Creating and Growing a Culture of Innovation

CREATING AND GROWING
A CULTURE OF
INNOVATION
The Kankakee Daily Journal 2017 Progress Awards Dinner
April 13, 2017

THIS TALK IS DIVIDED INTO TWO BRIEF SECTIONS
FOR THE NEXT 26-27 MINUTES…
 Part 1: Describe Key Innovation Issues & Local
Accomplishments to provide context
 Part 2: Define Five Imperatives or “Considerations” for Creating and Growing
a Culture of Innovation
Dr. Don Daake April 13, 2017 The Kankakee Daily Journal Progress Dinner
I present tonight
for your
consideration….

LET ME TELL YOU A TRUE STORY…..
….That is not really Quite True
Charles Duell, the United States Commissioner of Patents (1898-1901)
purportedly said "Everything that can be invented has been
invented”
 IMPLICATION: WE CAN SHUT THE PATENT OFFICE DOWN!

A TRUE STORY – THAT IS NOT REALLY QUITE TRUE
 A 1899 edition of Punch Magazine, an English comedy magazine, offered a
look at the "coming century."
 In a story, the Genius asked “Isn't there a clerk who can examine patents?" A
boy replied "Quite unnecessary, Sir. Everything that can be invented has
been invented."

WHAT DUELL ACTUALLY SAID WAS THIS…
"In my opinion, all previous advances in the various lines of invention will
appear totally insignificant when compared with those which the present
century will witness.

THE REALITY….
 Indeed the rate of innovation and inventions is increasing
at an exponential rate.
 2015 589,410 applications- 325,979 granted 52% foreign origination.

WE LIVE IN A WORLD DRIVEN BY INNOVATION
 The 20th and 21st Centuries happening at an exponential rate
 Travel to any place on the face of the globe within 24 hours
 Talk to virtually anyone on the face of the globe
 Put 1.7 billion transistors on a chip the size of your fingernail
 Online banking and online everything
 Materials revolution e.g. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner

A WORLD DRIVE BY INNOVATION-MANY LOCAL
EXAMPLES
 Open heart surgery and organ transplants
 Miracle drugs
 Online banking
 Hybrid seeds and other innovation in agriculture
 Medical diagnostics
 Artificial intelligence- both invigorating and concerning

CAN WE ALL AGREE? WE LIVE IN A STUNNING WORLD OF
PROGRESS, INNOVATION & CHANGE
Depending on your generational background:
 It is swell
 Can you dig it?
 It’s Groovy and Right on
 Cool
 Most Excellent
 Even Tremendous & Huge

BUT AN IMPORTANT CAVEAT:
 Many of the significant innovations are made in small daily improvements
that we all can engage in!

NOW FOR JUST A FEW MINUTES MINUTES…..
 Indulge the professor (Emeritus--but De-commissioned) to
come out of me- we need to define a few terms.

BRIEFLY..
 I have some “splaining” to do…

WE LOVE LISTS & SIMPLE ANSWERS TO OUR ISSUES!!

BUT IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE DEFINITIVE LIST
OF THE 5,7,25, OR 107 IMPERATIVES GOOD LUCK!
 Be wary of any author, consultant, and especially professors who writes an
article or book with:
 “Just do my list and your problems will be solved”
 It is Hooey, Balderdash and Non-Sense*
*(See Pfeiffer and Sutton of Stanford Business School “Management Half-Truths and Nonsense: How to Practice
Evidence-Based Management” CMR Spring 2006.)

IMPORTANCE OF CONTINGENCY “THEORY”
 What to do or what to practice…It all depends..
 PERSPECTIVE: Based your Industry, products, people, history, size, business
cycle, and on and on
 There is GOOD NEWS & BAD NEWS
 BAD NEWS – there is no one solution that fits everyone
 GOOD NEWS- you get to “make it up” as you go based on your situation &
EVIDENCE!

MY GOAL FOR YOU…
Each of you take just ONE IDEA with you and use it this next week, month, or
year.
In the end, if you are looking for the MAGICAL INNOVATION FORMULA--I refer
you to the eminent Professor Dr. Karl Weick from the University of Michigan

DR. KARL E. WEICK
IN STUDYING HUMAN BEHAVIOR CONCLUDES…
“Some do, Some don’t, and the Differences
aren’t that great.”

BUT WHEN IT COMES TO INNOVATION THE
DIFFERENCES CAN BE GREAT
Regarding innovation “Some do- they grow
and prosper”
“Some don’t- they decline and fade away”

ORGANIZATION CULTURE IS A DRIVING FORCE IN
FOSTERING INNOVATION AT ANY LEVEL
 “Corporate culture refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and
beliefs that characterize members of an organization and define its nature.

INNOVATION, CHANGE & THE CULTURE NEXUS
INNOVATION involves a Process of Creative Destruction..
Joseph Schumpeter (1942)
While innovation does involve change…
It must build on the past/ not destroy or forget it…..
Telsa Robotic Line

INNOVATION & PROGRESS
DOESN’T JUST HAPPEN BY CHANCE!
 It has to be supported by leadership and more
importantly by the proper CULTURE

IN THE KANKAKEE RIVER VALLEY --WE HAVE HAD
PIONEERING & INNOVATIVE LEADERS
Jack Charlton
Ray Benoit
Col James
Cassler
Wes Walker
Generations of future-looking citizens
Len and Jean Alice Small
Dottie Legesse

INNOVATION AND THE CULTURE LOCALLY
 The Kankakee River Valley has a long, proud history of innovation, invention
and progress: People, purpose, passion, promises, patents & products =
PROGRESS.

INNOVATION AND THE CULTURE LOCALLY
 The Kankakee River Valley has a long, proud history of innovation, invention
and progress: People, purpose, passion, promises, patents & products =
PROGRESS.
 vice.
Cinderella Shoes
3 Winds Farm

ARE YOU BEGINNING TO FEEL LIKE WE SHOULD SING
THE SONG BY QUEEN…….

THE REALITY: INNOVATE, FADE, OR MAYBE EVEN DIE
 The GREATin their day are no more!
 APATHY and FAILURE to innovate based on a stagnant, arrogant, and even smug culture-
leads to NON-CREATIVE Destruction
 Do you remember when?

PART II
Five “considerations” on Creating and Growing
a Culture of Innovation

# 1 BUILDING A CULTURE THAT SUPPORTS INNOVATION:
CULTURE MUST SUPPORT THE OPENING UP OF THE MIND
 CRITICAL THINKING & EVIDENCE-BASED DECISION MAKING IMPORTANT!
 Good for existing strategies BUT ...can inhibit future-oriented breakthroughs
 Robert Harris’ wonderful list in “Introduction to Creative Thinking” at
Virtualsalt.com

# 1 CULTURE MUST SUPPORT OPENING UP OF THE MIND
CRITICAL THINKING CREATIVE THINKING
ANALYTIC GENERATIVE
CONVERGENT DIVERGENT
PROBABILITY POSSIBILITY
JUDGMENT SUSPENDED JUDGMENT
OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE
VERBAL VISUAL
(The) ANSWER AN ANSWER
REASONING RICHNESS, NOVELTY
YES, BUT YES AND

*THE VERY BEST LIST I HAVE FOUND ON THINKING
CREATIVELY IS:
 http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook2.htm
 For example: Brainstorming
 The Journalistic Six
 Blocking & Busting
 Improvements to….
 What-iffing
 Manipulative words
 Reversal – e.g. Think of all the things you don’t want and then find a way to reverse these
to get what you do want.

#2) CULTURAL IMPERATIVES TO FOSTER INNOVATION:
ACCEPT A WIDE VARIETY OF INNOVATIONS
 Break-through innovations are relatively rare, but can change the world.
 Many are incremental improvements or accidental improvements
 Post-it notes--an “accident” & grown into a billion dollar “mistake”
 “A "solution without a problem”

# 2 ACCEPT & REWARD A WIDE VARIETY OF INNOVATIONS
 In Services- Delivering in new and better ways –Often Small but BIG IMPACT
on Customer

# 2 ACCEPT & REWARD A WIDE VARIETY OF
INNOVATIONS
 Powerful Ideas including Branding, Slogans, Words
AFLAChttps://hbr.org/2010/01/how-i-did-it-aflacs-ceo-explains-how-he-fell-for-the-duck
Geico
Z Got Sold
“Demas quit*”

# 3 CREATING BOTH A CULTURE OF COHESIVENESS
AND YET CREATIVE CONFLICT
 Many experts believe that strong cultures can be both helpful & detrimental to
innovation. Strong agreement, can stifle innovation and is even dangerous!
Unity vs. Groupthink

#3) CREATING A CULTURE OF COHESIVENESS AND YET
CREATIVE CONFLICT
 Andy Grove of Intel “ferocious arguing with one another while remaining
friends and is critical to the creation of new knowledge.”

#3) CREATING A CULTURE OF COHESIVENESS AND YET
CREATIVE CONFLICT-
 Meg Whitman of eBay “we have a ‘no penalty’ culture, meaning that there
is no penalty for being on the wrong side of an issue or changing your mind in
the face of better information.”

# 4 EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
UNDERSTAND IT IS A TOOL NOT THE FINAL ANSWER
 We are awash in data, information, ideas, new products
 Data analytics & Big Data is emerging- with both opportunities and threats
 Growing powerful AI- artificial and YET……
 Yet the interpersonal human element is more important than all
the tools, computer programs, new methods

# 4 EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION BUT UNDERSTAND
THEY ARE TOOLS NOT THE FINAL ANSWER
Necessary but not sufficient!

CULTURAL IMPERATIVE: WHETHER LARGE, MIDDLE, OR SMALL
BUSINESS- # 4 EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION BUT
UNDERSTAND THEY ARE TOOLS NOT THE FINAL ANSWER
 For artists and small business people the use of social media and related
technologies can be used to launch a “worldwide” business
 Shawn James Mavrides EXAMPLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PX4mDbIYB0
4,009,510 views as of April 13, 2017

# 4 EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION BUT UNDERSTAND IT IS
A TOOL NOT THE FINAL ANSWER
 USING TECHNOLOGY along with HARD WORK, LONG HOURS, TENACITY,
PEOPLE SKILLS, & TALENT
 Produced over 8 CDs- Including Bear, Wolf & Hawk Trilogy
 Sony purchased “Through the Valley” for new Play Station game “The last of us –Part two”
garnered between 10-20 million hits
 Traveled throughout the US and performed in over 100 US cities
 Currently on a 4 month European tour has performed in Prague; Berlin; Amsterdam; Paris,
Madrid, Hamburg; Berlin; Warsaw, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin

CULTURE IMPERATIVES TO FOSTER INNOVATION:
# 5 BE FLEXIBLE IN THE LEADERSHIP STYLE
 Amazon offers 57,136 books with the word “leadership” in the title.
 Do we need any more? Maybe, but the fact is Contingency Theory
really comes into play here!
 Put aside ego and act as a coach in a COLLOABORATIVE process
OR BETTER YET JUST GET OUT OF THE WAY!

# 5 BE FLEXIBLE
 Hire some free-thinking people (But understand they
will not be easy to manage)

# 5 A GREAT DANGER IN RIGID/NON-REWARDING
CULTURES
 The good and productive will give up and leave
 The mediocre and unproductive will give up and stay

# 5 FLEXIBLE IN LEADERSHIP STYLE: BECOME A
MULTIPLIER
 Be a Multiplier rather than a Diminisher!
 Everyone must be a leader when it comes to innovation.
Note ISBN:9780061964398

ARE YOU A MULTIPLIER OR A DIMINISHER?
MULTIPLIER Talent
Management
Liberator Challenger Debate Maker Investor
Towering
Strength
Competency
Diminisher
Diminisher Empire
Builder
Tyrant Know-it-All Decision-
Maker
Micro-
manager

A CAUTION FROM THE GENIUS ROD SERLING:
TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE 153 (1964)
 “The point is that, too often, man becomes clever instead of becoming wise;
he becomes inventive and not thoughtful…”

IN SUMMARY WE LIVE IN AN EXCITING, SCARY,
OPPORTUNISTIC WORLD…GOING FORWARD
 We must Innovate our ways of innovatingand change our
organizations and cultures accordingly to…
Be Wise & People Centered

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
 This whole presentation is available to you at Slideshare
 Just Google
“Don Daake Slideshare”
Currently 110 Past columns
www.daakecomments.wordpress.com

Thank you for your attention and
kindness

EXTRA CREDIT IDEA…. WHEN BUILDING A CULTURE
THAT LEADS TO INNOVATION
 One list suggests creating a culture that:https://www.fastcodesign.com/1672718/6-ways-to-create-a-
culture-of-innovation
 Is innovation intentional (without being over constrained)
 Creates a structure for unstructured time
 Leaders step in and then step back out
 Measure what is meaningful
 Give “worthless” rewards –but ones that give attention
 Use symbolic rewards and tangible rewards

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