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“We train people to think about improvement all of the time, to have what I call a culture of creative dissatisfaction with the status quo.”  - Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Consultancy Services [Business Week, How To Build A Culture of Innovation]

Creative dissatisfaction….I like that term.

Employers are always so worried about the satisfaction of their employees. They conduct survey after survey to measure the dissatisfaction. Employee dissatisfaction is seen as a liability.

What if employers changed their perspective and viewed their employee dissatisfaction as an asset? An asset to be used as fuel to drive significant, creative, innovative, positive change.

What if employers said to employees?…….

We recognize that you aren’t satisfied with the way things are. Neither are we. Our mission is not yet accomplished. Our vision is not yet achieved. We want a culture of creative dissatisfaction with the status quo. We want to hear your ideas on how to move forward. Where creativity, innovation, and change are needed, we want you to have the freedom and power to create, innovate, and change.”

Listening to ideas and giving employees the freedom and power to create, innovate, and change are key. Without that, then your employee dissatisfaction is, well, just a liability.

I heard the following line on the BusinessWeek Innovation of the Week podcast……

Culture eats strategy for lunch.

The wrong organizational culture can take a great strategy and make it good…..a good strategy and make it fail.

The most important strategy of all might be a strategy to create the organizational culture that is necessary to make all the other strategies succeed.

What do you think? Does culture eat strategy for lunch?

(image by Txanoduna)

So where does the world’s innovation come from?

Mckinsey Digital has released a new study on innovation clusters around the world.

The study slots cities into 4 categories based on the number, growth, and diversity of patents issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office from 1997 to 2006.

(click for large, interactive chart)

The 4 Categories….

The Hot Springs // small, fast-growing hubs on track to become world players

• Suwon, South Korea
• Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Regensburg, Germany
• Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
• Brisbane, Australia
• Netanya, Israel

Dynamic Oceans // large and vibrant ecosystems with continuous creation and destruction of new businesses

• Silicon Valley, California, USA
• San Francisco – Oakland, California, USA

Silent Lakes // Older, slower growing hubs with a narrow range of large, established companies

• Yokohama, Japan
• Tokyo, Japan
• Minneapolis – St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
• Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Los Angeles, California, USA
• Chicago, Illinois, USA

Shrinking Pools // unable, so far, to expand beyond their start-up core and so find themselves slowly migrating down the value-chain

• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
• Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
• St. Louis, Missouri, USA
• Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Some observations……..

• The Dynamic Oceans are in the USA.
• The USA also contains a lot of Hot Springs.
• Europe seems to be lacking when it comes to innovation.
• Asia has a lot of momentum.
• Israel is becoming a player in innovation.
• Lots of Shrinking Pools in the midwest and southern portions of the USA.

I have a love/hate relationship with the large corporation.

I love large corporations. I work for a large corporation and the income and benefits that I earn by working there are truly a blessing to my family.  In addition, the power, resources, and scale of large corporations have produced and will continue to produce products and services that significantly enhance the world we live in.

I hate large corporations. I work for a large corporation and, if I’m being honest with you, there are days when the nonsense that happens inside my large corporation makes me want to bang my head against the wall of my 6 x 6 cubicle.

Size.  Magnitude. The very qualities that make large corporations so powerful are the same qualities that make them so difficult to change improve.

That change improvement might not be easy, but this is where I would start.

Large corporations need…..

Less rules, policies, standard operating procedures.  // More vision, purpose, direction.

Less managers. // More leaders.

Less confusion.  // More clarity.

Less suits and ties. // More blue jeans.

Less silos. // More collaboration.

Less knowledge hoarding. // More knowledge sharing.

Less coworkers. // More teammates.

Less status meetings. // More brainstorming sessions.

Less boredom.  // More fun.

Less commanding & controlling of people.  // More unleashing of people.

Less status quo. // More change, creativity, innovation, improvement.

Less PowerPoint presentations. // More whiteboards.

Less playing it safe. // More risk taking.

Less “That will never work here.” and “That’s impossible.” // More dreaming.

Is that kind of large corporation even possible?  What do you think?

Oh, i almost forgot one.  Less email.

Here are 11 1/2 weird ideas from professor, author, and blogger, Bob Sutton, for promoting, managing, and sustaining innovation in your organization or team……

1) Hire “Slow Learners” (of the Organizational Code)

1 1/2 ) Hire People Who Make You Uncomfortable, Even Those You Dislike

3) Hire People You (Probably) Don’t Need

4) Use Job Interviews to Get Ideas, Not to Screen Candidates

5) Encourage People to Ignore and Defy Superiors and Peers

6) Find Some Happy People and Get Them to Fight

7) Reward Success and Failure, Punish Inaction

8) Decide to Do Something That Will Probably Fail, Then Convince Yourself and Everyone Else That Success Is Certain

9) Think of Some Rediculous or Impractical Things To Do, Then Plan to Do Them

10) Avoid, Distract, and Bore Customers, Critics, and Anyone Who Just Wants to Talk About Money

11) Don’t Try to Learn Anything from People Who Seem to Have Solved The Problems You Face

That is quite a list.  I’m interested in learning more about his weird ideas so I will be adding Sutton’s book, Weird Ideas That Work, to my wishlist.

Would your organization or team embrace these weird ideas?

How innovative is your organization or team?