solutions to challenges, and people throughout organizations do that every day (when given the opportunity). It’s not the exclusive skill or domain of
designers or those in the “ creative department.” It’s a skill regularly employed by managers, leaders, and workers in all aspects of an organization, include engineering, operations, marketing, and finance.
Until creativity is restored with an understanding that everyone has a duty to be creative in their job, creativity will be wielded (if at all) as a kind of last-ditch, heroic effort when all else fails. Organizations can’t wait for everything else to fail. Creative solutions need to be part of standard operating procedure, not emergency, extracurricular, or offsite procedure.
Innovation isn’t easy or obvious, and it’s often messy. It certainly isn’t guaranteed. So many organizations already think they’re innovating, and yet most are failing miserably in their efforts. This makes innovation look risky—and it is. But it’s a risk that no organization can fail to take.
It may feel like things aren’t going forward at times, and the most successful techniques for innovation are unfamiliar
to business leaders—or even threatening to their control, stature, or perspective (which is why they’re often discarded). However, despite all of this, innovation can be exhilarating and rewarding, and it must be done in order to succeed. Conditions often require wholesale change in an organization’s strategy, including the abandonment of old approaches, understandings, and offerings. Innovation can enable this kind of change, but it takes courage to follow this road.
Very briefly, and according to the authors of Natural Capitalism, sustainability is the successful management of four kinds of capital:
• Financial Capital (monetary assets and financial value)
• Manufactured Capital (IP plus other organizational assets)
• Natural Capital (environmen- tal assets)
• Human Capital (people and sociocultural expectations)
Why is sustainability important to all organizations (as opposed to merely those serving “green” markets)? Because
November + December 2008
STRUCTURED INNOVATORS ( 18 PERCENT):
• Formal process
• Led from the middle
• Low collaboration
• Analytic evaluations
• Iterative
• Risks minimized
CREATIVE DYNAMIC INNOVATORS INNOVATORS
( 26 PERCENT): ( 39 PERCENT):
• “Big Ideas” inspire • Strategy guides process
• Led from the top • Led from top
• Often haphazard process • Cross-functional teams
• Focus on creativity • Collaborative
• Risk taking is accepted • Creative environment
• Rational inspiration
• Risk taking is accepted
AD HOC INNOVATORS ( 10 PERCENT):
• Accidental innovation
• Innovation not valued
• Creativity not valued
• Haphazard process
INNOVATION OUTSOURCERS ( 8 PERCENT):
• Relies on consultants
• Acquires innovation
References:
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