Culture block. Ideation is not innovation.
Anyone can come up with good ideas; implementing them takes sweat and conviction. Why is it we are built to think of ideas, not make them happen? How does the ratio get inversed? What drives make-it-happen cultures in complex organisations?
Ideas are free, execution is priceless. We all have ideas on how to make this world a better place, to make our lives easier, to help the disadvantaged, to make a million dollars.
Change is hard, many strategies fail, so how do you pick the right idea to pursue? How do you get buy-in? And, most importantly, how do you successfully implement and make a positive impact for you, your organisation and the people around you?
In an era of constant change, a time of transition and flux, when external factors such as the Internet, economic instability and environmental change cause uncertainty in day to day operations, being adaptable is more important than ever.
Even considering this high rate of change it is still easy to remain the same. Many large organisations and government mitigate risk, stagnate, and even though they are proven to be incredibly inefficient, the price of change is too great.
Many of our current models in the private and public sector were built in the industrial era where mass production, one size fits all, designing services for people not with people, was the standard.
To change this, to move into a new mode of thinking and strategic action many organisations are tackling this on the edge. Small innovation projects that test ideas, allow for small wins and prove the model before widespread adoption.
The tech entrepreneur community have become efficient at starting small and focused with the wide-spread adoption of the Lean StartUp methodology. Coined by Eric Ries it’s principles allow testing and validation of ideas, thus decreasing waste and increasing success. A selected idea has a Minimum Viable Product built and released. Testing is explored through customer development and, if needed, if the idea is proved invalid, the process iterates to a new version of the idea and the process starts again. This methodology has been successfully implemented for many leading tech startups including the online cloud service DropBox.
Effective design to implement ideas is also imperative. Design Thinking and Service Design are methods that are increasingly being adopted to help develop ideas, or rather, explore problems so that innovation on the delivery of solutions can be developed. As opposed to recent methods of designing services ‘for’ people this method designs services ‘with’ people and cares about the experience of all people involved.
To drive a make-it-happen culture, of utmost importance is buy-in from people. Often too few people have been brought into the new vision. In other cases, employees aren’t urgent or enthusiastic about the changes taking place. And, many times, too little effort has been made to get people involved in driving new strategies forward.
To turn this around, collaboration is key. All good ideas need a team to move them to completion. Teams make more progress than individuals. When you get more people excited in your idea, that’s when you can make it happen.
Previous modes of implementing ideas within organisations have taken a top-down approach, where ideas are dictated from high-level management and employees are given commands on what to do. This has contributed to 70% of employees being disengaged with their work.
Emergent models of social innovation and collaboration counter this. Ideas implemented from a “grass-roots” level, a flat hierarchy, with collective collaboration focused on the power of the group, allow for a holistic approach to implementing ideas. This method empowers those involved in the implementation process to drive the idea themselves.
Social innovation is defined as new ideas that meet social needs of all kinds. Business of the future will have the competitive edge by adopting and exploring opportunities of social innovation. And the models are emerging to turn these social innovations into action.
"I'm deeply convinced that humanity's future relies on our ability to explore and invent new business models and new types of business corporations" Frank Riboud, CEO Groupe DANONE
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is dead, Giving money to charity, staff volunteering, painting the community centre - all good things but they are peripheral to business. They don’t lead to the creation of new products and services, differentiate your brand, engage your people or achieve lasting social or environmental impact.
The answers to the world’s biggest social challenges will not be found by governments, charities or NGO’s alone. Increasingly big companies are creating new business models, new products and services that deliver lasting, financially viable solutions to the big problems that we face.
The world of social innovation, and the pace of change is constantly accelerating thanks to the development of technology. We live in a hyper-connected world. Our iPhones give us access to more information than Bill Clinton had access to 15 years ago when he was the president of the United States.
“Every 2 days we produce more information than we did from the dawn of humankind to 2003” Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google.
By 2020 it is predicted that the Participatory Revolution will be upon us. We are increasingly participating online in dialogue on politics and how responsible corporations are. What impact will this have on implementing ideas? If we crowdsource ideas and the knowledge of the crowd will we also be able to crowdsource the implementation of ideas? In what way can this be achieved?
All of our current business models are being challenged by a faster rate of change. Our ability to turn ideas into action, to implement, execute well and with team participation will need to become business standard. We need to be adaptable to change, to be resilient and we need to embrace collaboration and inclusiveness. We need to stop being risk averse and celebrate innovation as the new standard!
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