Episode #423: The Creative Idea Journey Within Companies

People are very creative, although many would not describe themselves that way. This is often the case because the environment they have experienced has been unfriendly toward innovation. Had they been given the right opportunity to be creative, then a lot of excellent previously untapped ideas would have come forth. In firms, we do have idea sessions and sometimes even specific brainstorming sessions, but it is rare that these actually produce anything other than a major hole in our calendar. Or sometimes we have the opposite problem. There are some really good ideas generated and then nothing is ever done with them. They duly join all the other great, but wasted “dead on arrival” ideas, in the communal graveyard for corporate innovation. Even if the leaders have done a good job and created a culture favouring innovation, there are still many leagues to travel, before any of these idea ever see their application light of day.

Ideas start individually. The stimulation for the idea can come from anywhere and firm’s motivated idea generators are often constantly accumulating knowledge and tapping into networks, seeking glimmers and sparks for ideas. The bigger the networks and the broader the spread of attention, the more likely inspiration will strike. We all want more creativity in our companies, which is good. However, ask yourself, “what quality and quantity of networks are we assisting our team members to tap into, to spur new ideas?”.

Ideas need careful cultivation. Firstly, we need to have staff sufficiently engaged to care to make things better around here. That statement may eliminate a large chunk of the population right there. Consistent engagement survey numbers in Japan place the “highly engaged” category in the 5%-7% range, which means the rest of the crew may be lukewarm about making any efforts to generate great ideas. If you are turning up for the monthly pay packet, genius idea generation excitement may not be on your horizon.

The engaged person coming up with the idea will still need to have a clear understanding of the purpose of their work and the company’s direction. Are the bosses in your company doing a good enough job communicating the WHY. If we suddenly called the youngest, most junior staff, would they know what was the firm’s purpose? There is no point in building a better mousetrap, if the company strategy has pivoted all the attention and investment to cat breeding, as the central business model. These engaged staff must also feel encouraged to step outside their comfort zone and try something new. Why would they feel like that? What are the senior leadership team doing on a daily basis to inculcate that type of “take risks in innovation” culture in the organisation?

The way the leaders communicate about new ideas and particularly, how they treat others who have gone down the innovation road, is the clear proof would-be creators are watching like hawks. They have to be competent, smart people in the first place to come up with worthwhile ideas. There are also poseurs, dilettantes and wannabes invading the field of firm idea generation. They may be the Dunning-Kruger poster children in the team, who believe they are smarter and more capable than they actually are and whose ideas are worthless. This is tricky, because the leaders have to accept that there will be both wheat and chaff involved in the idea generation effort. If smart people see that even not so smart people are encouraged to come up with ideas, they are likely to become braver and more confident about pushing their own “genius” ideas forward.

The idea still needs journey sponsors. Others inside the company have to be able to see the idea’s potential. Often there will be some form of collaboration to redirect the idea, expand it, shrink it , wrangle it and tweak it in a way which makes it more applicable for the business to pursue.

Imagining you can swan up to senior management with your shiny idea, without having gone through some harmonisation process, down in the belly of the machine, is usually wishful thinking. You need allies, promoters and mentors.

Idea champions must emerge to shepherd the idea up the decision-making chain. This sounds easy, except that most bosses are massively time poor and have very short concentration spans for anything other than what they need to be working on. Their lives are a hapless series of meetings from dawn till late at night, with rabid emailing crushed into the gaps. There is also the problem of idea pirates boarding ship and stealing the idea for their own career acceleration. Many a subordinate has seen the boss showcase their idea, as if it were their own, as they ingratiate themselves with the senior executives. You remain invisible, but your boss is celebrated, rewarded and promoted.

Selling ideas to senior management can be a fraught exercise depending on the company’s situation. If the company is losing money, there is little appetite for anything but firing people and slashing and burning their way out of trouble. Ideas require investments of time, human resources and cash in most cases – all of which are generally in short supply at the best of times. Having a great idea at the wrong time isn’t helpful. Microsoft launched their Microsoft Tablet a decade ahead of Steve Job’s iPad and in 2004 they launched their Microsoft SPOT Watch, again many years ahead of Apple’s IWatch’s 2015 debut. Both Microsoft products failed, but both proved great successes for Apple. Timing, timing, timing.

Having an express lane created for good ideas make a lot of sense. Getting smart ideas in front of the top people is key. Being able to shepherd good ideas through the firm’s convoluted internal systems is a differentable advantage. Skipping layers however is a political minefield in Silo Land, but if the express lane is there, then blocker megalomaniac middle management bosses can be cleared in a single bound, like a running back over a linebacker. So do you have such an express lane for good, new ideas in your company?

The ideas are there, hidden away perhaps, but they are there. The leader’s job is to usher them forth and up the decision making chain of command, until they become a reality. The boss cohort’s inability to apply ideas is one of the great white collar crimes of leadership in the modern era.