At the top of our organizations they ‘require’ innovation but will often not want the potential disruption this might entail.

Yet the organization today is being challenged like never before, it has gone from managing the predictable business to responding to the unpredictable, more opportunistic and alert to change, a place innovation can fit within the need to respond to this different environment.

This is the final post in the series that has focused on the innovation work mat components

Within this final post, I look at why innovation needs to align into the organization. Innovation seems to be in conflict and tension within so much within our organizations. Innovation is challenging the established order; today’s world is also demanding a new organizational design.

The Executive Innovation Work Mat offers a framework to gain a higher level of strategic focus around innovation. Innovation requires engagement throughout the organization to deliver in today’s tougher, more challenging world.

In this series of articles I have looked at the seven components to raise questions, to probe and prompt the necessary thinking that needs to be made in organizations around building innovation that sustains and delivers to the strategic need.

Adjusting our innovation systems to the changes happening all around us

I certainly believe there is an awful amount of change occurring around innovation.

Organizations are attempting to integrate innovation far more into their existing practices.

I think many of these attempts will fail. Existing practices often are not innovation-friendly!

The old organization model built on efficiency and effectiveness, operating in predictable conditions is being destroyed, we are in the world of the disruptor. Innovation needs to be more central to organization design to counter this challenge. Innovation thrives well in networks, it gains from ‘being connected’

Innovation is at the core of a new battle for securing an organizations future, in its relevancy and importance, yet our organizations continue to struggle with where to box this.

If innovation stays a side-show the organization faces a slow demise, as it hangs on grimly, determined to continue to work in ways it has become comfortable with.

Those ‘old’ ways that values controlling in prescribed hierarchies and through rigid plans are simply struggling in today’s more connected world.

We are in uncomfortable times where past systems and structures are not fit for purpose. What is valued more today is “guiding coalitions” where iterations and co-creating thrive.

Strategy and execution are highly interrelated and it is the power of a connected network, working on common cause within innovation that can generate powerful results. ‘Connected’ and ‘collected’ intelligence gives us fresh capacity and far more promising futures.

Innovation is operating in this growing organization world of the designers’ dilemma.
The middle of our organizations continues to focus upon constantly looking to achieve efficiencies and effectiveness to deliver that more predictable result that the top really prefers.

Much of middle management is working with yesterday’s tools and techniques. Innovation is caught up in this middle kingdom and continues to be in conflict. This needs changing.

The innovator themselves, those beginning to roam around the organization, are seeking to disrupt, to challenge, to alter the established pattern as their remit is to bring new innovations into the world. They often face considerable resistance from so many antibodies to this new way of managing.

Organizations have to face this constant ‘tension’ around innovation and where it fits in design, function and structure. Innovation is today not the most comfortable space to work within in our organizations. It often seems to ‘rub’ up against much that seems immovable, innovation generates often unwanted heat and conflict.

Yet innovation is essential, it ‘must’ reside, so we need to manage this ‘creative’ tension to achieve real value out of innovation, results that have lasting impact.

Moving through this disruptive and tense world calls for a more radical response.
Organizations want to see well-defined processes and coordination happening across the functions undertaking the activities of innovation.

It wants innovation to fit within existing organizational design.

This struggle that innovation has with this ‘need to fit’ is a tough challenge. The resolution requires senior management attention to work this thoughtfully through.

It is through this designing of all the essential parts that make up innovation, that will give it the functioning fit for ‘innovation purpose’ but this takes time, engagement and dedicated energy. It needs integrating and coordinate throughout the whole organization.

Innovation is certainly no different from other functions specializing, it does need to be well-designed into the organization but it needs carefully managing, piloting through the organization and that attention to its needs has to come from the top, as it can challenge many established practices that need resolution.

Innovation requires a well-designed system, this is where risk can be managed and defined. This requires having in place a well-designed innovation framework that accounts for and builds around all that good innovation needs.

Designing an integrated innovation system that can ‘pilot’ the activities safely is critical. Organizations will not permit undue risk unless they are in desperate situations where radical actions need to come into play, regretfully these are often too little too late.

How do we design innovation into our organizations systems?

Innovation over time will become more of the core of an organization.

To do this it needs to be well-defined, fully resourced and valued.

It constantly needs to demonstrate value creation.

Organizations need to set about building distinct set of capabilities that deliver on the essentials to provide the future health of the organization.

Innovation offers ‘much needed’ fresh oxygen that allows an organization to thrive and grow. If it starves the organization of this oxygen not only innovation dies but over time so does the organization and it will die.

Innovation must fit somehow into an organizations thinking, find a way to be worked into the routines and practices to do its job of creating the growth, the advancement in new products, services and business models to compete effectively with others to attract the customer to buy.

It needs to balance risk and opportunity; to deliver both efficient and effective results, be highly visible, organized and able to deliver on its future promise.

The design of the organization’s innovation engine room is the place for managing future growth. It needs examining and managing carefully.

As the current organisational tensions are being navigated through with new organisational designs emerge, Innovation has the potential within its possible design and management that could significantly contribute to this new emerging organization order.

Every organization has some clarity in their design, function and their innovation process yet it is constantly constrained by these tensions within organizations. Today there is a need for a new architecture of design for our business as outlined here, a post relating to designing new business models.

The call is for a well-designed innovation framework.

Within this series around the Executive Innovation Work Mat, we covered the different components that make up this work mat. The overarching aim of the work mat is to address one of the missing links we face in innovation today.

We need to achieve a clear alignment and engagement on innovation with the top through to the bottom of our organizations, where a strategic innovation document or framework lays out the integrated thinking for innovation and its contribution to the strategic needs of the organization. This can provide a clarity and purpose to unite behind.

This intent is determined by aligning innovation with the strategic needs and business outlook from the Chief Executive downwards.

In conclusion to the innovation work mat series.

In my view organization engagement comes from adopting a framework that prompts identification.

By working with an integrative innovation work mat it outlines innovations critical aspects to be worked through across the organization, to gain this greater alignment to the strategic intent of the business.

Any design and engagement needs to be highly dynamic, where the learning taking place will flow throughout the organization, top-down, and bottom-up, to make innovation alive and all connected.

This endeavour starts creating a thriving innovation ecosystem. One that is fuelled by energy and organisational commitment as all can see the connected parts and their contribution to this.

Can the Executive Innovation Work Mat be the catalyst needed? I think so.

The post Organizations are in a constant dilemma of the innovation fit. first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

It is amazing how many organizations lack a clear innovation vision and an explicit set of statements from the Chief Executive or their designated C-Level Officer on innovation.

One great visual paints a thousand words
This visual I came across some years back, and for me, it is outstanding in providing the feedback loops that go into developing the right innovation vision.

To get to a definitive endpoint of having an innovation vision you are faced with some complex challenges. These are well shown here.
Each influences the other and constantly loop back, making hopefully an improving vision success.

The different challenges seen in this terrific depiction, provide the sort of dialogue and efforts that needs to go into ‘crafting’ the innovation vision. It is hard, thoughtful work. Lets look at each of these a little more.

The Time Challenge

We get caught in annual planning cycles that often leave little time for ‘considered’ opinion and debate. The annual plans all come in a deluge and this is plainly wrong. Creating a vision needs a lot of time to consider all the aspects. The ‘time gap’ seriously impacts the visions success and clarity of purpose

The Diversity Challenge
Not only within the same board room do you have a diversity of opinion, you have that up and down any organization. Getting the views first out in the open, then managing the conflicting aspects and dealing with the ‘polarization effects’ all is difficult.

This is where a dedicated focus, a Chief Innovation Officer, can really make a difference. To get people to talk about the vision, what it should stand for, what needs to happen leads eventually to a greater clarity.

The Relationship Challenge
Managing the relationships both within and outside the organization when it comes to the right thinking on innovation is hard, converting doubters, drawing out differences, improving the quality of any conversations around innovation (ideally with facts not conjecture) and raising the enthusiasm to engage is crucial to moving towards the right vision

The Vision Cap Challenge
There is a reality to what and where you are and the perceived gap that need addressing honestly. This  is something we tend to be very poor at, is, holding a ‘creative’ tension that can stimulate and create a vibrant and exciting innovation vision.

We try to dampen the divergence in opinions far too early so we can (quickly) got to convergence. This ‘keenness’ to take away the ‘creative’ tension tends to replace it with potential set of ‘destructive’ ones and this often creates much of the beginnings of the barriers to innovation. People resent not being well listened too or allowed time to develop their arguments.

The Vision and its Success
If you get people to ‘freely’ talk about innovation, its importance, its impact and can ‘paint’ the future in broad brush strokes, they achieve a growing clarity and enthusiasm and that often missing critical component a sense of shared identity.

Innovation is complex; it deals with formal and informal mechanisms.

There is an awful lot to constructing a solid innovation vision but believe me, it is even harder to understand the right components that make up the innovation strategy, so it does eventually become a well-articulated innovation strategy.

More on this to come at a later date.

The post The essential innovation vision first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

Can we recognize yin yang as a dual force of innovation?

Scholars tell us that there are two natural complementary yet contradictory forces at work within our universe.

The Chinese call these ‘Yin Yang’. Yin is regarded as more passive, receptive, more outside-in, whereas Yang is more active, creative and inside-out. These are seemingly opposing forces but interconnected and interdependent; one gives rise to the other, they actually reinforce each other.

Yin & yang seemingly have the following characteristics: they are opposing yet equally rooted together; they have the power to transform each other and eventually are balanced out.

Yin Yang in Idea Management

As a good example of these opposite forces, we often are required to generate many different ideas and apply the countervailing need of selecting from among those that best can meet the organization’s objectives. It is critically important to have this ‘flow and balance’ and allow it to evolve constantly.

So by this example, we see that ’ Yin and Yang’ are both dynamic,  sometimes opposing forces, constantly interacting with each other balancing conflicting needs (and aims) and recognizing that one determines the other and you need them both to strengthen innovation. We need these two opposing forces in all we do to manage the ideas for innovation. These often do conflict with one another in their needs and actions. Still, they both need to be in force to bring out all that is needed to be evaluated in the idea process, so real innovation occurs for ‘something new that gives additional value’.

This balancing of yin and yang needed in the above idea management example follows a constantly changing course, but there is also a natural order. Equally, though this seemingly is always within a constantly evolving innovation system that reflects the constant change around us.

We cannot get ‘fixed’ in our ways, and it is this constant flow that system engineers have often never fully understood within managing the innovation process. Often they want to separate the parts of the system, attempting to take out the ‘conflict’ innovation truly needs to have constantly.

Yin Yang in risk and opportunity

‘Risk and opportunity’ are yet another of those two opposites for the yin yang of innovation that also need that constant balance for innovation to thrive. We need to arrive at our own point of “chi” to balance these. To arrive at this balance, we should look for the right interactions between the two sides, for instance:

• Recognition that on each side of the coin (risk/opportunity) will enable better decisions
• You seize better opportunities with confidence if you can quantify the risks.
• Recognition of the two can help you allocate funds more wisely
• You achieve a better delivery on an improving scale of understanding both aspects
• You anticipate problems far earlier

Moving the organization from being risk-averse through experimental to seeking opportunities needs a constant force and attention. Managing its tension is essential to gain a greater innovation effect. Effective risk management depends equally on the good quality of information- the same as “seeing” opportunity; it simply needs a good framework that provides suitable scope for sensible risk-taking and exploring the opportunity.

Yin and Yang of Creativity

Being creative has both a yin and a yang aspect also. Creative people tend to be smart and quick yet naïve at the same time and need often reminding them of the whole system and how their ideas can or cannot fit into this. As we are aware, creativity needs a fun and relaxed environment yet a large measure of professionalism.

The need for an open brainstorming environment needs to be balanced with ensuring this is well-structured to capture the purpose of the brainstorming. We all have ‘unconscious skills’ that need stirring and awakening. We are often asked more often to connect all the often conflicting ‘pieces’ to see a new possibility or resolve a difficult problem.

Having different perspectives available that provide diversity opens up our minds yet equally allows for placing these random pieces into a new order.

So the ‘yin and yang’ are needed in the creative process of innovation. You need the two opposites of managing differences and harnessing diversity to be in conflict actively and equally complement each other to bring out better results.

Yin Yang for designing positive tension into innovation

Then we actually need to build a greater ‘tension’ into our innovation processes. Finding the balance or appropriateness to achieving innovation goals are not natural tensions; they need to be designed in. Within innovation, understanding the context is critical; it needs to be fully understood, equally coordinating the outcomes are critical as well. Both create tension and need to be explained.

Context gives us the purpose, the bounds, the outline in structures and capabilities, roles and commitments to achieve the result that is being required. The coordination is what leadership is concerned with, to keep bringing the parts back to the whole as the outcome needed. The pursuit of operational excellence is another example. It often becomes an end unto itself and gets somehow disconnected from the mission of generating growth and creating value.

So yin yang describes how polar or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent, often in conflict but needing to be complementary opposites within a greater whole. Successfully managing the natural tensions should be viewed for innovation as not conflicts to be avoided but as opportunities to be managed and converted. This gives a greater coherence and consistency from ‘open’ participation and engagement.

Leadership has the role of getting the right balance, the right design tension into the innovating system, to bring out the best from this participation of all the opposing forces for greater innovation opportunity.

Recognizing yin yang evolves.

Finally, we also have to recognize evolution and, by extension, that innovation is constantly moving on. As the universe is changing every day, finding a common method to discover the unchanging rules in any activity is not easy. They all are constantly changing, and we must somehow recognize this in our appreciation of supporting innovation. The ‘fluidness’ in innovation makes it hard to manage.

How do you get the balance right in managing the innovation activity? It is not an easy one to solve and needs constant management and causes consistent concern. Looking at innovation differently, more adaptive in nature might help. The opposing forces of yin and yang are important to consider within this.

Recognizing the power of ‘yin yang for innovation’ can give you the order of things and how and why they relate to each other. Complementary and conflicting opposites contribute to a greater innovation understanding, but they need consistent attention to managing.

Who did say managing innovation was easy?
 

The post The yin yang of innovation understanding first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.