Innovation + design

The Center for Creative Leadership recently released the findings of
their study of senior executives' opinions of the future trends they face. It is no
surprise that the increasing complexity of their challenges was
forefront on the executives' minds. As authors Corey Criswell and André
Martin noted in the introduction to the report, "Senior executives face
increasingly complex challenges that involve organizational changes,
market dynamics and talent shortages. One popular response to increasing
complexity is to lean on innovation. Our respondents believe that aiming
for innovation through overt processes (systems and structures) and
talent development is paramount to creating a culture that is agile
enough to address complex challenges."

I certainly hear the cry for innovation often in my client work. Simple
logic would argue that creation of an innovative culture cannot occur
without first innovating current business practices. All too often the
stories I hear of innovation revolve around the lone wolf who somehow
beat the existing system. Innovation will not be widespread until the
systems, practices, policies, and procedures are changed so that
innovation becomes the path of least resistance. It may even be
counterproductive to preach innovation and fire up the troops if they
run smack into barriers that discourage it. Cynicism often occurs,
followed by disengagement of talent when they wonder why they should
bother.

In our model for analyzing and creating solutions we recognize this
architecture as being a key component of successful change. If
innovation is the goal, perhaps the focus shouldn't be restricted to
encouraging the players. Instead we should look seriously at the playing
field. Some examples I am seeing include rigid organization structures,
project teams being populated by those who are available rather than
those who are necessary, resource allocation that doesn't value
investment in innovation, and metrics that reward traditional practices
over innovative approaches. There are, of course, many forces affecting
innovation or the lack of it. But examining current architecture seems
to me to be a good place to start.

What are you seeing? Examples? Challenges? Emotional outbursts?

Quoted from Tom Peters Blog