A Rant on Innovation!

I am worried. I am worried about innovation. I am worried that we are going to treat innovation the same way we messed up leadership.

As leadership is not just about a leadership development program, innovation is also not about innovation lab.

Now I am not here to target anyone — but I am anticipating that we are preparing to ride the bandwagon of creating fancier and bigger innovation labs.

Innovation is far too important to be outsourced. Innovation is a DNA stuff. It’s not like something that we’d like to have and so we just go out and get it. Organizations are built to do things that are antithetical to innovation [conformance, control, alignment, discipline and efficiency]. Innovation needs a kind of gene-alteration or replacement therapy.

This very idea of gluing an innovation lab onto the side of your organization is tricky. If your culture is not innovative, that’s not going to sustain. And culture modification is not a quick fix. You’ve got to fix your culture first if you want to be in this for the long term. It’s got to be everyone’s job when they wake up in the morning. It’s about having inspired workforce, passionate about solving problems.

You need systems that hold managers accountable for innovation. You need finance department who love experimentation over efficiency and predictability.

It’s time to innovate innovation.

I am glad that I am working with few amazing organizations on innovation. And we have no news to share, no innovation lab to inaugurate, no press releases, no LinkedIn/Facebook/Insta/Twitter mentions. We only have intent, passion and patience.

Let’s talk about it. You can reach me at szindani@sohailzindani.com.

#InnovationKoIzzatDo