Innovation & Culture

I have been reading and discussing innovation a lot lately. Most writers seem to feel that innovation is a skill, like typing or swimming, that can be taught to anyone. I find parallels in this discussion and ones on leadership. There are those that think leadership can be taught too. I don't.

I draw a distinction between innovators and people with innovation skills. Same with leaders. I know lots of people that have been trained in leadership, but I know very few leaders. For me the distinction lies in predisposition. It's the why, not the how.

The innovative people I know have been innovative their entire lives. They seek to innovate because of some internal itch that is never content with status quo. Their motor seems to be fueled by the never ending search for better or different. They just look at the world from a different filter. Some do this in flashy, outlier modes while others just quietly go about making their piece of the world better. Innovative people and businesses mentally live out of a suitcase...because they know that they won't be staying at status quo for very long.

Think about your team. Hopefully you have some folks that are wired this way. Always chasing better, never quite satisfied. And they aren't driven by an innovation program or workshop or by you, they are driven this way because that's who they are.

Same is true for leaders. They start leading when they are young and never stop. They are most comfortable leading. Is it power or control? Who knows, but it is a given that when leaders face leadership voids....they step forward and lead. No hesitation, no fear, no indecision. You know why leaders have great leadership skills? Because they have been leading and learning since childhood.

I'd like to propose that business culture works this way too. Innovative businesses exist because it is part of the DNA of the organization. Innovation happens naturally in these organizations. Continuous improvement, higher risk profiles, trying and failing frequently, a healthy contempt for status quo are assumed. And guess what, these organizations attract and hold innovative people that feel right at home in the culture.

Unfortunately the opposite is true too. If your business lacks innovation, chances are your culture lacks innovation, even penalizes it. And guess what, it tends to thwart and frustrate innovative people.

This post isn't meant to attack innovation skills training, but to raise the issue of culture. As you chase innovation have you taken a hard look at your culture? Have you talked to your innovators? Perhaps the best thing you can do as a leader is not train, but get out of their way. Changing culture is hard. Have you identified the formal and informal cultural norms that are holding innovation back in your business?

PS: Going to innovation training doesn't make someone innovative, anymore than going to McDonald's makes them a hamburger (credit Keith Green).

Find Yourself in this Quote

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." President Theodore Roosevelt

Which will you be today? Critic? Fighter? Bystander?

B2B Buyers: Just Consumers at Work?

Most of us make dozens of seemingly irrational or illogical choices every day. Quiet acts of defiance or indulgence or indifference or laziness or just habitual behavior that cost us time and/or money. Why? Because the vast majority of our choices go unexamined or unchallenged. Many consumer brands live off this irrationality. The candy section at the checkout, infomercial weight loss plans, parking in the handicapped lane, a second cookie, another hour of TV, and on and on.

Now what if suddenly all those decisions were suddenly open for review or examination. What if your spouse reviewed all your little irrational decisions and gave you a grade.

"Lets see David, your choice to stop at Starbucks on the way to work vs drinking the free coffee at the office cost you 23 minutes and $3.49. How often do you do this? Twice a week? That's $350 and almost 4o hours a year (a work week!). Do you really think that's a good investment of our money and your time?"

If we came under this scrutiny, it's inevitable that we would start becoming much more rational in our choices. Examination, or the potential for examination, changes the dynamic of the purchase behavior.

I have recently transitioned into B2B marketing. While many of the B2C marketing precepts apply, I am finding the "threat of examination" as a major factor in buying decisions. The potential that you will have to justify your choice to your boss, makes people behave much more rationally. Facts and figures carry extra weight. Emotional appeals carry less. The insight here is not that people behave more rationally in a B2B context...but WHY they behave more rationally.

Does that mean there is no room for emotional benefits in B2B marketing? No. In fact, I would say that there is huge competitive opportunity in most every B2B category in more emotive branding. But it does mean that emotional appeals must be combined with solid functional benefits. And the easier it is for your buyer to "rationally justify" their decision to their boss, the greater your chances for success.

Yes B2B buyers are human, "just consumers at work" and susceptible to many B2C strategies, but don't make the mistake of thinking B2B buyer behavior is identical to B2C. We behave differently when someone is watching or when we fear they might be.

That's what I'm thinking... how about you?

Taking Creative Risk

I'm around a lot of average creative work. Everyday we are bombarded by it. Heavy handed, uninspired, unoriginal. Ineffective at inspiring anything other than maybe blunt awareness and boredom.

Millions and millions spent to create and propel buckets of boring, predictable, quickly forgettable creative work. And it's not just advertising, it's true in music, theatre, film, food, apparel and on. It's mostly the same and it's mostly average. The output of an endless parade of C students copying from each other.

But once in a while I come across creative that stops me. Haunts me. Propels me. Inspires me. Touches me. Why is it so damn rare?

A large part can be forgiven by inexperience and ineptitude. We all start here. But do we have a national shortage in competent marketers, creatives and artists? No. What we have is a shortage of intestinal fortitude.

Every great creative work starts at a point of difference and in that difference lies risk. Risk for the creator, risk for the marketer, risk for the manager, risk for the organization. So we see great creative and rather than nurture it forward and share the risk, we seek to mitigate the risk, to hedge. Great creative is marginalized, muted, ultimately snuffed out...and in its place comes safe, predictable, average work with predictably average results.

When's the last time you saw great creative from a Fortune 500 company? They have the strategy and resources, it's their risk aversion that thwarts them. So rather than step out and try something creative and new, they opt for expected and safe. Rather than demand new ideas, they run to the safety of proven ones. And then they wonder why their brands fail to inspire.

Steve Jobs had equal parts guts to genius. The simplicity and elegance of his design ethic was not his own, but he alone was willing to take the risk to follow the ethic. He made hard choices. He relentlessly prioritized. He refused to straddle, to compromise. He stepped out while others stepped back.

As a marketer, you must embrace the creative risk. You must step forward, because no one else in your organization will. If you don't rally for the work, who will? And at the end of the day, which is the greater risk? Playing it safe or trying for something special?

Be brave.

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”