Create and Sustain Innovation to Stay On Top

“I’ve got a contender’s mentality, not a champion’s mentality.” –Anthony Joshua, British professional boxer

When a community or organisation appears to have found the elixir to success their one desire is to hold onto it and keep it intact. The secret formula becomes intellectual property that must be kept confidential. The notion of sharing this knowledge or considering alternatives or modifications seems counterproductive. There is an overwhelming impulse to protect and secure this success to happily “coast along”. 

Things will calm down and then we can return to ‘business as usual’. Sound familiar? Business as usual is now ‘disruptive’. Disruption is no more than the antithesis of complacency. It is simply finding a better way of doing things in an ever-changing business environment. To survive disruption, a business needs to create disruption by anticipating future needs or shifts in consumer demand or in the environment. Moreover, staying close to your customers not just in tough times but equally in times of prosperity. That means imagining the impossible, thinking through contingency plans and considering other possibilities.

Beware when you have found the technological panacea that can solve all your problems. If you settle into a smug attitude of self-satisfaction over your successes, this same breakthrough technology can cause your demise. As the Khmer Empire (aka Angkor Empire), the predecessor of modern day Cambodia discovered, over-reliance on any one technology can have devastating consequences. This enlightened civilisation became too dependent on their sophisticated water system. The very technology that fuelled the rise of their ascendancy caused their destruction. In today’s volatile digital environment, even with sophisticated technology, listening to your customers, staying vigilant and not taking anything for granted will prevent falling into complacency and potential annihilation.

To prevent terrorist attacks MI5 gets into terrorists’ minds to imagine the deadly plots that they could be planning to circumvent horrific incidents. It used to be quite sensible to leave well enough alone and adhere to the motto “if it is not broken then why fix it”. Becoming too comfortable and simply expecting a strategy or a technology to work indefinitely as well as it has in the past, can ultimately lead to complacency. Remember Kodak whose leaders could not imagine that anything could replace the physical photograph taken with Kodak film and printed on Kodak paper.

It is no different than staying on top of your game in sports. Anthony Joshua who has the potential to be the next heavyweight boxing world champion describes his daily routine like this, “I embrace the grind, keep it real and stay hungry”. Maintaining a grounded attitude means that he is always striving to achieve his potential. A combination of practising and refining intellectual or physical skills, preparing mentally to build the resilience to consistently up your game. This is what distinguishes the athletes, or the companies who reinvent themselves to consistently stay on top.

Our natural instinct is to defend our views or position. It goes against broadening or deepening our knowledge and choices. This approach limits the possibilities and prevents us from reaching true enlightenment. Only with a broad perspective and shift in thinking can leaders recognise the reality and reduce blind spots. That means challenging the status quo and reflecting on the context, attitudes and behaviours that could possibly stunt growth. At the same time, what could spur sustainable growth? Listening to the users and bringing in the diverse perspectives of sales, operations, finance and HR, each with their unique frame of reference to generate innovative solutions (Stempfle, 2011, p.125). Alan Turing worked with a diverse team of experts to break the enigma code, each one bringing a fresh perspective.

Knowledge has traditionally been guarded in business because it is associated with power.

Flexibility leads to openness and to developing an awareness of any shifts in the environment, consumer demands or trends, to adapt swiftly. Trying to hold on to your crown or being too concerned about maintaining your success can lead to hoarding knowledge and having an outlook that is inward facing and peppered with fear. Paradoxically, sharing and collaborating expand knowledge and sustain long-term growth, especially in complex environments. Chief execs who are inward facing will be more likely to see things as they wish to see them not as they truly are, as Kodak executives did. It is only by sharing, listening and being open to what is happening both internally and in the external environment, that companies can continuously evolve.

The interconnected nature of the system and that everything within the system has a purpose is often ignored. Like the demise of the Khmer empire, it is vital to elaborate on the knock-on effects of one shift in a seemingly perfect ecosystem. When their water system failed, it led to a chain of events that ultimately wiped out their entire civilisation.

Similarly, in 1995, when Yellowstone National Park reintroduced wolves on their land after more than 70 years of having been eradicated, they too experienced a chain of events but in contrast the effects continue to be rejuvenating and transformational. The wildlife biologists were surprised by the impact that a small number of wolves had in re-establishing the park’s original ecosystem, and even in reshaping the park’s physical geography. The wolves dispersed the elk population into the safety of the woods keeping them away from the river and from browsing the willows. As the willow plants flourished, beaver colonies multiplied from 1 to 9 with the abundance of food provided to them by the verdant willows. Building more dams, had an outpouring knock on effect on the streams and rivers that continues to ripple down across this complex ecosystem.

This phenomenon mirrors what occurs in an organisation’s ecosystem as demonstrated by the far-reaching negative or positive effects of decisions over time.

Sustainability means for the long-term, and when too concerned with immediate results, organisations may sacrifice long-term growth. Even at a time when the John Lewis department stores are very profitable, the new chief executive embraces change. Paula Nickolds is reinventing how John Lewis operates to better connect with people and remain profitable despite the “structural shift” taking place in the retail sector. This forward-thinking approach will enable John Lewis to successfully navigate within the current volatile business and economic environment, and be poised for opportunities.

Florence Mackay, MSc, Industrial and Organisational Psychologist and MD of AWP Performance Solutions. With our IDEAWIZ design thinking tool, AWP supports companies to build resilient and engaged workforces. We prepare leaders and their teams to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills to boost innovation and thrive in disruptive environments.