This aligns very well with my own experience and a number of you will have heard me banging on about how ‘labels’, such as ‘vision’ and ‘mission’ are very powerful when applied as they were intended.
This aligns very well with my own experience and a number of you will have heard me banging on about how ‘labels’, such as ‘vision’ and ‘mission’ are very powerful when applied as they were intended. Organisations that have deeply thought through meaningful visions and missions tend to be the successful ones, while they remain true to the purpose defined and the values that support it.
Many organisations produce something labelled vision and mission that is actually a set of business goals. It is a shallow, sometimes cynical exercise, to demonstrate they are in the groove and have ticked the box. This version of the process is ‘meaning less’.
Innovation is now suffering the same fate. Innovation is driven by imagination, a dream, passion and hard work to make it real, or it used to be. Innovation is a behaviour, not a process. Too much innovation is now driven by short term operational needs to create immediate solutions, cheaply. This is not innovation, not even continuous improvement, it is a survival tactic to show that something has been done and the box is ticked. Understandable, as we all need to respond to the world around us in order to survive but get your terms right, so no threatening letters please!
The endless conversations about whether or not innovation is disruptive, strategic, incremental etc. merely confuse the picture. Interesting to pontificate about over a pint or three but none of it matters a jot in terms of the leadership and behaviours that are needed to foster creativity leading to innovation and successful commercialisation.
The un-named organisation that did the research is considering re-introducing ‘invention’ as the label to describe ‘proper innovation’. I wish them every success.
Jonne Ceserani
07770 720 373
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