INNOVATION
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the school up in the first place. We thought, people live longer, we have lots of experienced leaders who should be educated to make a difference to big world problems, so we started this.” The initial reaction from Harvard was to ask if anyone else was already doing this. “But by definition, with a new creative idea no one else is doing it.” An important way to sell radical ideas, she says, is to make
them sound familiar. It’s also critical not to be too far ahead of everyone else. “You don’t want to be so far ahead that everybody thinks you’re totally ridiculous, because all innovation only looks good in retrospect, after it’s worked. Before that, it’s just somebody’s crazy idea that competes with every other crazy idea around here for resources and support. “You want to make it sound familiar. With our innovation
at Harvard Business School, we said here’s how it’s similar to something you’ve already seen. If you don’t do that, you get enormous resistance.”
INNOVATION STIFLERS She talks about some of the things that stifle innovation, such as the lack of resources argument. “People say: ‘We’re too busy executing, we’re leaner than we used to be’. Well that’s often true, but it’s just an excuse. It turns out if you give people in companies an opportunity to pursue ideas that they care out – ideas of their own or ideas that they’d like to join a team to be part of – they end up being more productive. “I’ve seen people in companies on a total shoestring take little
bits and pieces of budgets – they often don’t need much to get an idea developed – and the time – they find the time because they care about it – and before you know it, those empowered groups are bringing ideas to the company that they might not have known about or acted on.” Kanter also believes that people and companies can
increasingly self-organise their way to innovation. “These days, in pharmaceutical research and development, R&D managers are now saying it is no longer our job to discover everything. It is our job to discover where the people are out in the world who are discovering something. “Another innovation stifler is that learning is scary, especially
for people who prided themselves on being confident in something. And innovation comes along and says you’re going to have to learn something new. That’s why I often say that change is a threat when it’s done to me. That’s often how many of us feel about new technology anyway. When we feel it’s inflicted on us, it’s a threat, because it’s disruptive. But change is an opportunity when it’s done by me, when it’s my chance to make a difference.” It’s vital, she says, to create a culture of learning and willingness to challenge within organisations and that this extends out to the leaders. “Nokia had a CEO when they were
‘Sometimes innovation is to take your greatest asset and to find other ways to build on it. That kind of creativity I like a lot, because it’s not the same thing as writing new software or inventing a new drug. It’s a lot simpler’
Issue 7 Autumn/Winter 2013 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 63
Photo credit: Tsutomu Suyama
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