“When you are innovating the only thing you can be sure of is your first idea is wrong (1).”  How is that for your inspiring thought of the day!   

Reframe that idea, and actually, it’s more inspiring than it sounds because innovation is a process in which an organization must learn and adapt (1).  Innovation is as much about ideas as it about creating a culture and framework that fosters learning and creativity.    

Take a second to think back to your earliest childhood memories – they are most likely sprinkled with lessons in honesty—returning the pack of gum taken from the grocery store while waiting for our parents to check-out; admitting that the mud on the kitchen floor or the hole in the wall just didn’t appear!  Yes, we all know how to be honest, yet we all have unique experiences regarding how organizations reward and reinforce honesty.  

In building a culture of innovation, where employees feel empowered and can share honest ideas and feedback, Warren Bennis and James O’Toole write that it starts with organizational leaders modeling certain behaviors, and then working outward in the organization (2).  

They encourage:

People to Speak Truth to Power.  Encourage your front-line staff and up to be honest in the “truths” about the organization—what is working and what isn’t working.  What are they hearing in the field?

Reward Contrarians.  Finding those who will challenge the assumptions upon which the organization operates is an opportunity for growth.

Diversify your Sources of Information.  Understanding an organization means understanding and communicating with all the sub-cultures and groups that make up the larger picture—not just one individual or one department.

Admit Your Mistakes.  Perhaps not always fun, but it is learning accelerated.

Set Information Free.  It will set your staff free and make the difference in how employees’ energy is spent – on creating rather than conspiracy theory.

Now let’s look at how a few innovative companies have created processes to facilitate their innovation.    

Project Post-Mortems

How was The Incredibles so incredible?  Part of the answer rests in Pixar Animations project post-mortems.  After each Pixar project, Pixar “ask post-mortem participants to list the top five things they’d do again and the top five they wouldn’t do.  The positive-negative balance makes it a safer environment to explore every aspect of the project.  Participants also bring in lots of performance data including metrics such as how often something had to be reworked.  The data further stimulates discussion and challenges assumptions based on subjective impressions (3).”  Through Pixar’s culture and process, the company is able to mitigate risk on future projects by learning and adapting from the insights pulled from the project post-mortems, and create the most innovative and successful animation pictures.

Knowledge Mapping

Our other example comes from Arup Group, an engineering services firm based in the UK.  They have come up with a process called “Knowledge Mapping” in which they “depict the company’s areas of expertise and how employees and departments are connected to one another in terms of information flows (4).”  

Visual representations of information flow enable an organization to assess where they have communication and information gaps, but also open the door for new conversations and connections to be made.  Bridging people and ideas together facilitates new ideas and hopefully, those ideas realized into tangible innovations.

So for a second, consider these concepts and how one or both could be applied to your organization.   What are the formal and informal information flows in your organization and what’s missing?  

Piloting a new partnership with an outside agency, testing new engagement initiative –how could the collective insight from a project post-mortem impact how your organization delivers that program or service?  Let us know your thoughts!  …and remember, if the probability that our first idea is going to be wrong, or not quite hit the mark, then our other option is to get really good at nurturing, growing, learning and adapting those bad ideas.      

References
1. Anthony, Scott.  Are Cisco’s Committees a Better Way to Innovate? Innovation Insights, Harvard Business Review, August 12, 2009.  
2. Bennis, Warren and James O’Toole.  What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor.  Harvard Business Review, June 2009.  
3. Catmull, Ed.  How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity.  Harvard Business Review, September 2009.
4. Bessant, John, Kathrin Moslein, and Bettina Von Stamm.  In Search of Innovation.  June 22, 2009.  WSJ.com