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Andrea Ovans is a senior associate editor at Harvard Business Review.
10:15 AM Thursday May 17, 2012by Andrea Ovans | Comments
What do your innovators want? What do they need from you?
Earlier this month, we invited the HBR community on Twitter to share their personal insights into what they need to be at their most innovative. "What can your organizations do to help you?" we asked. "If you tell us, we will pass your comments on." A spirited conversation followed, one whose very richness demonstrates just what a challenge fostering innovation really is.
Innovators are, almost by definition, a diverse lot, and our discussion made it clear that different people need different things to be innovative, some of which are organizational, others personal.
"I need to get out of my mind and put pen on paper," said one.
"I need to understand my limitations to innovate," said another, adding "Really believing I don't know works for me. I see new angles this way."
"Just doing it on the side and presenting a prototype/business case has worked well for me in the past," offered a third.
Many don't want — or don't expect — much from their organizations at all: "Just give me $$ and get out of my way," pretty much summed up the sentiments of this sizeable group. "Sometimes knowing who to leave out of the innovation [process] can help," said a similarly minded innovator, adding "Just stay below the radar!"
In fact, some (well, many, really) are, like the author of that last comment, highly cynical about their organizations' commitment to innovation, a point that's easy to see in their rapid-fire responses when they were asked "What are the biggest obstacles to innovation for you?"
"Lack of vision"
"Lack of focus"
"Bureaucracy"
"What's in it for me, approach"
"Fear of change"
and perhaps most alarming, "Those with pre-set agendas (which they don't share)."
But not everyone agreed, as the most cogent of them put it: "Sometimes I wonder if fear of change is assumed to be more common than it is."
For this (also sizeable) group, their organizations' structure, resources, and community are essential to unleashing their creativity ("What do I need to innovate better? Deadlines!"). And they'd like more. "More coaches and less cheerleaders," requested one innovator, "especially when dealing with complex challenges." "We really need mentor-coaches for complex innovation," echoed another, "and to develop skills needed for global collaboration."
And they'd like to contribute more, too. So many of these people, it seems, are waiting to be invited to the innovation party but haven't gotten an invitation: "Managers often do not invite ALL employees to contribute ideas," as one person put it bluntly. In fact, it would appear some organizations, might be systematically, if unwittingly, discouraging large majorities of potential innovators from contributing:
"I was recently told that because I'm [only] 21, I have no business giving any kind of work advice," said another frankly.
"That's funny," was the immediate reply, "because once people get older, they feel they don't have a place to recommend anything cutting-edge."
These comments should trouble many organizations because if there's one thing pretty much everyone needed to be at their innovative best, it was emotional safety. "Show me an innovator. I'll show you a crazy person" — and that person needs to feel that it's okay to be a little bit crazy at work. "To be creative and innovative, employees need mental and emotional space — and freedom to voice personal perspectives." These were sentiments voiced more than once.
In the end, innovation in established companies is always something of a paradox. True iconoclasts and major-league risk takers tend to start their own businesses. Corporate innovators are something of a different breed: undoubtedly creative, definitely passionate, often very original, but also seekers of community (sometimes), organizational validation (almost always), structure (of various sorts), and the resources and security established companies could provide, if so moved.
What do your innovators ultimately want? Maybe it was this reply that best summed up the challenge, the paradox, and the insecurities facing your company's innovators: "Give me the freedom to work myself out of job, but then still have one."
But don't take my word for it, click here and see a far fuller range of comments, uncensored, for yourself. And if that piques your curiosity, see what everyone's talking about right now, and join in.
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