Nonconforming, Angry people are the innovators - InnoThink Group Blog

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06/11/2012

Nonconforming, Angry people are the innovators

I am often chastised albeit politely or as deftly as unfriending me on Facebook, that I am belligerent. In fact I am called downright offensive. One person wrote recently that I am vitriolic in espousing my ideals. She has a point. 

Another email suggested, (“hyperboles” best omitted) that I fail to realize people are doing the best they can. Hmmmm. 

In an extremely competitive world where no job or company is guaranteed “doing the best we can is the drum beat of irrelevance. 

My reply is, “Tell that to the inhabitants of Jamestown building the fort as fast as they can while the indigenous people bang on the door demanding their land back.” Doing the best they can? How happy would you be if human resources lost your payroll information which caused your check to be late for two more weeks?     

Each week I probably read three books. Most business in one way or another. 

Many of the books I read encourage the reader to strategize, create an innovation process, establish focus groups and how to organize this and organize that, and figure out what the heck customers want most. 

The authors do a great job of hocking these books to the masses. They aren’t bad ideas. Just bad ideas in a world where the fast and highly innovative eat the slow and conventional. 

There is only one source of innovation regardless of whether we are discussing human resources, IT, talent development, marketing, front office, back office, supply chains etc: Hiring and promoting angry people.

Angry people are the ones who initiate change. Furious people will push toothpaste back into the tube. They become incensed with talk, talk, talk. 

Think Congress moves slowly? In an organization changing anything meets resistance. People like things the way they are. It’s why bureaucracy and protective silos exist. People like change when it occurs externally.   

Complacent content people don’t push the envelope. Take Pan Am’s founder Juan Trippe who was impatient with “good enough.” Someone wrote, “What drove Trippe? A fury that the future was always being hijacked by people with

smaller ideas—by his first partners, who didn’t want to expand air mail routes; by nations that protected flag-carriers with subsidies; by elitists who regarded flight, like luxury liners, as a privilege that could only be enjoyed by the few; by the cartel operators who rigged prices. The democratization he affected was as real as Henry Ford’s.” 

This week, you’ll likely make the mistake of asking a new hire how’s things are going. The new hire doesn’t quite understand the system yet. Beaming with joy at being asked for the first time, “What do you think,” the intern snaps a sheet of single spaced ideas into your hand. The first is how stupid the customer service department is being operated. The other is a litany of ideas on how to improve sales. You take the paper in clenched hands smiling politely. 

That my friend is how things get innovated. Not just changed. We are talking about creating value. Not a buzzword safe haven. Typically companies will find imaginative ways to replace such a person with someone who has never had an original idea, or an aberration on their resume. Someone who will when asked in a strategy meeting, “Any questions? They’ll reply, with silence. You’ll learn to ignore the raised hands challenging your opinions. And so the beat goes. 

In time what could have been a bright spot of rolling anger with “why do we do this,” slowly becomes absolution of purposeful change i.e. innovation towards embracement of mediocrity. Another word for pitched irrelevance. 

Now, be irritated with “This is the way things have always been done around here.” Take the energy from people who don’t give a crap. This is what makes an organization stand out. Jim 

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @innovatingbig

 

Posted at 12:26 PM in Business, Innovation, Marketing | Permalink

Technorati Tags: customer service, hiring best talent, human resources, Innovating, innovation, innovators, non conformist, radical innovation

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