October 2000

Partners for Innovation, Inc.

www.greatwing.com

Innovation Tips

…a monthly internet letter addressing key aspects of

collaborative innovation

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Dissent—the Key Catalyst for Innovation

The common wisdom tells us that all organizations need well-crafted statements of vision, mission and core values. They need to let everyone in the company know “what page they are on.” And many of the highly successful companies of the past century have been those that have promoted uniformity, loyalty and adherence to company expectations. These types of tenaciously uniform corporate cultures have been very successful in implementing innovation and carrying out large projects.

But are these cultures successful at generating innovation from all levels of the organization in response to emerging needs and changing circumstances? Recent research suggests that they are not, for they tend to inhibit the key catalyst for responsive innovation—dissent.

When a corporate culture encourages homogeneity, as many of the successful ones have, it becomes very effective at implementing innovation generated from top management. If top management is innovative, the company is innovative. Examples of such cultures include Disney, Nordstroms, Boeing, and McDonalds—all excellent companies with uniformly excellent products or services.

But innovation in these companies tends to come from the top. The organization becomes the mechanism by which innovative ideas from the top can be swiftly implemented by a uniformly loyal workforce.

And for some companies, where a product or service is not in danger of becoming obsolete, a workforce with a homogeneous perspective may be ideal.

But we no longer live in an ideal age. We live in an age of intense competition and fast-changing markets where companies must learn to innovate responsively to rapidly changing conditions.

For those companies that must become highly responsive and innovative, a culture that breeds diverse views and preferably dissent at all levels of the organization will be those most likely to thrive. For dissent is the key catalyst for responsive innovation.

It is not the common wisdom that produces disruptive innovations, but rather challenging that common wisdom. It is not the majority view that usually gets the brilliant new insight, but rather the minority view.

The key to cultivating a highly innovative company is developing a culture where dissent is welcome, even rewarded, but at a minimum listened to and acknowledged. For out of dissent come new and more effective approaches and sometimes, brilliant innovation.

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