Do best practices keep you from being innovative and disruptive?

Sever recent articles I have read bring out some interesting things to think about.  Woody Bendle wrote about best practices. Jeffrey Phillips wrote about filling the gap.  And Mike Brown wrote about strategic planning and using a technique called "What its like".

Being innovative means that one needs to think outside the box.  Best practices focus you into following someone else and their ideas.  What makes them best practices?  Someone developed these practices by thinking outside the box and noticing that they had a gap that was not being filled.  By generating a process that filled their gap, it became their best practice - for the moment.  We have talked about process improvement before, and if you implement what others are calling best practices, they have probably moved on to their next best practices and you are left playing catch up, once again.

Filling the gap is a key to innovation.  First you have to see the gap, then you have to generate ideas to fill the gap.  If you use best practices to fill the gap, you may still have gaps left.  You have to fill your gaps, not someone else's gap. You may want to use best practices as an idea generator, but by definition, a best practices means that it is the best - there is only one of them.  For you they may not be best.  Your practices may be best.

If you have problems generating ideas, you may want to look into the What its like concept.  How does a similar company in a different field do what you are trying to do.  It may surprise you that someone in a completely different filed may have just the trigger you need to generate your own ideas to fill your own gaps.

Do you leapfrog?

Innovation is sometimes thought of as leapfrogging, jumping over the current processes to get in front of the latest and greatest.  Soren Kaplen wrote a book called Leapfrogging in which he talks about how to embrace uncertainty and invite surprises to obtain the breakthroughs that the business desires.

Kaplan talks about 4 leapfrogging strategies for 2013 in a recent blog:
1. Define your leapfrogging opportunity
2. Leverage data and then go with your gut
3. Test the waters with your pinky toe
4. Savor surprise

In effect, what Kaplan is say, plan your innovation, where you want to be.  What breakthroughs do you want in your business.  Item 2 talks about recent research that indicates that one's best decisions are often made with little supporting data, especially when you are in uncharted territory that disruptive innovation brings.  Item 3 talks about doing a little to gain a lot.  And item 4 talks about is that we should not resist surprise, but embrace it.

With these 4 strategies, innovation can be explored and directed to where you want it to go, but be prepared to embrace the idea that where you want to go is not always where the innovation will end up taking you.

Is the way you think keeping you from being disruptive?

A recent article I read got me to thinking that the way we think may hinder or encourage us to develop disruptive innovations.  All this ties in to change management and resistance to change.  We all are familiar with people who resist change no matter what, even if they would benefit from it.  So, how do we break out of this way of thinking and find a new way that allows to follow the "what ifs"?

Dr Ellen Weber has developed something called Mindguiding base on practical applications of neuro discoveries.  The idea in Mindguiding is to use working memory to cultivate new ideas and rely less on long term memory of how things used to be done.  The idea is to question things in a way that allows others to see possibilities through another person's viewpoint.  Similar to the 5 Whys of root cause analysis, Mindguiding says to ask What if questions.  In a group setting this can bring about extraordinary results.

What to you think?  Would this work for you?  Try it an let me know if you find it easier to come up with disruptive innovations by using your brain in a different way.

Do you have to be crazy to be disruptive?

Not long after Steve Jobs returned to Apple, the iconic “The Crazy Ones” commercial aired as part of the larger Think Different campaign. This is a variation of that commercial that never aired, with Steve Jobs himself narrating.

 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... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but 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 ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

But, do you have to be crazy to be disruptive?  Can disruption be systematic and planned, strategized and organized?  Are the elements of disruptive innovation well enough known to be written down and followed, like a recipe for an omelet?

Where is the middle ground between planned innovation and crazy innovation that can lead to disruptive innovation at a frequency greater than chance?  Does disruptive innovation require the type of person described by Steve Jobs in the above quote, or can a person with the ability to understand and define technology trends have the insight that recognizes when some of those trends, when integrated, provides an opportunity to do something no one has done before and create a disruptive innovation?

I would like to think the latter is true and not everyone who creates disruptive innovations has to be crazy.  What do you think?

What YOU can do to be disruptive

No, I don't mean be disruptive in behavior, but in creating disruptive innovation in your work environment.  Mike Brown blogs about taking the NO out of inNOvation. He posits that there are ten things that block innovation irrespective of business culture.  In each of these areas he suggests change management steps and actions that an individual can take to mitigate those hindrances.  Many of those steps reference further details in past blogs he has written that address those issues.

As he says, not all ten challenges to innovation are present in any business, but just a few of them are effective in reducing innovation.  Here are the ten challenges he lists:

1. NO Knack for Disruptive Innovation 
2. NO Direction 
3. NO Rocking the Boat 
4. NO Talent Pool
5.There’s NO Tomorrow 
6. NO Resources 
7. NO Motivation to Innovate 
8. NO Process 
9. NO Implementation Success 
10. NO Measures

Disruptive innovation can be disruptive to an organizational culture and many businesses do not handle disruption well, putting in place processes and procedures to minimize disruption.  Many perceive disruptive innovation as a threat to their position and authority and actively work to minimize disruption. 

But, every organization needs someone to work against these forces until it is recognized that disruptive innovation is necessary for survival in today's dynamic environment.

Tell me what you do to encourage innovation in your environment. 

Disruptive Process Improvement and Innovation

So, in my last blog I ask the question: Can process improvement be disruptive? I have found several blogs and articles that suggest a positive answer. Craig Reid suggests innovation is the forgotten man of process improvement. By adopting systematic process improvement methods and starting from a clean sheet of paper one can create innovative processes, products, and services. Ben Nneji wrote

" Everett Rogers, in his book, "Diffusion of Innovations," defines innovation as "an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual" or whoever else would use, consume or adopt the innovation. While process improvement focuses on improving an existing idea, practice or object, innovation focuses on "newness." But they both focus on bringing desirable change."

 To implement both process improvement and innovation you must be disruptive and grow a culture of disruption.  Process improvement helps reduce inefficiencies (Lean), reduce defects (Six Sigma) and ensures that you do the right thing - Customer Experience Management (CEM).  Innovation helps you look beyond your current customer base and technology focus to be award of what is happening around you.

Can Process Improvement be Disruptive?

A number of articles I have read recently say that it is difficult, or impossible, to develop disruptive innovations in an existing company or organization.  See here for an example from a blog post.  Suggestions are to separate them from an ongoing business to isolate them from the pressures of meeting operational goals, such as revenue, profit, etc.  So, they reinforce the idea that innovation must occur in a new company or isolated in an existing company.

But, what about continuous improvement, such as those encouraged by the Malcolm Baldridge award?  As a Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE) I would think that process improvement would lead to the potential of developing disruptive innovations.  If anyone has seen any research or articles that address this, please let me know.

Process improvement, if properly addressing all aspects of the process and resulting products/services, would take into account innovations that are new and have potential to affect what the company is currently doing.  If cost reduction, then addressing all areas that could result in cost reduction might lead to a disrupting innovation that made them a market leader.  Sane with almost any characteristic of either the process or the result of executing that process.

What do you think?  Is it possible to develop disruptive innovations through process improvment?