|
7/27/2007: 12:00:00—12:50:00 at GL-110
We have been puzzling over the mystery of the high rate of innovation failures despite enormous attention given to innovation. Amazon.com lists over 12,600 books with "innovation" in their titles and Business Week says that the failure rate is 96%. The mystery deepens when we notice there are numerous individuals who are successful, repeat innovators. What do they know that organizations do not? What is their secret?
Unlocking this mystery can have high payoff for the Defense Department. Innovation in warfighting is a constant necessity. Innovation is particularly challenging in defense because a failure can have disastrous costs and large bureaucracies are always resistant to change.
The secret appears to be to treat innovation as a skill and organizations as learning networks. We have discovered seven foundational practices at which the successful innovators excel. Anyone can learn them. Organizations can become more successful by cultivating the practices in their people and by setting themselves up for continual learning. I'll discuss the practices and indicate which ones are the most challenging.
Download the slides here
|
