Tools of Innovation in your Organization

I was wondering if the title would catch your attention. :)

Did it?

If it did, can you like raise your hands here please :)

Organizations, especially the leadership within the organization is constantly looking for tools to help them help their employees to be more innovative. Get it? Get it? "to help them help their employees to be more innovative". How ironic is that? They are not looking for tools to make them more innovative. They are looking for tools to get people around them more innovation. Hahahaha ... I don't know if you any of you finds that funny, coz I do.

The only benefit I see from looking for tools to help employees be more innovative is that it creates opportunities to other companies and startups ideas to help find a solution for the so unique problem. Collaboration tools. Enhance communication tools. Shared document. Video chat / conferencing. Ideas management tools. Productivity tools. Artificial intelligence assisted tools. Virtual reality assisted tools. Corporate social tools. Shall I go on?

So, here's the deal. No matter what tools are given, if the team is not motivated to do anything, if YOU, the leaders, are not motivated to be innovative yourself; then no tools or process or policy will help you or your organization, be more innovative. On top of that, you need to accept the fact not everyone is motivated the same way. The obvious motivation is money or the promise of financial wealth. Others are more spiritual in nature. What are you motivated by? What do you do to get to where you want to be? What tools do you use to get to your destination? Do you honestly think that force-feeding would get the job done?

There are repercussions to every road you take to "make your organization more innovative". Heck, there are tons of scholarly papers that can show you almost every different angle and perspective that could make your organization more innovative. Especially so if you are a leadership in an Government owned organization. The feeling of "oh ... I am under the Government, nothing can happen to me". Let's really be honest here. Have this ever crossed your mind? In fact, why do have to stop at Government owned organizations. What about very large organizations? Such as APPLE, SAMSUNG. VIRGIN. HILTON Hotel. Remember Silicon Graphics? Remember Alta Vista? Yahoo who? :) What happened to most of them? What is happening to some of them? In denial? Pressured by your BOD? Any more new excuse? :)

If you really, REALLY want to "make" your company more innovative, you need to embrace chaos. You need to accept that you can't control "the force". All you can do is guide. manoeuvre, improvise, learn, unlearn, be empathetic and most of all, have a heart. And now, you may be asking, how do I embrace chaos? By not trying to control it. By not trying to manage it. By just letting it happen. Bruce Lee said it best, Be like water.

Hmmm ... so, at this point, you may be thinking. Corporates don't work that way. We have corporate governance. We have rules to abide by. We have shareholders and BOD to answer to. Embrace chaos? You must be mad!

Am I? Am I really mad?

Every time I was booted out or every time I leave an organization when similar conversations take place, they tell one common thing. Care to guess? :)

They tell me, "we can do better with structure and processes and policy"; "we can help more people this way". "trust us" ... they say. And guess what? They can't even come close to how it was done when chaos is embraced. I should have said to them; the way Jack Nickelson said it in the movie A Few Good Man. :)

HAHAHAHAHA ...

There's the answer for you that is looking for a tool to make your company more innovative.

CHAOS