Idea and Innovation Blog

I think one can now let go of the security blanket of denial and face the fact that we are in a recession – most leading economic indicators have been pointing to its imminence for the past two years or so and now every reliable metric is bearing this stark reality out – whether on Wall Street and on Main Street. And no matter whether we like it or not, work needs to be done, bills need to be paid and life goes on – but, if you are an innovative manager or a management innovation crusader, the opportunity of a business cycle (if not a career) has arrived.

Human nature being what it is, the flight-or-fight instinct that is intended to serve us best depending on the situation, has all too often erred on the side of caution in times such as these. In the short term, it is the safe option – problem being that it doesn’t really drive growth – it maintains a certain stability. Worse than that, it usually has one running with the pack, because everyone else has chosen the path well-travelled. The opportunity to exercise un-common leadership and create real change inherently requires risk – a four real four letter word in business parlance; Kryptonite to the play-it-safe type. That’s a hot potato no self-respecting manager wants around on their watch. But when one looks at the Pantheon of business leaders who have folk-hero status for new thinking (think: Lee Iacocca, Steve Jobs and their ilk), it is precisely in times of crisis when they made their boldest and most enduring moves.

Accelerated and differentiated progress comes from leverage – and arguably the variety with the highest ROI impact is that of talent. And to maximize the talent one has is to also understand how broad of a talent base one has at their disposal – not just in one function or on the payroll. When the broader talent pool of employees, suppliers and customers is unleashed to interact, truly amazing things will happen. The creative ability to unlock new value occurs when diverse ideas meet diverse visions, and then actualize when appropriate skills-sets meet diverse expertise – in an eco-system that is self-organizing and where availability is based on affinity and interest. Pushing the boundaries of collaborative discovery, inclusionary co-creation and distributed tasking is a readily available conduit to differentiated leverage – the only cost: risk of newness.

One can only see what one chooses to see – the world is changing fast and engaged innovation is here to stay. The early adopters will have a significant if not un-breakable first-mover advantage, as the new bonds formed by co-creation that will be hard to supplant – and then playing it safe may well prove itself to have been an irreversible non-mover disadvantage.