One of the best articles I’ve read about culture and innovation is from HBR: First, fire all the managers. Written by Gary Hamel, it’s a very good and practical read, the idea of doing without managers shouldn’t surprise you if you’ve read his book The Future of Management. I won’t get into the specifics of the article (make sure you read it!) but I’ll just say that I also believe managers should not exist; but do believe that in some cases some management is necessary. More importantly, I believe organizations should be run by ideas, not titles.
This is a guest post by Dr. Ralph Ohr. Dr. Ohr has extensive experience in product/innovation management for international technology-based companies. His particular interest is targeted at the intersection of organizational and human innovation capabilities. You can follow him on Twitter @Ralph_Ohr.
A while ago, I came across the following tweet by Gary Hamel:
Tomorrow’s management systems will need to value diversity, dissent and divergence as highly as conformance, consensus and cohesion.
It reflects well the fact that businesses range in increasingly dynamic and complex environments, imposing accelerated and mostly unforeseeable change. The most promising way for organizations to face this unprecedented discontinuity is to develop an ability to adapt to changing conditions and emerging opportunities: Adaptability.…
“Individuals who get startled by the future weren’t paying attention.” – Gary Hamel
Change is the only constant. Knowing where, how and why it happens can mean the difference between being disrupted by a startup and staying relevant tomorrow.
Here are a few places where change happens:
The way we work.
The way we eat.
The way we move around the planet.
The way we build our homes.
The way we use and generate electricity.
The way we communicate.
The way we entertain ourselves.
The way we take care of our health.
The way we dress.
The way we get medically treated.
The way we learn.
The way we connect to other people.
But, still, we must remember that it’s not that hard to know what’s changing, it’s making sense of it that matters.
This is a not complete list, but I think it would be useful if we could build one. What do you think, where else does change happen?
UPDATE: Updated the list with Ralph Ohr’s suggestions in the comments.
Imagine that your organization is an innovation powerhouse. Imagine that other companies adopt your strategies and not the other way around. Imagine that every single person in your organization is hailed as an innovator. Too good to be true right?
18 Year Old Virgin Author Rowan Gibson and Peter Skarzynski set out to jumpstart your innovation efforts in their book Innovation to the Core. Distilled from various examples of companies that ‘DO’ innovation, they present a blueprint that we can use and also ‘DO’ innovation. But before you set out to ‘DO’ innovation you want to start with creating the conditions to foster innovation, then develop the skills you need to innovate and then a process to bring it all together and produce new products and services. Innovation to the core shows you how!
Pragmatic is the key word to describe the contents of this book, written as a guide this is THE best book I’ve read on enterprise innovation and have recommended it more times than I can remember. I actually used the chapter on business model innovation to give a friend of mine a big picture view of his online car sales business and brainstorm new approaches to compete.
If you’re familiar with Gary Hamel’s work from Competing for the Future, Leading the Revolution and The Future of Management you’ll absolutely want to read Innovation to the Core. Most of those insights are presented here in such a simple way that any startup or lone entrepreneur, small business that wants to grow, the mid-size business and the corporate juggernauts can put to use.
It has a 5 star rating at Amazon and with good reasons. The people, the skills and the process it’s all here.
I heard of W.L. Gore after reading the book The Future of Management from Gary Hamel and it’s great to see them get some recognition. Here’s a video of CEO of W.L. Gore Terri Kelly talking about how Gore’s culture of innovation is nurtured:…
