Innovation As A Verb

Have you ever passed a new device that you haven’t been distracted by? I must confess that for me the answer is an emphatic “no!” Every technology holds an allure that I find irresistible; be they walkmen, or kindles, or cameras or … even sonic fishing lures; I love them all! In short, technologies speak to me as a siren calling to seamen, and I am always smitten.

At the same time, there are plenty of entry ways into such a romance. There is creativity, invention and innovation, each fundamentally different and yet intertwined, and over time I have favored innovation in my work, but even that is not straight-forward. When we speak of innovation, we speak of: Processes, Watt’s steam engine, for example, which helped launch the first Industrial Revolution; Products, such as Sony’s Walkman, which made music personal, mobile and quiet; Services, such as Amazon, which have completely transformed our lives by their convenience and accessibility; and, now, Business Models, such as Nespresso’s or Uber’s, which have completely changed the way we think about their industries, and tested the permeability of what used to be called barriers to entry. Next up, without a doubt, will be Organizational innovation, as we try to fit into an age of hyper-connectivity and the ecosystems that will go along with that. Never has the scope of managerial choices for achieving purposeful change ever been so broad, or so rich. 

But, if you think about it, when we speak of innovation, inventions, creative individuals, devices and the like, we are speaking about nouns. We are assigning exclusivity or title to these realms, and that is dangerous and diminishing for the idea of what the art of innovation can achieve. When I hear CEOs speak about our “innovation process,” or our “creative people,” or our “techies,” and I hear such terms frequently, I shudder inside, because they are taking the change experience and making it the property of some group, or person, or department. Instead, what if we considered innovation as a natural act accessible to all? Innovation as a verb; which recognizes that how we do things can be as, or more, important than what results. 

Innovation as a verb is the characterization of how we do our work. When Andy Boynton and I wrote about “The Idea Hunter,” it was the hunting that was important, not the hunter; the way that some people are better able to organize their search for new ideas. There were, thankfully, no nouns available to claim exclusivity; there are no Departments of Idea Hunting, no advanced degree programs in Idea Hunting, no Chief Idea Hunter with C-suite claims on this activity. As a result, anyone can be an idea hunter, and should be, and our book is full of different people doing this, in different ways, as an essential part of their lives. I feel the same about how we speak and teach innovation. We should expect that change is a normal part of our lives, and a fundamental need for any organization that aspires to sustain its success. I fervently believe that such change can occur anywhere in the firm; we can all be involved in innovation, even if we are not, ourselves, the original idea originator. In fact, if you take Alex Osterwalder’s and

Yves Pigneur’s Business Model Canvas, and look at which cells have given birth to disruptive innovations, you’ll find that every cell is represented, that every cell has been the originator of industry-shaking surprise. 

So, if you are willing to take “innovation as a verb” seriously, how should it change the way you work? 

• First of all, you should take the time to think about what you need to know more about. You may never be able to address the things you need to know, but are unaware of, but you can certainly reduce their number. Purposeful innovation is typically more effective than random ideation. You will probably be wrong at first about what you should be learning more about, but think of the correction process that follows as a form of triangulation around what is really your target.
• Next, you should be an Idea Hunter, or at least an appreciator of how other organizations, from industries way-different than yours, have solved the same problems that you are struggling with. Part of this requires a kaleidoscopic approach to thinking, where you can consider multiple options simultaneously. This requires being strategic in who you learn from outside your organization, and how best to put yourself in positions where idea-collisions are more likely to occur. You should curate serendipity.
• Third, you should be instinctively experimental, because you will be moving into areas where predictions no longer work well, and only by trying things to learn the outcomes can you move forward in a big way. This, inevitably means that you will be taking chances, but innovation, after all, is all about taking chances.
• Fourth, never take chances carelessly. You should always try to reduce the risks associated with being experimental, not by reducing your daring, but by reducing the costs and times associated with the inevitable failures. One way of doing this is by experimenting with pretotypes, before you prototype. When time is short, and you are moving fast, it’s important to determine “is anyone really interested in this?” before you begin to question “can we build it?” For managers, this may well mean trialing ideas in a publicly visible manner, before decisions are taken. 
• Fifth, you should be radically open; do talk to strangers! What’s the point of experimenting if you don’t learn, and the best way to learn as much as you can is to ensure that your experiments and your ideas are open for review and improvement to all sorts of non-traditional opinions. There is a movement called “Working Outloud” which espouses sharing your ideas, as they are being developed, so that you have the benefit of more input, rather than less. It’s a great habit to embrace if you wish to make innovation a personal lifestyle.
• Sixth, you should strive to be interested, rather than interesting. Hang around with people who you can learn something from, not with those who find you fascinating, or, even worse, dependable.

Finally, do not do any of these things alone; you are better, more effective, more thoughtful and more daring when you are doing these things with others. More minds are better than fewer; more different minds are always better than more of the same. 

You cannot preach the virtues of innovation as a leader, if you don’t practice them yourself. The first step towards a more innovative culture is to become a more innovative you.