The Innovators Way

Peter Denning and Robert Dunham’s The Innovators Way is essential reading for anyone who has an idea they’d like to see adopted in the world.

First, a definition: “Innovation is the adoption of a new practice in a community.” “Innovation does not cause adoption. It is adoption.” Yeah. Stop for a minute and let that sink in.

This philosophy is illuminated with several great quotes. Harold Evans said, “Innovation is not simply invention; it is inventiveness put to use. Invention without innovation is a pastime.” And, more pungently from Bob Metcalfe, “Invention is a flower, innovation is a weed.”

Getting people to pay attention to your new idea is hard enough. But getting them to change their behavior is a herculean hurdle. Awareness is one thing. Adoption is quite another.

Denning and Dunham say all successful innovators follow these eight practices:

1. Sensing – first, you see a disharmony in the way things work now
2. Envisioning – you think about the change you’d create to resolve this disharmony. Even at this early stage, you need to get deep into talking to people about your idea. Want your boss to let you chase your idea full time? Want funding? Then you need other people envisioning your possibility with you! Stories do that. Denning and Dunham say, “Envisioning practice is all about good storytelling. A compelling story captures hearts and imaginations. . . Your success depends on being able to generate such stories.”
3. Offering – this is where you stand up and tell the world, OK, I’ll solve this problem! According to our authors, “This is not an event, it is a process.”
4. Adopting – Ah, the arduous process of getting your target communities to try your new thing! More on this vital step in next week’s post.
5. Sustaining – “People will abandon an innovation if the costs of sustaining it are too high.” You enable your innovation to thrive with education and training, customer service, tools, maintenance, by dealing with resistance, by offering emotional support to your hard working team, and by focusing on values. “Leaders and managers frequently articulate the value of the new practice and track whether value’s being delivered.”
6. Executing – you build the right structure and business around your innovation
7. Leading – you recruit supporters, you set standards and values, you show the way forward
8. Embodying – You get your body on board with every aspect of what you’re doing. Why? “Our cortex, the site of consciousness, can process sensory input at about forty events per second; in contrast, our limbic system, the site of the unconscious, can process about twenty million events per second. Conscious thinking is mostly serial; unconscious thinking is mostly parallel. The more you turn what you do into habit the more you draw on the power of your body to process, to act, to produce.” Why wouldn’t you want to be a parallel processor?

Powerful communication is an essential in turning an invention (the beautiful idea in your head) into an innovation (something that becomes part of the way we all work and live). As I say every week, nothing will serve you and your vision better than developing exceptional communication skills!!

Communication is the essential last mile in finding and motivating the right teams, acquiring strong allies, powerfully bonding with customers, and capturing mindshare with compelling stories.