Innovation isn’t post-its and sharpies.
Anyone telling you different is just selling innovation theatre. (And probably also trying to convince you to buy their big name expensive products.)
What matters is in two parts:
- Thinking differently, introducing new perspectives, overcoming inherent bias, challenging dominant logic, and
- Acting differently, stepping into new domains and experiences, despite our inherent desire for the comforting blanket of the familiar, and iteratively exploring and testing to find and create new value.
And it’s enabled by experienced leadership.
Anyone can give you some markers and a whiteboard and read instructions from a playbook they didn’t write.
That’ll only get you so far.
Experienced leadership is the missing ingredient and the secret sauce. It creates the conditions and environment to unlock latent talent and creativity, linking up diverse experiences and focusing teams to progress toward a common purpose. It takes teams into the challenge and through to find new paths and succeed together, helping them succeed despite adversity.
Keep it in mind next time someone is pitching their post-its and pens approach, trying to convince you their special expensive whiteboards will magically unlock the solutions to your innovation problems.
Be discerning.
