Principled Innovation LLC

24 Hours of Innovation: Time for a Pep Talk

May 15th, 2009

Today, I am one of many bloggers worldwide participating in the 24 Hours of Innovation event, offering “half time pep talks” for innovation in 2009.  When I announced my involvement in #24hoi a couple of weeks ago, I posed the following question and solicited your input:

What should we be doing to make innovation a more significant strategic priority in associations and in our community as a whole?

Sadly, I did not hear from any of you, which makes it a bit more challenging to offer a meaningful pep talk,  In all candor, the total lack of response to my question makes me wonder whether innovation is even on the radar screen in most associations right now.  If that is the case, how can we alter this dynamic for the rest of 2009 and beyond?

So my pep talk for association leaders struggling today to make innovation a priority consists of three simple points:

+Now is the time to put down fear–Everyone is worried about the future, both for their organizations and themselves.  That is understandable.  But fearlessly leading others means leaders must first put down their own fears.  At this moment, it isn’t the pursuit of innovation that should scare us.  Our greater worry should be working in organizations that will be unprepared to create the kinds of radical new value our members and customers are going to demand in the months ahead as today’s tentative indicators of economic improvement gain strength.  When we make innovation a true priority, we can put down that fear as well.

+Now is the time to shift our focus–To make innovation a priority and deeply integrate this critical work into our organizations, it is essential that we shift strategic focus away from simply replicating what has worked in the past and toward proactively designing and creating the future.  We will not build 21st century organizations on the basis of 20th century capabilities or so-called “best practices.”  We need a new focus developing on “next practices,” ideas and approaches for rethinking what we do and how we do it that are consistent with the on-going transformation of our society and our associations within it.

[NOTE: I’ll have more thoughts on “next practices” in some upcoming posts.  In the meantime, I suggest you listen to the podcast I recorded following the first day of World Innovation Forum 09 for background.]

+Now is the time to have some fun–Yes, you read that correctly…fun.  I recognize the notion of having fun at work may feel utterly incongruous with this moment, and quite possibly a bit frivolous given the challenges before us.  But we need to unleash the creativity, imagination and passion of our staff and volunteer contributors, and by far the best way to do that is to create environments in which having fun is embraced and appreciated as the gift that it is.  Ask yourself the following question:  would you rather be the leader of a fear-based organization or one that is fun-based?  For me, it’s no contest.

So that’s my pep talk: less fear, more fun, new focus.  Think you can make it happen?  I do.

We can make innovation happen.  You can make innovation happen.  Let’s get started.

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