Saturday Edition

dispatches from the new world of work

Innovate or Die: The Innovation114
A Menu of [Essential] Innovation Tactics
Part Four: Tactic #76 through #114

[If the numbering in this post doesn't seem to jive with yesterday's, that's because the list of 110 tactics seems to have grown in the course of the week; we've adjusted accordingly. As promised, however, a PDF of all 114 tactics is also available. Addenda 01.13.09: Now find 121 tactics in the PDF!—CM]

Adhocracy.
Love It or Leave It.

76. Projects "emerge." Recall "spontaneous discovery process," our item #3. Most projects invent themselves, rather than being the product of a formal planning process; and their growth into something big is also mostly organic. An effective culture of innovation is largely ad hoc—which drives many senior managers crazy. If they can't "get it," then they don't belong.

77. Leadership is on the fly. Things change rapidly. Teams are born and teams die. Yesterday's leader is today's follower—and vice versa. Developing "on the fly" leadership skills is no walk in the park. First, it must be perceived as a describable and learnable skill. (Hint: Women are better at this than men. Arguably, much better.)

78. Plan-less-ness. If your organization chart "makes sense," then you probably don't have an innovative enterprise. Adhocracy requires letting go of linearity assumptions.

Skunkworks.
Creating Parallel Universes.
Invisible/Shadow Organizations.

79. Parallel Universe/Unit within unit (School within a school). Big firms win in part through focus—which eventually means blinders that destroy them. The best way to innovate is often to create a Parallel Universe. It's effectively a "shadow company" with its own staffing, its own culture, in fact. As business schools saw the 2-year resident MBA decline, for instance, they sensed a rise in demand for executive education. But professors often balked. Smart schools set up schools within schools using new assets to experiment with and deliver exec ed. In many cases, the school-within-a-school was eventually re-integrated, but only after it had enough muscle to resist the regnant culture; in some cases the "shadow organization" eclipsed the traditional organization.

80. Skunkworks at all levels. Lockheed invented the term "Skunk Works;" the Lockheed Skunk Works was a small unit, in Burbank CA, that used a totally unconventional approach to developing essential military aircraft in record time with an astonishingly small group of astonishingly motivated people. The generic "skunkworks idea" is a variation on #79 above. That is, a "band of brothers and sisters" who are contrarian in nature, determined to go their own way and do it their own way, and who stink-up-the-central-culture as they pursue what they believe is an earthshattering dream. For example, Apple boss Steve Jobs "left" his own company and set up a Skunkworks, complete with pirate flag proudly flying, to develop the first Mac—it took dead aim at the heart of the company's then-current (successful) product line.

81. All Units/One-off projects. All units of all sizes should mount at least one "sorta Skunkworks," that is, separated bands pursuing no-fit, low-fit projects. Such a "band" may be one person in a 6-person department.

82. Centers of Excellence. A more formal approach to important innovations is setting up "centers of excellence." For example, GlaxoSmithKline created 7 CEDDs, Centers of Excellence for Drug Discovery. Previously, GSK had used a huge functional organization to do its development work; now these CEDDs became self-sufficient units led by powerful project managers.

83. Center of Excellence/Design. Design, writ large, is increasingly the route to product or service differentiation. Many companies are now beyond lip service, but a long way from fully incorporating design and experience creation into the heart of the company culture. One effective approach is a center of excellence with the avowed goal of nothing less than becoming a "hotbed" of global excellence—for example, Samsung followed this path and is giving Sony a run for its money.

84. Center of Excellence/Women's market. Tom rant. Creating products and services tailored to women's desires is obvious as the end of one's nose—and still honored in the breach. Especially when the magnitude of the effort adds up to strategic repositioning of the enterprise as a whole. My advice: Don't mess around, get serious, win big.

85. Center of Excellence/Boomer-Geezer market. Equivalent to #84 above. Market potential enormous. Will dominate for next quarter-century. Many "trying a few things." But strategic re-alignment more aptly suits the magnitude of the opportunity. My advice: Don't mess around, get serious, win big.

86. Acknowledgement. This section is about acknowledging the limits of change in the regnant culture. Hence, creation of parallel, shadow, etc. organizations-within-the-organization becomes part of the "way we [necessarily must] do things around here." There are no guarantees of success—but the ideas are worthy of serious consideration in small organizations as well as large ones.

Decentralization.
First Among Equals.

87. Decentralize. #1 innovation strategy. Big company. Pretty small company.

88. Keep decentralizing.

89. Decentralize "before it makes sense."

90. There is "decentralization," and then there is Decentralization. Beware the difference between "sorta" decentralization—and the real deal, à la GE or Johnson & Johnson or PepsiCo. Decentralization is an attitude as much as the shape of an org chart.

91. Form a cadre of formal "centralization fighters" with muscle. Beware ICD, Inherent Centralization Drift. (This is a top management task.)

The Team at the Top.
Diverse or Dead.
Cherish & Demand Disrespect.

92. Top team risk profile. You are what you eat. You are where you've been. A successful commitment to innovation will only come when the top team, in every function, has a l-o-n-g history of unflinching commitment to innovation.

93. Top team CQ/Curiosity Quotient. Innovators are unhappy if new ideas are not the currency of their everyday affairs. While execution is paramount, catholic interests must be permanently in evidence. Curiosity may well have killed the cat, but the lack thereof is the bane of successful longterm organizational vitality and, indeed, survival.

94. Board composition/Innovation experience. Boards must ooze with experience in and commitment to innovation. (Most don't.)

95. Top team/Innovation coaches and mentors. Top team members in innovative enterprises take innovation personally—from the top to the bottom of the organization. Among other things, they act as mentors for innovation projects, including small ones three or four levels down in the organization.

96. Women as leaders in project organizations. Women do better at adhocracy than men. Women do better with minimal hierarchy than men. Women do better with diversity than men. Women do better with shifting leadership that disobeys traditional ideas of power distribution than men.

97. Top Team Calendar management. If you are an Innovation Obsessive, it will show up in unmistakable fashion on your Calendar. Calendars never lie. They are 100% accurate and visible indicators of your priorities. Micromanage them accordingly. Make your Innovation Obsession scream from your calendar! (There are few more powerful change levers.)

98. Chief Forgetting Officer. Learning is a cakewalk. Forgetting is hell—particularly for "seasoned" successful executives. Therefore, the idea of "forgetting" per se is of perpetual strategic importance. Perhaps it should be formalized in the shape of a Chief Forgetting Officer?

99. Diversity. Diversity. Diversity. (Rare in top teams! Fix it! Fast! It works! Especially when innovation is the goal!)

100. Forward look. Beware offices (especially that of the Big Boss) and hallways and cafeterias awash in tributes to the past—even terrific ones like a Baldridge Award or a "product of the year award" from 1993, or even 2003; also dump the photos of you and famous "people of the past." When Steve Jobs re-arrived at Apple he tossed out all the models of yesterday's great "industry changing" computers—and replaced them with prototypes "from" tomorrow. Such "mere" "look and feel" stuff is potent medicine.

101. Irreverence. Innovation is about changing course before it's absolutely necessary. Hence excessive reverence for the past is Public Enemy #1. Establishing a "culture of irreverence" at the top is far easier said than done. But done it must be.

Commitment to Excellence in Innovation.
Or Bust.

102. Innovation is fun.

103. Innovation is a glorious way of life.

104. Innovation is scary. (But what is life without risk? Living death!)

105. Innovation is enthusiasm.

106. Innovation is passion.

107. Innovation is a matchless source of pride.

108. Innovation is life at the speed of light.

109. Innovation is an "all hands" game.

110. Innovation is big.

111. Innovation is small.

112. Innovation is an iPod.

113. Innovation is a Tuf-E-Nuf hammer.

114. Excellence in innovation.

We can't all be Apple or Cirque du Soleil or Basement Systems Inc.
But we can damn well die trying.

Tom Peters posted this on 01/08/09.

Comments

leadership on the fly - great point Tom

The only question worth asking - is your boss prepared to work for you on a project? (I mean REALLY work for you). I have had two that could (both women incidently!)

Posted by PaulH at January 8, 2009 6:44 AM

Dear Tom - I like the 104 best - it´s got a lot of "the Mexican sierra" stuff. In the middle of the battle, it´s easy to forget some essentials. The OODA loop is also quite imprinted in my neurons.
I think you´re implicitly saying that the strategy is a consequence, and also that people who have fun at work don´t need to create stupid rules for their own benefit.

Posted by GB at January 8, 2009 7:30 AM

"Irreverence. Innovation is about changing course before it's absolutely necessary. Hence excessive reverence for the past is Public Enemy #1. Establishing a "culture of irreverence" at the top is far easier said than done. But done it must be."

Being the youngest of 12 and trained by my mom, aunts and uncles and every elder at our church about the necessity of reverence, I lived to understand what worked well in authority figures and what did not over long periods of time. Their
we were required to respect even if they were not respectful. (I pushed the envelope. Believe me.) I was required to honor my older brothers and sister and to "give honor to whom honor is due." This was how I got mine. Nice balance.

I watched leaders of the church very carefully. Those who lacked the ability to say they were sorry often lacked the ability to change, alienating others who then found covert ways to retaliate instead of overt ways to improve. Those who lacked the humility to acknowledge failure were also not able to move people forward, hence being unable to lead effectively even though outwardly the members played the reverent roll well.

My uncle's church had 10,000 members in the 70's and by the 90's membership dwindled significantly. (My uncle had passed by then but he set the wheels in motion after having been given a great torch from my grandfather.) There seems to be very little difference in leadership in corporations today that do not value innovation which seems to need a kind of irreverence. Reverence is most certainly necessary, but irreverence is also a must--well, to a point. Some things die hard. :-)

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 8, 2009 11:00 AM

What a GREAT way to start the year! I'll be sharing this with my team and everyone else I know. How we start the year is very important and can last you until the end of '09.

I see a big emphasis on INNOVATION, a solution to the overall depressed economy.

Posted by Dennis Balajadia at January 8, 2009 7:08 PM

100 is critical.. Walked into a boardroom - looked around & was horrified. Once we all settled into our seats I leaned forward and said to my client and his assembled execs, I can't help you. This meeting is a waste of time. Your problem is clear - you are anchored in the past! Everything on these walls relates to your past. Everything I want to do with you is anchored in the future.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at January 8, 2009 9:55 PM

Quite dramatic, Richard. You think you might have been able to see beyond your strong sense of what may or might not have been to meet the needs of the client? You think you might have been able to identify some place, any place, where the intersection of past and present met, if only in the mind of some young person on the frontline that would make your sense materialize constructively to the executive team? Such opportunities for transformation I meet with great joy. Perhaps you missed out on a great opportunity that would have been useful for the company and you.

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 9, 2009 8:49 AM

Sometimes, innovation can get a little squirrelly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/4206310/Cajun-squirrel-among-crisp-flavours-tested-by-Walkers.html

Posted by zed at January 9, 2009 6:38 PM

Funny, zed! Bravo!

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 9, 2009 8:21 PM

The challenge of innovation is how to develop the supporting relationships to make it happen. As a finalist in the Johnny Bunko 7th lesson contest(http://www.johnnybunko.com/contestballot/), I've come to have a deeper appreciation for the role of gratitude in professional relationships. Through my 7th lesson - Say Thanks Every Day - I've discovered is more than a simple way to end a conversation. Rather, it is a means to transform antagonistic relationships into highly collaborative ones. My innovation challenge for the year is to Create a Revolution of Thanks and Welcome wherever I go. I hope you'll join me. If we do, then I believe we'll be ahead of everyone else once this recession lifts. Thanks.

Posted by Ed Brenegar at January 12, 2009 7:42 PM