Only the brave innovate

Manager. Meeting room overlooking Prague. Shark smile. “Give me a guarantee that this change will work. And we slap each other.”

Roger L. Martin recently posted article about creatives and analysts. It cracked me up. Why design, innovation and creativity are on the fringes of interest for many organizations. Even if it harms them.

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Riding on 'certainty'

Modern economic schools teach managers that they need to analyze the situation and, based on this, predict the future. The procedure looks something like this:

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1️⃣ Let's look at the past.

2️⃣ Let's set the future according to it.

3️⃣ Profit. 🤑

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We analyze the available data. This confirms that the investment will bring the expected turnover and profit. We create a bulletproof business case. We schedule it. We'll guide him. We evaluate the data.

The approach is established, familiar, rigorous, it feels truthful. At the same time only works when nothing changes in the environment. In business... things change all the time.

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1️⃣ Some changes in the world significantly affect our future position.

2️⃣ When we start a project that changes the status quo, we simply have nothing to derive from its future performance. There are no past dates.

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Past → future. In principle, it makes no sense to innovate.

Innovation is dangerous.

Creativity is dangerous.

Changing the status quo is dangerous.

So I am all the more grateful for any client who is brave enough to embark on innovation. Because it goes against a bunch of things that are “normal”.

Three thoughts in conclusion.

Businessman & Manager

The manager takes care of keeping the organization running. The entrepreneur cares about making it prosperous in the future. You need both roles. In a small business, they are held by the owner. Who is the “entrepreneur” in your corporation?

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People are like water

They wrap around obstacles. Do you require them to reason the results up front? They're going to do it. They spend a huge amount of time with it. Everything underlies “data”.

Maybe a typical scientist applies for a grant for research that has long been completed! (and paid it off of a previous grant... with the benefit of using that grant in turn for future research). Do you want to be sure that the innovation will work? You've got to get it over with.

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Work with risk

Not innovating will bite you in the ass admittedly later, but all the more so. The organization must change to maintain its current position, because the world is also changing. And it's catching up extremely badly.

Ditch the past data in an unstable environment, devote energy to minimizing risks.

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1️⃣ Orient yourself in situation with the help of toolsthat work with that The future will be different. We use, for example, Wardley Maps. And at the end of August we organize webinar with practical use-cases.

2️⃣ The more innovative project you do, the Take smaller steps forward. Ideas we verify with design probes.

3️⃣ Want a contractor that has a system for innovation... and at the same time is able to with relevant examples to show that it worked. Or train your own innovation team.

“Past success is not an indicator of future results. “
‍-- SEC Rule 156

Reading for the weekend

Alpha School

Looks like in the US they found a way to educate kids 2.6x faster. It's dense.