Rumi Shivaz Innovation Blog

Innovation Killer - Lack of Funds For Experimentation

I continue to be amazed by how much money some organisations (especially in public sector) keep poring into dead beat projects but their un-willingness to dedicate some funding for prototyping and experimentation.  

This problem can be solved quite easily as suggested by Gary Hamel, a leading authority on Management Innovation.  

The idea is quite simple.  You build a culture where managers with substantial budgets (ie $100,000 and over) would be encouraged and allowed to allocate 2% - 5% of their budget for experimentation. Unlike the current situation where someone can only go up their chain of command to get funding, this approach will give someone with a bright idea number of potential sponsors. 

For this idea to work correctly, the funding manages must be given recognition even if they funded a breakthrough idea that will benefit another department or business unit rather than their own. 

 

Innovation Killer - The Culture Of Busyness

One of the biggest barriers for Innovation is the cruel culture of busyness of today’s management style.  Most of the managers I know are extremely busy, their diaries are full with meetings and they are totally exhausted by end of the week.  

If you want to be a great leader and create an organisation where passion and intellect is utilized to to the maximum, then you need to set an example and create more thinking time for yourself and every other team member in your organisation.  

This bold step, may seem too much of a culture change for many managers.  A simple way to get this started is to give your staff freedom to spend 15%-20% of their time on projects or a cause they are passionate about.  Companies like 3M, Google, GoreTex are ideal examples of organisations that have successfully implemented this policy and have created businesses that fully utilise the collective wisdom, enthusiasm, energy and creatively of their human capital. 

Innovation - Profile of a Successful Sponsor

One of the biggest barriers to success of an innovation programme is the lack of a Sponsor who is a true “Director” and a “Hurdler”. (Refer to a great book called "10 Faces of Innovation" from Tom Kelley - CEO of IDEO, the most sucessful innovation consulting company in he world).

If your organisation is going to embark on a journey towards Fostering Innovation, then you need to find a sponsor with the following attributes.

• Burning desire to make innovation happen rather than just talking about it
• Picking few fights (Ideas that needs to executed) that is very close to his/her heart and is aligned to strategic goals of the organisation
• Ability to overcome pressures to “just do the job” & overcome internal bureaucracies
• Wisdom to see beyond initial failures … must be prepared to “fail early to succeed sooner”
• Access to funding and sense of urgency to bring ideas to life.
• Ability to quickly assemble a balanced team for rapid prototyping & implementation by Tapping into Innovation networks.

Until a person within your organisation with the above profile is identified, innovation will be just talk, with not a lot of urgency and action.