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Of course we can provide some training
in any tool or technique, and try to enlarge the way people think when they
encounter an innovation exercise. But the best way to make an innovator is to
give them an intractable problem and remove the constraining barriers.
Encourage them to think differently and come up with novel ideas. And, once
they've done that, do it again. We can make innovators, but not just by
training, but also through engagement. Innovators are workers who get their
hands dirty.
By
Jeffrey Phillips
One of my recent pet peeves is the proliferation
of education options for innovation. One of my alma maters offers a
"certificate" for innovation management. While I cannot comment
on the course, it is taught by two professors with little private sector experience
who haven't created a product. One of them is a psychology major, which I guess
makes sense because innovation is often the product of new or unusual insights
or perspectives.
You'll forgive me for a startling lack of
enthusiasm about many of these "educational" offerings. There
are several reasons for my skepticism:
1. Innovation is strange, unusual work, very
different from what most people do day to day
2. It doesn't require great insight or difficult
tools, but does require working against considerable resistance in existing
cultures and customer expectations
3. You don't educate someone in
"innovation", you educate them in a set of tools, expectations,
perceptions and beliefs. The combination of these factors enables
innovation to occur.
4. No matter how much you train people, they can
only implement the tools and techniques if they are allowed to
5. There is no commonly agreed innovation
standard. Perhaps the closest anyone has come is in Creative Problem
Solving, which I would think is probably the best answer to innovation
training.
We are what we do repeatedly
It is in our nature as corporate employees and
those that serve them to follow well-trodden pathways. One of these
well-trodden and expected pathways is to "train" people on new tools
and methods when introducing a new project or capability. Most people in
organizations are paid handsomely for their deep experience, and that's what
they deliver every day. When forced to confront new thinking and new
tools, most will demand training to assist them to provide more
expertise. However, since most innovation is "one and done",
the vast majority of people don't regularly exercise their innovation skills
and experiences. Thus, training is often ineffective because the tools
that are learned aren't regularly engaged in consistent, repeated innovation
activities.
The complete lack of standards
Imagine a world where every automobile had a
different type of engine. Your one goal in life is to become the best
auto mechanic, yet every car that drives into your shop has a different engine.
Some are four cylinder gasoline engines. Some are eight cylinder diesel
engines. Some are hybrids, some are electric, some are powered by natural
gas. In this world you'd respond by becoming a virtuoso in one type of
engine, say compressed natural gas engines, or you'd hire a plethora of people
who could reasonably address a wide array of engine options. Such is the
nature of innovation activity today.
Without an agreed standard, and considering the
wide array of potential outcomes for innovation (incremental to disruptive,
products, services, business models, experiences and channels to name only a
few), there is no one way to do innovation, and so many variations as to make training
impossible, except in very narrow capabilities or tools. I suspect it's
probably possible to become an expert in Voice of the Customer techniques, but
this is simply one of several ways to get customer insight, which is just one
of several phases of a complete innovation activity.
A completely new way of thinking
Innovators argue about the metaphor of
"inside the box" thinking. Some believe that using the concept
of "inside the box" is helpful because innovation is always bounded
by constraints. Others believe that the concept of a "box" is
difficult, getting outside the box helps expand possibilities and introduce
adjacencies. Innovation is enabled by specific tools (trend
identification and analysis, scenario planning, customer insight generation,
open innovation, idea generation, prototyping, etc) but give me a person with
an open, curious and inquisitive mind and I can move the innovation world, even
without any of the other tools.
A careful, cautious plodder who is deeply
immersed in all of the innovation tools, who has every "certificate"
known to man but cannot release the thinking bonds that constrain them is
worthless on a true innovation exercise. They are people who know
everything and can apply nothing because their horizons are too small. Good innovation requires the courage to conduct new thinking, explore new
opportunities, question the status quo. In fact that's what innovation
really is, questioning why we do things the way we do, and seeking
opportunities to radically reshape how and what we do, to the benefit of
customers and ourselves. If you can't think differently, all the training
in the world is useless.
Born, or Made?
Now, if you are still with me, you might be
thinking that I am going to make the argument that innovators are born, not
made. You'd be wrong on that point. There is no innate innovation
gene, although clearly some people have more interest in exploration and
discovery. Some people are more creative than others. Some people
are really good at dreaming up new stuff. That's all true as far as it
goes, but neglects the fact that creativity and exploration must be linked to
rationalization and implementation of the good ideas in order to solve a
problem for a customer and to make money. Innovators aren't born but they
are shaped, more by experience than by training. Of course we can provide
some training in any tool or technique, and try to enlarge the way people think
when they encounter an innovation exercise. But the best way to make an
innovator is to give them an intractable problem and remove the constraining
barriers. Encourage them to think differently and come up with novel
ideas. And, once they've done that, do it again. We can make
innovators, but not just by training, but also through engagement. Innovators are workers who get their hands dirty. Does your certificate
come with some washing up powder and examples of the innovations you
created? If not, you are an observer of other people's innovation, and
need to do some work of your own.
Can you teach people to innovate?
The answer to this question is: no.
You cannot teach people to innovate. You can teach them tools and
techniques like TRIZ or trend spotting. You can teach them process
methodologies that lead them from customer needs to ideas to prototypes to
customer validation tests. You can teach them to think about innovation
outcomes that are more disruptive or radical than incremental change. You
can show them Doblin's Ten Types model to help them think through the potential
outcomes of an innovation activity. But until they understand that innovation
is a holistic implementation of all of these factors, and requires them to
release their fear, uncertainty and doubt, you are hammering jello to a
wall. It will not stick. The wall must be removed as the knowledge
is applied.
People can innovate. What we can do is
accelerate, simplify and make their innovation activities more productive and
efficient through tools and techniques. But what we cannot do is remove
fear, uncertainty, corporate constraints and a lack of executive
commitment. We cannot force organizations to sustain innovation
activities so the work is repeated until it becomes familiar and eventually
second nature. So the real question is: can we teach organizations and
corporate cultures to innovate? We know the answer to this is yes, but
few companies have the time and patience to make the change that's necessary.
