by Lindsay Collier

Created on: July 02, 2009   Last Updated: July 18, 2009

Climbing Down the Ladder of Success

Ever since I read Richard Foster's landmark book, Innovation; The Attackers Advantage, I've been sensitized to situations with my own clients where their biggness gets in the way of their potential to be innovative. I'm convinced that, sooner or later, every company creates an environment that stifles creativity and innovation and that starts them on a path down the ladder of success. Once more, the more successful a company is, the quicker it may move to this path! I'm also convinced that there are some things that can be done to change this. But it involves changing some well-established thinking practices. If you can't change the thinking, you can't create real change.

The fact is that small is often much more effective in the game of creativity and innovation. Kodachrome was invented by two musicians - why not Kodak? The ballpoint pen was invented by a Hungarian barber - why not a major pen maker? An undertaker in Kansas City invented automated dialing. Where was AT & T at the time? Why didn't the idea of wine coolers come from a wine maker? The list goes on and on. The truth is that, the bigger the organization gets, the more stuck it becomes in its inability to think in new spaces. The tendency is to protect its past rather than invent its future. Once you put in place the patterns of thinking that made your company successful these patterns tend to become rigidly enforced. The distribution of creative energy moves from developing new ideas and possibilities to solving the problems of how to look good in the short term. While you're trying to become perfect at what you know how to do there are others who are looking at breakthrough possibilities in new territories.

Companies that are perfecting their past tend to get involved in today's hot programs (TQM, re-engineering etc.) which, in the end, create more barriers to achieving breakthrough. When did you last hear of an organization that re-engineered itself to greatness? This process tends to get rid of most of the people who dare to think differently about the future because they don't fit in with critical business processes. And, what makes it worse is that government and educational communities have a tendency to follow the lead of business. They have the mistaken assumption that it's working in business so they try it too. And the cycle of non-innovative thinking continues and spreads.

So what can you do about it? Of course this depends on the current

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