Four lessons I learned about innovation

A lot has been said about innovation over the past year. In 2015 ASU was named the #1 university in the nation for innovation. A great reflection and recognition of the long standing attitude and spirit of the thriving knowledge enterprise known as Arizona State University.

Since that honorable designation was bestowed upon the institution, the word innovation has become as commonplace in our lexicon as the phrase "it's hot in Phoenix today" (which it is). That kind of immediate and intense focus on a very subjective and loosely defined term can create a very interesting cultural effect on a place and it's people.

The pressure to innovate, to strive to remain worthy of the third party defined designation, is intense. Ideas are in great surplus here (a good thing), but as we're all aware (or should be), innovation is an active sport - ideas are not enough, regardless of if they come from top down, bottom up, or middle out on any org chart. Here are four lessons I've learned working at the most innovative university in the nation:

1. Often times you don't even realize you're working on an "innovation"...you're just trying to solve a real problem with an effective solution. The path to that solution may take a different route that's deemed innovative, but your best work should be focused on the best solution, not chasing innovation. Let someone else label the effort, you just focus on designing the highest impact solution. Some of the best work we did was not in the name of innovation, but in just trying to improve the ASU experience for students and each other in a way that enhanced outcomes. 

2. Innovation is collaboration. In his book, The Wide Lens, Ron Adner outlines terrific examples of entire adoption chains and dependent systems that have been required to sync and synergize for any innovation to successfully launch. Someone who considers themselves a innovating maverick just might find themselves on a deserted island with a half baked idea and an adoption count of one. Real innovation requires diversity of perspective and a broader sense of launch and land impacts (both good ones and bad). I'm not saying that innovation by huge committee is the route to go; but a focused, relevant, and talented group of people who share a vision of the solution being pursued is a recipe for success. 

3. The most successful innovations are so well adopted they are immediately taken for granted. Cars, light bulbs, airplanes, social media, the microchip...all human species and society changing innovations; all taken for granted in the developed world. Incredibly successful innovations disappear into normalcy as quickly as the flash bang they made upon impact. Transitioning from innovation to saturation should never be considered a bad thing. It's the hallmark of truly successful adoption and solution engineering. Don't fear the day someone stops talking about how revolutionary the work was, embrace it as a badge of real success.

4. Successful innovations build ecosystems of support, maintenance and sustainability around them. This is the part of innovating that many organizations fall short of. In their essay Hail the maintainers, Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel argue that what happens after innovation is often more important than the innovation itself. Citing entire necessary industries, economic influences, and foundation infrastructures that exist to keep past innovations functional. An innovation that doesn't persist, adapt, and regenerate isn't really an innovation at all...it's a novelty. Sometimes in the romanticism of start up culture people forget that these fast paced, creative organizations often synonymous with "innovation" are working towards some pretty clear finish lines: get bought, or go public. Both of which often come with infusions of resources that will advance, persist, and dare I say even maintain the original innovation. Now not all innovating groups have the option to sell or pursue their IPO. Instead they often have to design the sustaining systems within their means. But without the intentional development of a support ecosystem around any innovation...it's not likely that the duckling will survive outside of the nest.

Someday the term innovation will be replaced with another buzzword to describe these unique contributions to organizations, society, industries, etc. But the components of authentic focus, collaboration, ease of adoption, and systems of support will always be core elements to any successful endeavor.