Help Wanted: Innovation (or maybe not…)

We hear from executives everywhere about how they are genuinely concerned about the state of innovation in their organizations, and how much they want  innovation to improve.

Often enough, when they need to hire new people, they’re hoping that the new staff will be able to help them with innovation too.  I recently noticed an ad for a new position at a software company that seemed to reflect this, but when I looked closer I found a somewhat different story.The job title was “Director Product Manager and Innovation,” which was almost clear enough.  It makes sense that product managers might have innovation responsibilities too.The next part was a description of the company, which presents itself as a leader in its enterprise software market, hundreds of employees, thousands of customers, and decades of history.Then it goes on to describe the specifics of the job.  “… responsible for establishing the business plan for creating a distinct product line and managing every aspect of the software product lifecycle. … includes all aspects of product strategy, business plan development, financial model development, product design, product development, product marketing and sales, and P&L management. … requires significant interaction with customers, sales, marketing, operations, and service to understand market needs and deliver products that build upon our leading market presence.”But did you notice what wasn’t there?After that came a list of tasks the job involved, and then a list of required skills.Yes, the very strange thing about this is that the word “innovation” doesn’t appear once.  Not once.  Nothing that says innovation is part of the execution of the job, and no requirement for any sort of experience or expertise in innovation methodology, or innovation management, or innovation anything.What this implies is that innovation is some sort of magic.  That innovation will happen in the course of doing other things.  (But we’d better not actually talk about it…)Which is, of course, entirely not the case.  Innovation doesn’t happen unless we make it happen.It begins with Innovation Leaders, who have four specific roles with respect to innovation:-    They set expectations.-    They define policy.-    They set goals.-    And they set the tone which says, “Innovation is important here.  We expect it, we plan for it, we measure it, and we talk about it.”Innovation is led by and managed by Innovation Champions, who are the ones who make it happen by:-    Supporting and creating projects,-    Helping innovators manage their projects,-    Removing obstacles to innovation throughout the organization,-    And through all that, executing strategy, which is to say, transforming strategic ideas into reality.And innovation is achieved by Creative Geniuses, who:-    Look for, and see, problems and possibilities that others do not see.-    Develop these into insights and ideas.-    And transform ideas into business and social value.These three roles are essential.  Without them, innovation can be severely blocked.Now this is not to say that any individual plays only one of the 3 roles.  To the contrary, the same person often plays all 3 roles.  But they are 3 roles, 3 different roles, and they must be understood as such.Now, getting back to the job posting I saw.  Clearly this is an organization that wants innovation, but apparently they don’t have a systematic process, or plan, or methodology for achieving it.  They are like most organizations in this regard.  But the companies that succeed at innovation are the ones that make it a focus and a priority.And they would never, ever, post a job with “innovation” in the job title, but then nothing in the job description or the list of responsibilities, or the required skills about it.If a company that does what this company did, well, they’re taking a rather large risk.  And given the widespread availability of great information and tools for managing innovation, they’re taking an unnecessary risk, too.Chances are, the Human Resources department drafted this ad, and they’ll screen the job applicants.  This tells us that the journey toward creating the innovation has to include HR, since they’re a key gatekeeper of human talent.  In fact, they could and should be leaders in the move to innovation, and they may also be champions.•••If you would like to learn more about the innovation culture model mentioned here, we invite you to click on this link to download a white paper with a more complete description.