After an enjoyable weeklong vacation in Virginia and Maryland I returned to D.C., where my vacation started, to attend Computers in Libraries once again. CIL 2012 kicked off with a keynote from Jeffery Phillips of OVO Innovation Services.
I enjoyed this keynote. His keynote looked at the problem of
innovating in organizations that have focused more and more on
efficiency since the 1970s. Phillips argued (as he has also argued
in books that he has written) that a focus on efficiency is harmful
toward innovation, which is needed more than ever as the pace of
change continues to accelerate. People have a tendency to focus on
“business as usual” and reward compliance with existing standards
while not rewarding innovation, even if it is ostensibly encouraged.
What is needed is a transition to “Innovation Business as Usual,”
an approach used at companies like Apple, which have continued to
innovate at a frenetic pace. In this approach innovation is
respected and has a place in a “business as usual” framework. As
middle management tends to be the biggest stumbling block for
innovation (upper management wants innovation and the workers in a
company normally want to innovate and improve things, while middle
management wants everything to continue workings as efficiently as
possible), changes need to occur in middle management to make this
happen. This boils down to these four principles:
- Create clear innovation goals – Link innovation activities to strategic goals and define innovation outcomes.
- Define and sustain and innovation process – Create a process and methodology around how you try to innovate.
- Rebalance tools and skills – Improve innovation skills while maintaining efficiency
- Rework culture, incentives, rewards – Pavlov told us that people will do what they expect they'll be rewarded to do.
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