cultivating an open innovation culture
January 3, 2009 – 12:51 pmChris Thoen of Procter and Gamble recently prompted my thinking on what it takes to create and sustain an open innovation culture.
I think this applies not only to large Fortune 500 companies interested in fostering this kind of working culture internally but also for smaller companies, startups and even individuals or consultants.
Chris’ thoughts included:
1. Willingness to accept that not all the smart people work for your company. We need to work with smart people inside and outside our company.
2. Willingness to strive for balance between internal and external R&D. External R&D can create significant value; internal R&D is needed to claim some portion of that value.
3. Willingness to give part of the control to others. We don’t have to originate the research to profit from it. We don’t need to control everything from the cradle to the grave.
4. No need to always be first. Building a better business model is better than getting to market first.
5. Dismiss NIH (Not Invented Here). If we make the best use of internal and external ideas, we will win.
6. We don’t need to own everything ourselves and keep it under tight wraps. We should profit from others’ use of our innovation process, and we should buy others’ intellectual property (IP) whenever it advances our own business model.
7. Open Innovation requires people with the right interpersonal management skills to manage the relationships with partners. We need people with agility and flexibility skills. The “soft” skills of emotional intelligence – fundamental social skills such as self-awareness, self-fulfillment, and empathy are needed to complement the traditional IQ skills.
8. Willingness to reward effort and learning. Failure is a fact of life for companies that pursue innovation seriously, and a leader’s response to it has a huge effect on company culture and therefore on future projects. Innovation leaders know that failures represent opportunities to learn.
As Tom Peters often puts it…”Fail. Fast. Forward.”
I went on to add a few more…
9. Bring together disparate groups and individuals from a wide-variety of disciplines with different skillsets both internally and externally. (attempt to coordinate interdisciplinary efforts, not just internal vs external but across this includes other stakeholders like users or customers)
10. Fearlessly facilitate open, honest communication with non-traditional methods/tools like online social media, blogs, etc. (most companies are still fearful of these new communication tools but open dialogue is a key supporting component to a thriving open innovation culture)
11. Encourage playfulness and creativity inside and outside the formal workplace. (innovation and creativity is more likely to happen outside your structured workplace)
What do you think? Thanks Chris for the thought-provoking ideas.
One Response to “cultivating an open innovation culture”
Rod – Having been part of an industrial design group, a venture capital fund, and a software startup…I can say that #11 could arguably be near the top of the list. We are most passionate about our work when it’s no longer work. When an element of play is part of the process, we are naturally having fun. Serious fun.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post.
By Allan on Jan 4, 2009