Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The politics of innovation

You may be wondering what "politics" and innovation have in common. I was thinking that innovation in many firms is a proof of the "tragedy of the commons" concept in economics - but no one wants to read a blog post about economics, and much of the challenge of innovation is about beauracracy and culture, not economics.

Wikipedia quotes Aristotle as saying that "That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it". Likewise, innovation, while "important" to many different groups and functions within an organization, seems to suffer from a lack of attention and focus.

Lately, I've spent a fair amount of time working with firms to help create innovation programs and central innovation teams. This work inevitably meets with concern from other existing teams and initiatives. These groups believe that either

  1. "Everyone" should participate in innovation or
  2. Innovation is already a responsibility of one or several teams or
  3. Innovation can't be managed at all
What happens is that while everyone claims to think innovation is important, and part of their charter and responsibility, it rarely gets done. That's because the urgent (meeting quota, achieving the quarterly numbers, etc) always takes precedence over the investment that innovation demands. Thus, the innovation tragedy of the commons - everyone claims to think innovation is important and that they are busily working on it, when in fact no one does.

This problem alone is enough to establish a central innovation team that is managed and measured on innovation results. I'd rather place all my eggs in one basket, and watch that basket very closely, than hope that a broad cross-section of the organization is going to spend time on something they don't believe is urgent.

This is not to say that innovation should be "owned" by any one group within the organization. Clearly, there are teams, initiatives and product or service groups throughout any organization that are capable of innovation and that should be innovating. But if there's not a team that's consistently measured on innovation, little innovation will get done.
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
posted by Jeffrey Phillips at 9:18 PM

34 Comments:

Blogger Szymon Włochowicz said...

Hello,

In general I agree with you, but I have one concern that might be of an importance to the situation you've described. The fact that a complex system (like an "old" company) is not willing to innovate is not disputable. There are many reasons, one of them being the fact, that many times the innovation would actually be dangerous to the system itself. Innovative way of proceeding could make part of the system redundant or at least cause a significant change. Now what is proposed here is to make a part of the system (or a totally new subsystem) responsible for managing innovation. This has two threats. First is that this new subsystem might very soon be in conflict with the rest of the system as it would try to push changes not welcomed by the rest. In that scenario an innovation-subsystem is rewarded for innovating (changing) while the rest is rewarded for efficiency, i.e. not changing. Secondly if this subsystem grows and becomes itself a complex system a threat exists that it would do everything but not innovation. Why? Because innovation would become disruptive to this "grown" and "established" system. One of the best examples is in the EU where they try to push innovations by means of publicly-funded, government-supervised programs and projects. The visible effect is that they are producing tons and tons of analysis, reports, conferences and similar, but very little true innovation that can be seen comes out of this system. The system became so complex that it is not able to process any actual innovation. This is of course an exaggeration, but in smaller scale the threat exists.

The bottom line is that introducing and innovation-responsible subsystem (team) would not work without changing the mindset of the rest of the organization. This change in mindset must be strongly backed by the appropriate changes in the system in such a way, that the whole organization would be rewarded when a change from innovation comes, not punished.

BR, Szymon

12:30 PM  
Anonymous Seminar Jakarta Indonesia 2011 said...

Seminar Jakarta Indonesia 2011
Mobil Keluarga Ideal Terbaik Indonesia
Keluarga iDeal
Mobil Keluarga Ideal Terbaik Indonesia
Penghancur traffic
eing the fact, that many times the innovation would actually be dangerous to the system itself. Innovative way of proceeding could make part of the system redundant or at least cause a significant change. Now what is proposed here is to make a part of the system (or a totally new subsystem) responsib

11:22 PM  
Anonymous seminar jakarta indonesia 2011 said...

The Post is Great!

seminar jakarta indonesia 2011

how to attract a woman

11:59 PM  
Anonymous bacterial vaginosis treatment said...

great.!

cures for sweating
Bacterial Vaginosis Treatment
bv treatment
get pregnant faster

9:47 AM  
Anonymous Dexter Season 5 Episode 2 Hello, Bandit said...

Just blog walking and want to say hi to the owner, I'm enjoying reading your review/story thanks

11:55 PM  
Anonymous Mobil Keluarga Ideal Terbaik Indonesia said...

you make a great article
Mobil Keluarga Ideal Terbaik Indonesia
video Mobil Keluarga Ideal Terbaik Indonesia

7:48 AM  
Blogger donagusto said...

Indonesia Siap Bersaing DI Serp
Mobil Keluarga Ideal Terbaik Indonesia | Mobil Keluarga Ideal Terbaik Indonesia | TOYOTA SEO Award 2010 | Mobil Avanza dan Keluarga Ideal | Prime Tunnel Rush, Mobil Gaya Atau Mobil Keluarga Ideal | Alphard Mobil Elegan dan Nyaman Untuk Keluarga Rumah Mungil Yang Sehat | Rumah Mungil Yang Sehat | Rumah Mungil Yang Sehat | Rumah Mungil Peluang Usaha This has two threats. First is that this new subsystem might very soon be in conflict with the rest of the system as it would try to push changes not welcomed by the rest.

11:29 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

nice blog I love to visit here ..
I want to be a blogger Indonesia siap bersaing di serp and TROJANDECODER able to compete with other bloggers. other than that my friend can see my blog that is SEOCODE | Blog Uin Malang | Blog Unsri | SEOCEPAT | SEONGAKAK and if you do not mind please see my posting titled Mobil keluarga ideal terbaik indonesia thanks for visit...

1:12 AM  
Blogger donagusto said...

I really admire your work, Aspects of Minimalist House Design | Rumah Mungil Yang Sehat | Rumah Mungil Yang Sehat | Rumah Mungil Yang Sehat thanks for sharing this..

7:30 PM  
Anonymous delaying ejaculation said...

thanks for sharing..

8:51 AM  
Anonymous Inversiones en petroleo said...

Hello, i would like to know more about this topic because i think that could help me in personal projects.

12:13 PM  
Anonymous Invertir en oro said...

I think that this post is very good, i would like to read more information about this topic.

2:10 PM  
Anonymous konsultan seo said...

i would like to know more about this topic because i think that could help me in personal projects.

11:01 AM  
Anonymous asuransi pendidikan said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:02 AM  
Anonymous action coach said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:02 AM  
Anonymous jadi artis said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:02 AM  
Anonymous cara dapat duit said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:02 AM  
Anonymous kerja sama investasi said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:03 AM  
Anonymous coach indonesia said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:03 AM  
Anonymous jajanan bandung said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:03 AM  
Anonymous coklat valentine said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:03 AM  
Anonymous Panduan SEO said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

11:04 AM  
Anonymous percetakan said...

Hi I attempted to sign up to your RSS and the link seems to be broken. How can i get your RSS link?

3:26 AM  
Anonymous konsultan perusahaan said...

I think people fear idea management and innovation because there's a significant number of ideas that simply won't plan out.......Nice statement.....keep posting

8:59 AM  
Anonymous belajar internet marketing said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

9:00 AM  
Anonymous parcel lebaran said...

I think that this post is one of the best that i have read in my life, congrats you did a great job,.

9:09 AM  
Anonymous delayed orgasm said...

the difference between the content spammers and most corporate innovators is that the smaller

9:09 AM  
Anonymous how to avoid premature ejaculation said...

I'm writing to you because I just came across a business that I think has great potential. It lets you save money on almost everything. Make money from almost everything,

9:09 AM  
Anonymous konsultan seo said...

If growth is important to a firm, and if growth is dependent on offering existing products and services to new customers

9:09 AM  
Anonymous tabungan pendidikan said...

innovation is very natural and happens in the "real world" as new plants and animals colonize new ecological niches.

9:09 AM  
Anonymous mengecilkan perut said...

I wonder how you got so good. This is really a fascinating blog, lots of stuff that I can get into. One thing I just want to say is that your Blog is so perfect

9:10 AM  
Anonymous mengecilkan perut said...

We generally think most specifically about the risk associated with a new product introduction

9:10 AM  
Anonymous easy way to get pregnant said...

I would be aware that as somebody who really doesn’t comment to blogs a lot (in actual fact, this may be my first put up), I don’t think the time period “lurker” is very flattering to a non-posting reader.

9:10 AM  
Anonymous inversiones en oro said...

hello, this post is amazing, i would like to read more about it, because think that this information is very interesting.

12:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home