Innovation vs. Creativity

What is your dryer sheet? ?

“This is innovation! A dryer sheet attached to the end of a broom stick.” It was an?unseasonably?warm late October day in 2012 as the sun shone through the meeting hall windows at our All Hands meeting and I puzzled at the statement. What was she talking about? Our CIO, a former executive at P&G mimicked holding a Swiffer broom in her hand. The point centered on the idea of bridging the gap between creative thought and execution?required?to bring innovation to the marketplace. The path between the two needs to be as clutter free as possible, with a clear line of sight to desired states. If you are unfamiliar with the?Swiffer?story, check out blog post, "The Secret Life of?Swiffers", by Russ Meyers. Fast forward to present day and the message of creativity and innovation still rings true. Marketplace survival is dependent incremental adjustments and brilliant ideas that challenged the status quo. Some needs could be met with available resources, while others would?emerge?from more focused and deliberate initiatives with the specific purpose of revolution, rather than evolution. The analogy of the Swiffer is, on the surface,?simple.?It?is slightly more complex. It begs the question – what is innovation and what is creativity? Is there a difference between the two and how do we?leverage?our creativity as an organization?to?innovate? ?

Often, people use creativity and innovation interchangeably, and while there is some overlap, they are not the same. As all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares, so all innovations are creative but not all creative thoughts are?innovative. Creativity requires?low?effort, drawing?from imagination?while innovation?requires this creativity to be packaged, reproduced, and consumed by a broader audience. Simply put, innovation is how creativity is deployed, the action that follows the thought. Many?times,?we strive for innovation?failing to recognize?that it is a process, starting with creativity.?We swing for the fences, becoming discouraged?and quit. ?

Many companies struggle with innovation as a concept?as?programs as easy to talk about but more difficult to execute. Some struggle to put a?quantifiable?process?around a concept whose roots lie in imagination failure to connect the left brain with the right. ?Getting to?identify?that opportunity, and go-to-market, is the hard part and one that requires a little more thought and, potentially, money. In short, creativity paves the way for innovation. Innovation, in turn, opens doors for more creative applications. As a leader, do you have the strategic platforms in place to capture creative thinking so ideas can grow into innovations capable of shaping the marketplace? How are you supporting creative thought in your organizations??Knowing how creativity and innovation complement each other can help to set expectations and service as the difference between a frustrating and confusing process or a free and empowering program that harnesses imagination.?The question to pose first is, “What is your dryer sheet?”?

Struggling with Silos ?

In their book Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, authors Gary Hamel and Michele?Zanini explore the idea of the 'daring organizations' who challenge the status quo and push the pace?of?change. In startups, they argue, employees think and act like owners. Internal resources are recognized to be in limited supply, forcing them to look to the experts to scale as in the case with platform and SaaS for example. Unfortunately, most established organizations have a stuck to a build v. buy?credo?while others buy from the lowest bidder. In this latter case, the results can be even worse than a?do-nothing?strategy since the cheaper alternative lacks the industry technological pedigree to?provide?the differentiating that made the case for a buy v. build in the first place. For those stuck in the 'build it' rut, the promise of not being tethered to a provider belies the danger of assuming internal resources are?prepared?to build and?maintain?a?state-of-the-art?solution. Achieving the balance between technical debt and do nothing is continuous and internal churn often results in legacy systems who purpose has long since deviated from a rapidly changing environment. ?

By removing siloed systems, not simply?integrating,?and?leveraging?platform capabilities, organizations can recapture dollars on multi-application strategies regardless of zero base or?cost-plus?strategies. Picking a handful of platforms to invest in, such as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Capital Management (HCM), and Digital Workflow those that help deliver digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity for employees and the enterprise, can?reduce?cost, risk, and open the floodgates for employees to craft their own?low code?digital workflow applications leading to increased levels of creative and innovation. ?

Setting the Stage ?

If we trace the roots of innovation to creative thought, where does that creative thought come from? If your team members, your associates, your clinicians know the business, does their daily job allow for creativity and innovation? What can be done to tap into their knowledge,?leveraging?their creativity as a force multiplier? A recent interview with a VP at a fortune 20 Pharmaceutical and Medical Device company, revealed that an investment made in a Service Management platform for digital workflow, enabled them to reconcile more than 25 disparate applications resulting in a cost positive investment. ?The?platform was paying for itself. Digital workflows replaced antiquated manual processes, introduced visibility into unstructured work and provided data that could be used by operational excellence practices to get creative with future process improvements. This was just the beginning. Entire teams, previously focused on?menial?tasks were repurposed within the organization, drawing on their years of experience for more?top-level?focus. Now working on more strategic and impactful assignments, the old budget for an eliminated was able to be?utilized?in other areas as well. ?

With?the proverbial?gas pedal of the digital evolution ‘pegged’ thanks to recent events, we?can?no longer slowly ride the rising tide. Change has been necessary overnight, workforces are now remote, healthcare is virtual, classes are on demand, and safety in the workplace must be proven through chain of custody through practices mimicking audit?attestation. Similar levels of inspection are?required?for our interactions as contact tracing is quickly becoming a requirement. What are you doing to prepare your work environment according to the government guidelines???

Call to Action:?

• Define what creativity and innovation mean for your organization?and what outcomes are reasonable??
• Invest in your material of choice –?I am?willing to bet the?Swiffer?lab?provided?plenty of raw materials for their engineers to innovate.?Does your organization have a platform that can source creativity and?enable innovating?applications?to replace antiquated manual processes??
• Crowd source from your teammates?in a way that encourages?participation?
• Track?your progress - how well are you working towards those goals and how could an adjacent view help shed light on the challenges?you are?facing? ?
• Be sure to check out our Innovation v. Creativity podcast on this subject where I chat with Drew Koerner, Head of Provider Industry at ServiceNow about the differences and how to leverage these mentalities in your own organizations.

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