Tag Archives: Innovation and Idea Management

Can employees learn to be innovative?

Can employees learn to be innovative?

There is a frenzy of discussion on the Front End Innovation LinkedIn group around the following question: can employees learn to be innovative?

I think this a question many executives are asking themselves, and undoubtedly are looking for a silver bullet answer. My answer?

First, let’s get a few things out of the way…

The sad truth about how innovation dies in large organizations

For things to change somebody somewhere has to act differently…

There’s a great thread going on in the Beyond Innovation LinkedIn group about exciting examples of driving a culture of innovation. In my experience, it was one singular person driving it and enlisting people. Always. Most of the people who commented on the thread have similar responses. This is not surprising at all, it is rare an organization that has innovation embedded in their core DNA.

But one response that stood out is about how NOT to drive a culture of innovation!

VP of Culture of Innovation John Coyle at Maddock Douglas chimes in:

Four people we need to make innovation happen

Innovation comes from diversity. From people colliding at the intersection of domains, ideas and experiences. In other words, we need to create a Renaissance!

MIT Media Lab guru Joi Ito says we need to be all four of these people to make innovation happen. Or, if you are not a Renaissance Man, an innovation team needs these four people.

The one thing any non-innovative leader can do to enable innovation

Teams working on ideas

multidisciplinary teams working on ideas

So, you’re the CEO of a company and you are not known to be innovative. What do you do?

No fear, for you are not alone.

For all the talk about the need for innovation, the truth is most CEO’s are not innovative. They are much more focused on maintaining the current narrative than on discovery. But, there is one thing they can do to walk the talk:

Get out of the way.

Even though there is a lot of literature about how to innovate, many leaders have not understood and implemented a key insight about how to create the conditions for innovation to happen. And so it is here, where they can have an immediate influence!

How to start?