In-no-OVATION !
Innovation is current holy grail for Self-styled Gurus in the Corporate world. Now a days, It is so being overused ; it seems to be in imminent danger of being ended up as another buzzword with very little meaning. It often falls between the stools of invention and discovery. We invent something that does not exist and probably it might not have occurred in the imagination of all others and discovery is unearthing what exists before and bringing it in front of a larger group of audience. Innovation is often renovating or reinvigorating something that exists in a novel way.
Often those who innovate (innovators!), forget the best way they can expedite the acceptance of their innovation (innovatively!) is not to make too much noise about it. It becomes a disruption only when we make a loud noise around it, calling everyone's attention. In the Corp world where grabbing visibility is a syndrome, it is essential for one's survival or thrival there. But it does impede its acceptance amongst the people for whom the innovation is intended. The more we hard sell something, more reluctant the buyer will be.
I have worked as a change catalyst for some 15 + years. (at a personal individual level as a Counselor and Coach and at an org and eco system level as a Transformation consultant). Every single moment of truth, I had faced in my life, reinforced my belief the Diffusion of innovation theory of E.M. Rogers.
Change theories, suggest Awareness is the first step of Change management. But mother Nature, who is probably the best innovator and change management out there seems to have a better strategy.
Let us pause here for a moment. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. And recollect yourself, 10 years ago. Once you have visualized that, list down what are the changes you have undergone?? (Career, Family, Habits, Beliefs , Physiology…. )
Which are the changes, you had consciously chosen?
Which are the ones imposed on you ?
Which are the the ones you were consciously aware of the process?
Now marvel at the wondaful work done by Mother Nature as Change Manager!
IF you consider that has happened over a million of years and happened to all, consider the stories of Tarahumara Indians. Or Moken’s , the sea nomads. I encourage you to google about them and read those wonderful stories of human excellence.
Now what are the common characteristics of those changes??
Of course it has happened over a very long timeline, over many many generations, at a very high complexity level and level of change being at the genes and cell level. Again, buy in from "stakeholders" would have been very high. No individual choice. And most importantly. There was no Individual conscious awareness of that change.
If we compare that with the challenges of our own change and transformation programs:
Timeline - Too short. Your manager expects you to change your stakeholder yesterday!
Complexity - Low to Medium
Buy in – Low to Medium
And Individual Awareness - Yes
Now let me narrate a real story on why change management is difficult.
" B. F. Skinner had a group of students who had done a lot of research with rats and mazes. And somebody asked them one day "What is the real difference between a rat and a human being?" Now, behaviorists not being terribly observant, decided that they needed to experiment to find out. They built a huge maze that was scaled up for a human. They took a control group of rats and taught them to run a small maze for cheese. And they took the humans and taught them to run the large maze for five-dollar bills. They didn't notice any significant difference. There were small variations in the data and at the 95% probability level they discovered some significant difference in the number of trials to criterion or something. The humans were able to learn to run the maze somewhat better, a little bit quicker, than the rats. The interesting statistics came up when they did the extinguishing part. They removed the five-dollar bills and the cheese and after a certain number of trials the rats stopped running the maze.... However, the humans never stopped!... They are still there! ... They break into the labs at night."
And there goes our In-No-Ovation!
