I’ve just met an old friend who told me they had moved jobs because the old organisation was ‘sucking the life out of them’. As an ‘ideas person’ they were fed up of constantly having their ideas; dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or worse, buried in bureaucracy. They were getting out before their spirit was crushed and they became one of the ‘sheep’. Sounds familiar?
With innovation and improvement (all fuelled by good ideas) being so high on the agenda it’s disappointing to hear this. Shouldn’t the ideas people be cherished and encouraged, not crushed and ridiculed?
Here are some ‘ideas’ about how ideas are killed off in organisations, suggesting that this might a very deeply seated behaviour. Could there be an evolutionary response that pushes people (and organisations) down the path of settling for ‘best practice’ and the status quo? Sub consciously are most of us are resisting new ideas as a type of autonomic response.
Blocking new ideas is an evolutionary trait. I touched on this in the post is best practice the enemy of innovation where I referenced an article, Innovation is not Best Practice by Alf Rehn from Manchester University. The article talks about us still being hunter gathers that rely upon the evolutionary advantages of sticking to best practice. To survive we know the ‘best’ place to catch Bison, the ‘best’ way to gather roots and berries and this is transferred into modern-day thinking. The majority of the time we stick to what we know. Established practice is what got us to where we are now, so why would we want to try out ideas that are new and potentially dangerous?
Mavericks and Accidents are a source of ideas. This is a point made by Dave Snowden in this video about the discovery of the method for measuring Longitude. Ideas generated by Mavericks are frequently ignored by the establishment for a long period of time, before they become accepted.
The role that established experts play in suppressing new ideas is significant. New ideas can represent an attack upon the power base of the experts (their expertise and knowledge) and the organisation. Dave used the analogy of ‘autonomic response’ by organisational ‘white blood cells’ killing ideas when he spoke at this event. Mavericks (like my friend) have a tough time in many organisations.
This quote by Frank Herbert from The Dune books (and films) might be from Science Fiction, but is does sum things up nicely, who want to appear inept?
Don’t Panic! Turning to what you might do about the organisational ‘autonomic immune response’ to get ideas accepted, here a few suggestions:
- Pretend you’re not a Maverick. If the autonomic response doesn’t recognise you or your ideas as a threat, you might get past the white blood cell defences. This is quite a difficult position to achieve. There is always the risk you will ‘go native’, ‘get the life sucked out of you’, and become one of the sheep.
- Use Immunosuppressant Agents. In the context of an organisation this might be strong leadership saying ‘all new ideas are welcome’. There are many examples of this working, but it takes time and commitment from the top.
- Just Wait. It’s funny how once upon a time radical ideas, (for example using open source software) appear mainstream once the rest of the world catches up or overtakes the organisation.
- Find a Host that accepts you. There are places that love ideas. For example Ricoh in Telford and other organisations who are Members of IdeasUK, a body which focussed on helping organisations to involve their staff in generating ideas and getting them implemented. The percentage of ideas being implemented in Ricoh was in excess of 80%, a fantastic example of an organisation that nurtures ideas and the people who come up with them.
So, what’s the PONT?
- An autonomic response to killing ideas could be a deep-seated in some organisations. The causes could be evolutionary or expert driven.
- Recognising the organisational level of ‘immunity to new ideas’ would be helpful before embarking upon any improvement programme that depends upon ideas.
- Pick your tactics carefully to get around the immune response. Sometimes it might require finding a new ‘host’ organisation (like my friend).
Just one final thought, Zombie Organisations. Are these the places where the people who like to crush ideas need to move on to, or are the idea killing organisations actually already on their way to becoming zombified?
Disclaimer: I know this post might upset a few organisations that are good at nurturing ideas. Please let me know of your good work in the comments.
Picture source: Graphic by Laura Sorlava of http://www.auralab.co.uk/. Created at this event with the Wales Audit Office, http://www.wao.gov.uk/assets/englishdocuments/WAO_DaveSnowden_sketchnotes_Auralab.pdf
What's the PONT 
But also keep your ideas-muscles in trim by using them anyway – works just a little bit of it.
[…] Knowledge is power. This might be a bit more controversial but not every expert is open to new ideas or happy to be questioned. You do see the occasional subject matter expert that will kill off all new ideas in case they undermine their status and power base. I mentioned this in my post about Idea Antibodies. […]
[…] Do some organisations kill off new ideas?https://whatsthepont.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/idea-antibodies-do-some-organisation-have-an-autonomic-… […]
Great post, just picked up a link to it on twitter. I was having a related conversation with a colleague today after a staff ‘away day’ (afternoon workshop). We were thinking about ways that people restrict exploration, ideas and new thinking when they tell someone they manage that ‘it’s not your role to [insert topic that idea relates to]’. Thus job descriptions and job titles can facilitate restrictions – but if they were treated more fluidly they could encourage the development of new ideas. Which brings us back to organisational culture and leadership. Your thoughts around this are helpful to reflect on, thank you.
thanks Lorna
Glad to have contributed.
I think you will like this post from @paulbromford http://paulbromford.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/why-your-business-plan-just-killed-innovation/
Talks about some of the structural blockers to innovation.
I’m a big fan of Trojan Mice myself. Small, safe to fail projects run in parallel.
A bit on Trojan Mice here that links back to the source thinking by people like Dave Snowden, http://whatsthepont.com/2013/07/28/continuous-improvement-why-matters-to-squeeze-the-pips-release-trojan-mice-and-win-small/
You are right that leadership and culture are very important.
Get them right and somehow the business plan blocking disappears.
Good luck with the away day follow up.
Thanks
Chris
Great analysis Chris.
I think a key factor in all this is systems which encourage the non-risk takers to rise to the top. Like your friend, I’ve had the life sucked out of me in organisations, I’ve also been chewed up and spat out by organisations. The people who get to the top tend to be the “safe pairs of hands”, the people who never rock the boat and don’t stick their necks out.
Thanks John,
Lots of big organisations do tend to favour the ‘safe pair of hands’.
I must admit I’ve probably been tempted by that sort of approach in the past.
It takes a big leap for lots of people to move to the position of accepting risks….. even when they are well managed risks.
I was on the edge of a discussion last week where @complexwales were suggesting that this is an evolutionary trait. Saying we are pre-disposed to avoid failure rather than mimic success, and we will stick with what is low risk ‘best practice’, rather than risk failure by trying something new.
This makes life hard for the ideas people and the mavericks.
I’ve got a post on this I’ll try and publish this week.
Thanks for the comments,
Chris
Yes, I think you are right in suggesting there is something about evolution and lack of risk-taking.
But… I have worked in the past in structures which were evidently not working and actually producing outcomes antithetical to the needs of the users. In that situation, people are rewarded with better salaries and higher statuses for continuing to manage a bad system, and, in effect, making it worse, while those who try to point out where it is going wrong are pushed out.
That’s a bad situation.
If organisations are unethical on a large scale like that it needs more than a few good ideas to improve things.
Interesting parallels with the whistleblower discussions that have featured in the news this week.
Great post, Chris. Lots of this rings true for many organisations. A quick jumble of thoughts from me:
Sometimes it’s not the idea which is rejected, but the way it’s presented, particularly if the proponent appears to challenge the top leadership.
Deploy different tactics according to the nature of the idea, for example:
– if it could save money, approach the lead for that part of the business and talk to them directly, without challenging in public. If convinced, they might volunteer to take it forward
– if it’s an innovation idea, encourage an ‘innovation workshop’ and contribute to it. Open questioning may help others come up with a similar, or better idea.
– If it’s the idea which is important, allow others to think it was their idea in the first place, and encourage them (a sort of constructive Iago figure?)
– empathise with the decision-makers, and use language they understand. Avoid tech jargon
– ideas people also need sales, comms & marketing skills to spot the obstacles or blockers and adapt accordingly
– timing can be very important. Pick the time when decision-makers are most likely to be receptive to ideas
– persevere
– if all of that fails, but you feel it’s still a good idea, move or start a new business
Hello Mark,
I think you are spot on.
As we as the ‘how’, it’s quite often the ‘who’ that comes into play when putting forward an idea.
Brilliant list of suggestions, worthy of a post on their own.
Will say a bit more a bit later.
Thanks very much,
Chris
Hi Mark and Chris
In relation to this I listened to a great podcast on LDRLB with Heidi Grant Halvorson (http://ldrlb.co/2013/06/0412-heidi-grant-halvorson/) about a book called ‘Focus’, in which the authors suggest that:
‘Motivation … has two forms: focus on promotion or on prevention. People can either be “focused on what they already have, or on getting even more. Promotion focus is about maximising gains and avoiding missed opportunities. Prevention focus is about minimising losses, to keep things working”. …
Once you understand that the world is divided into prevention and promotion, argue the authors, you know how to become an effective influencer.’
Here’s a short article about the book: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/05/how_to_get_better_at_spotting.html and here’s a short review of it from which I extracted the quote above: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7417bc86-ae8a-11e2-8316-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2b0uxeGnE
Fantastic.
Thanks Lorna.
I’ll make sure Mark gets to see this.
Plenty of reading for me over the next few days.
I’ll get back to you.
Chris
Thanks again Lorna,
I’ve had a good read now.
There have been some interesting exchanges linked to this topic between Bryn Williams and Matt from Complex Care Wales.
The gist of that has been around are we more likely to avoid failure rather than mimic good practice from elsewhere.
I unfortunately introduces evolution into the debate and it got quite exiting.
I have passed this link onto them.
I’m sure they will be dissecting the research.
Many thanks,
Chris
[…] Friday morning in the jungle. I retweet one of my posts about how some big organisations have ‘ideas antibodies’. I’d proposed that big organisations, (and many people), don’t really like new stuff, […]
[…] or Ricoh in Telford, than in a huge government department. I did touch on this in a post about Idea Antibodies where I suggested a way of gaining acceptance for your innovative idea was to “pretend […]
[…] dod â’n gydweithwyr gyda ni ar y siwrne o wella gwasanaethau cyhoeddus? Fel man dechrau, mae Chris Bolton wedi ysgrifennu blogbost da ar sut i gael pobl eraill i dderbyn eich syniadau. Dyma grynodeb sylfaenol iawn (a braidd yn greulon, sori Chris!), ble gall […]
[…] all our colleagues along with us on the public service improvement journey? As a starter for ten, Chris Bolton has written a good post on getting ideas accepted. To break down his post to a very basic level (via a slightly brutal overview, sorry Chris!), […]
Hi Chris – Interesting post. The topic of anti-bodies reminded me of this article (https://medium.com/innovation-culture/i-am-a-virus-4cca32b05c42#.rk4m1uso7) around which I designed a SenseMaker framework to diagnose the level of anti-bodies in an organisation resisting innovation. Will be debuting that this year.
Thanks Marcus, and for the link to the Martin Graham-Brown post.
I do like the Aldous Huxley quite about people fearing what they are not familiar with.
Very relevant at many levels.
The ideas of Idea Antbodies has come up again the last few weeks.
It would be great to see what you are doing with SenseMaker around it.
I think it would have some relevance to what I’ve been involved in.
Thanks
Chris
[…] Organisation Immune Systems. The concept of organisations having ‘Idea Antibodies’ has been around for a while, and is nicely explained in this post ‘I am a virus, My name is Innovation’ by Graham Brown-Martin (thanks to Marcus Guest for sharing it). I was first introduced to it by Dave Snowden and wrote about it here back in 2012. […]
[…] can quickly develop an autonomic immune response that kills ideas – without any conscious effort. This immune system builds up easily and quickly spreads, but […]
[…] wrote about it ages ago in this post on Idea Antibodies, and asked a question about Immunosuppressants. Are there things that would reduce the antibody […]
Thhis was lovely to read