B24 The Innovation Challenge - Symptoms and Causes

 Innovation is today taken as a necessary given for organizational success, yet a lot of us struggle to institutionalize it . 

This 2 part series will look at how to address the challenge of Limited innovation in an organization. 

The first part looks at symptoms and their underlying causes and the second part will look at how to instil innovation as a way of life. 

Do you see the following happening within the organization 

1. No new ideas coming up from within the business units, sales offices, factories
2. No new ideas coming from interdisciplinary teams
3. No ideas , suggestions, coming in from external partners, suppliers, consultants , customers etc
4. Ideas being generated but not being converted to meaningful projects

If so I am sure you have wondered why this is happening. Here is what we have concluded based on our experience. 

The underlying causes behind some these symptoms are 

No new ideas coming up from within the units

• Silo-ed thinking in people.
• People skills in creativity and innovation needing upgradation
• People focusing only on immediate priorities
• No incentive to generate /no reward-recognition processes for new ideas
• Fear of failure

No ideas coming from interdisciplinary teams

• Lack of inter disciplinary forums
• Lack of appreciation of others functional areas and domains
• Interdisciplinary forums not having sufficient authority
• Lack of shared responsibility.
• People concerned only about their domains.
• Poor collaborative culture

No ideas coming in from external partners , suppliers , consultants , customers etc 

• Inadequate external networks
• External partnerships are formal and contractual
• Absence of multiple nodes of relationships with external partners
• (Relationship and interactions are held only by some key individuals)
• Ideas are generated but are not being converted to meaningful projects
• No formal process to channelise these ideas
• Ideas of differing sizes, varying cost resource commitments , impact , risk levels )
• People in key positions lack skills to appreciate new ideas or are risk averse
• Too many layers of hierarchy for approval
• No dedicated / accountable set of people to champion new ideas

Think about it and also see what all hold true for your organisation

The next part will look at how you can address these causes from the following three perspectives
1. Skills 
2. Systems and processes 
3. Structural mechanisms 

Reference : http://hbr.org/products/R0706J/R0706Jp4.pdf