The new language of innovation

1
The new language of innovation

• Facilitated by Jeff De Cagna
• Chief Strategist and Founder, Principled
  Innovation LLC
• IABC 2005 International Conference
• June 27, 2005 ? Washington, DC USA

2
What kind of innovation leader are you now?
What kind of innovation leader will you become?
3
Managers are not paid to make the inevitable
happen.  In most organizations, the ordinary
routines of business chug along without much
managerial oversight.  The job of managers,
therefore, is to make the business do more than
chugto move it forward in innovative, surprising
ways. Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal
Beware the Busy Manager
Harvard Business
Review (2/02)
Leaders
leaders
4
What are the major challenges organizations face
in making innovation happen consistently?
5
BCG Innovation Survey (12/04)(500 senior
executives in 47 countries and all major
industries)

• 73 percent of companies worldwide will increase
  spending on innovation in 2005, up from 64
  percent in 2004.
• 67 percent of executives ranked innovation as one
  of their company's top three strategic priorities
  for 2005.
• On average, executives said that their companies
  plan to boost spending on innovation by 15
  percent in 2005.
• More than 90 percent said that generating growth
  through innovation has become essential for
  success in their industry.

6
The four biggest obstacles(Adapted from Gary
Hamel)
Cognitive The inability to escape denial and
nostalgia Cant see the future
Political The inability to move resources away
from what isnt working Cant afford/risk it
Strategic The inability to develop new strategic
options Cant overcome CW
Ideological The inability to get beyond
optimization Cant question what we do
7
How can leaders effectively connect the "value"
and "values" of innovation through language?
8
Language is only secondarily the means by which
we communicate. It is primarily the means by
which we think.
Dee Hock
Founder and CEO Emeritus of VISA
9
Past performance is NO guarantee of future success
Of the original list of Fortune 500 companies
from July 1955, only 71 are still on the list
today, including only SEVEN of the original top
20.
Leaders CANNOT afford to make assumptions about
whether their organizations will survive.
10
Risk aversion is eventually going to drive
America into second-class status in our
increasingly global economy. Guaranteed outcomes
mean lowering our expectations. And lowered
expectations lead to mediocrity and sub-par
performance. We need to ask ourselves what's
going on here?
--Dr. William R. Brody, President The Johns
Hopkins University April 25, 2005
11
Vision is not enough, it must be combined with
venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps,
we must step up the stairs.
Vaclav Havel
Former president of the
Czech Republic
12
Innovation is changing
13
Innovation is changing II
When I say that innovation is being
democratized, I mean that users of products and
servicesboth firms and individual consumersare
increasingly able to innovate for themselves.
User-centered innovation processes offer great
advantages over the manufacturer-centric
innovationsystems that have been the mainstay of
commerce for hundreds of years.
14
A different definition of innovation
Innovation lives in the careful balance of
systemic freedom and systemic discipline
necessary for discovering and developing ideas to
create new value.
15
Innovation Values Cycle
Imagination
?
?
Insight
Impact
?
?
Opportunity
16
A new language of innovation

• The Old Language
• Closed
• Proprietary
• Company-centered
• Competition
• Serendipitous
• Necessary expense
• Minimizing risk
• What we know
• Whats achievable

• The New Language
• Open/democratic
• Distributed/shared
• User-centered/DIY
• Beyond competition
• Systemic
• Critical investment
• Leveraging risk
• What we can learn
• Whats possible

17
How can a new language of innovation assist
leaders in identifying the organization's most
capable and talented contributors to the work?
18
Generative communications

• We dont need more transactional exchanges
  between leaders and followers.
• Time-starved people with fragmented attention
  need inspiration, rather than simply calculation,
  to act on something as important and as
  challenging as innovation.
• We need authentic conversations focused on what
  is possible, drawn from a variety of individual
  and shared experiences.
• The contributors your organization needs will
  respond.

19
How can we be generative?

• We must be willing to live in the apparent
  paradox of freedom and discipline that makes
  innovation possible.
• We must be willing to share our stories of both
  success and failure and consider their meanings
  not simply for the organization but for the
  people it serves.
• We must leverage social media, such as blogging
  and podcasting, to share these stories with
  greatest possible level of authenticity and reach.

20
What kind of innovation leader are you now?
What kind of innovation leader will you become?
21
Continuing the conversation
Send me an e-mail at jeffpi1_at_gmail.com
Check out blog/podcast at associationinnovation.co
m and associationsunorthodox.comand subscribe
too!
Visit my website at www.principledinnovation.com
THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF THIS SESSION!