Getting Cats and Dogs to play together

Getting cats and dogs to play together

by Dr Bettina von Stamm

We have to become more innovative! This is a mantra that can be heard in organisations large and small, public and private, for-profit or not-for-profit. But this is easier said than done: many organisations struggle with moving from intent to reality. Why might that be?

Let's start by looking at what innovation is about. Many would say, innovation is about being creative and having great ideas. True, that is the essential first step but innovation has two further and often much more difficult components: development and implementation.

I have rarely heard people complain about a lack of ideas. What people in organisations complain about is a lack of great ideas, and about struggling to make them happen. Now, why would that be?

Let's start with great ideas. Where in your organisation are ideas coming from? Is it the exclusive domain of the organisation's leaders? Or the marketing team or R&D department? If it is the responsibility of a small group of people I would challenge you to provide evidence that these people really have the best ideas.

How likely do you think is it that people with the same background, the same daily routines, the same external experiences, will come up with vastly different and diverse ideas? I would argue, not very likely; as Walter Lippmann (political writer & journalist who lived 1889 to 1974) provocatively said, "Where all think alike no one thinks very much."

According to evolutionary and complexity theory a system with limited variety will tend to atrophy: the system goes into a negative spiral with ever decreasing levels of diversity and resilience.

So the first prerequisite for great ideas is variety, and an acceptance that great ideas can come from anywhere. The second is, at the outset great ideas often seem completely off the wall. I am all the way with Einstein who said, "If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it ."

A third prerequisite is not to confuse idea and concept. Most ideas will need to be refined and developed before they become really great. This means, first you have to develop the idea, then implement it.

To make this happen most if not all departments or functions in your organisation will need to get involved at some point or other. How best to facilitate that? The best is to bring the diverse group of people together at key development and decision stages rather than use the still too familiar relay race, where ideas or projects are passed from one department to the next.

Oh, I cannot work with them because they are:

• just so boring;
• too cautious and inflexible;
• such sticklers for rules;
• want to know every detail.

or they are:

• completely over the top'
• so undisciplined & unreliable'
• very impractical'
• don't understand deadlines.

Here again we come across dealing with and supporting diversity - it seems that diversity is quite essential to successful innovation: we need it to come up with great ideas, and we need it to successfully develop and implement great ideas. So far so good. But have you tried to make people from different departments or disciplines work together? Do the comments in the box sound familiar?

While they might sound like pure prejudice, there are actually sound reasons behind it. All of us have preferences about how we do things, and often chose professions that are aligned with them.

If I like experimentation and developing new things, I am more likely to go into marketing, or a 'creative' profession such as design or advertising than a profession that is built around routines, rules and regulations. But it also often means that I might be looking down at those who are 'sticklers for detail'.

Does this mean that people from different backgrounds cannot work together and that there is no hope for innovation? Of course not, we all have seen it work - and when it works magical things can happen. It is important to understand two things. First, that people are different, have different preferences, different things that are important to them and different things that turn them on (and off).

Second, and as a consequence of the first, collaboration between people with different values and backgrounds is not easy, and does generally not happen 'naturally'.

What then is needed to make collaboration possible? The critical foundations are:

• an awareness of each others' differences and preferences;
• respect and appreciation of each others' contribution;
• trust - that we all make our best possible contribution;
• a shared ambition.

On the first point, there are many tools that help to identify and understand personal preferences such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Keirsey types, the Belbin team roles. In the context of innovation I find the 'Kirton Adaptor-Innovator Inventory' (KAI) extremely useful.

But understanding the differences is not enough. People have to be offered the opportunity to get to know each other, and to develop a mutual appreciation of each others' expertise and contribution. How to do that? Microsoft, for example, organises its annual 'tech fest' where R&D and marketing people come together.

You also need personal interactions to develop trust. How much exchange happens in our organisation between different departments and functions? How much opportunity is there to develop mutual trust and respect?

And finally, if people are inspired to align behind the same shared ambition, such as 'let's put a man on the moon' they are more likely to put their individual differences behind to work together towards the common goal.

If you can establish these four foundations in your organisation, collaboration between cats and dogs should become possible, and you will be surprised and delighted by the unexpected results.

Innovation happens when you connect different bodies of knowledge. What are you doing to encourage that?

References

• www.myersbriggs.org
• www.keirsey.com
• www.belbin.com
• www.kaicentre.com

 

• The Myers & Briggs Foundation
• Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory
• Keirsey Temperament website
• Belbin Team Roles