One of the nine major “Innovation Fatigue Factors” that we emphasize in the book is what we call “Breaking the Will to Share.” This describes the tenuous bonds of loyalty and trust that motivate innovators in an organization to bring forth their best ideas and breathe life into their work for the good of the organization. When trust is breached, the will to share can be lost, and even though the employee goes through the motions and appears to be working hard, real innovation can be stifled. Breaking the will to share is a silent innovation killer. We diagnose it and offer a variety of solutions while stressing the importance of staying in touch with your innovation community and listening to the “Voice of the Innovator.” Without that, you can talk innovation all day long with little hope of real progress.
Innovation involves the minds – and often the hearts – of real people. They need to be respected, included, involved, and listened to. This is essential if you wish to build a healthy culture of innovation, an ecosystem where innovation can thrive and prosper for the good of all involved.
Here is one way of summarizing some of the many factors that are involved in the will to share. A form of this image is included in Chapter 6 of the book.
A leader at one of the world’s most famous companies told us that breaking the will to share was the biggest barrier to innovation he had seen in his years moving up the ranks in R&D. It’s one that you cannot overlook if you want to have innovation success in your company or other institution. We think the chapter dealing with this issue, and the related insights to the personal aspects of innovation, will help you avoid this serious innovation killer and move closer to innovation success.
Remember, innovation is all about human beings. It begins in the mind of an innovator, and then involves many others along the way. Ultimately, humans need to adopt it and change the way they do things because of it. Forgetting the humans in the complex equation of innovation, especially those at the beginning of the process, can result in a lot of innovation hype but little innovation success.
Jeff, how true this is as I have seen from both a consulting/training viewpoint and being inside the corporate world for many years. If someone believes that the outcome of a powerful new idea is the elimination of their job (meaning there is no mutual trust in the organization), they will not fully engage or wait until they have an opportunity outside the organization to exploit.
I once did a public TRIZ training class in St. Louis and the STL police department allowed 3 “911” operators to attend. At the end of the course, I asked each participant to state some things they were going to do differently or suggest to their management when they returned to work. When we came around to these operators, they said “absolutely nothing” because if they did, they would be out of work due to the changes they might suggest. How depressing!