The Innovation Counterpart

Nowadays, companies put a large emphasis on creativity and crossing conventional borders. In other words, innovation. When it comes to innovation, they (rightfully) see it as THE tool to not become redundant and drive financial prosperity for the future. What you often encounter in these organizations is that both people and processes are focused on breaking through the current status.

However, what companies often tend to forget is that the reach and creative potential of change and innovation is limited to the possibilities of today. Or as the American researcher and doctor Stuart Kauffman states, innovation happens within “the adjacent possible”. We tend to romanticize breakthrough innovations as completely new ideas that no one in the present moment could come up with. However, almost all innovations take place in the adjacent possible. Companies that do breakthrough the boundaries of the adjacent possible tend to fail, as they are simply “ahead of our time”. In other words, we need to have a connection with the present to build the future.

When I started my career in the Life Sciences, I was excited by everything that stood for new, novel, innovative, rebellious, you name it. I neglected and almost, wrongly, refused to recognize efforts that were meant to connect the new with the present and that would provide a solid and trustful basis to enable the creation of new approaches. The danger was, and still is, that flying around in thin air without a base could mean losing touch with reality.

Therefore, I would advocate to not only give a lot of attention to capabilities and processes that enable innovation by challenging the existing order, but as much to the talented people and important processes that manage the length of the leash. They are the backbone and the skeleton of the innovation process, the gravity point of the organization, and often its consciousness. They are not your enemy nor the resistance. They are as much the engine that drives the innovative process forward as you are.

The key is to not fight against it but embed it within your overall innovation process. Involve the people responsible for the structural work in helping to reflect on the creative work, and vice-versa. Create a culture of unity, not of division of we the ‘Edisons’ and you the ‘old- fashioned blind’. Innovation which is not well managed and is not connected to the present, is like a Helium balloon without a rope, flying too high and leaving the atmosphere forever without anyone being able to enjoy its presence.