Once you've decided you need an innovation programme, one of the things you'll be spending quite a bit of time doing is hiring the people you need to create new stuff. Often, though, innovation leaders make poor choices when hiring staff. This is because they hire people whom they think will be great at innovating, but who actually turn out very little that drives new services and products. Research into this topic has found some key types of people that are more prone to failure than others. Here is a list:The Gadgeteer. A gadget is a deceptively dangerous thing for an innovator. On the one hand, it seems the new thing (if only it could be sold correctly to stakeholders) would be a fantastic addition to the innovation portfolio. But on the other, there is practically no way to tie whatever-it-is back to any business problem. This is the hallmark of the gadgeteer – a pursuit of new things without any conceptualisation of what business problem is being solved.
The CowBoy. This kind of innovator is very committed to innovation, so much so that they'll allow nothing to stand in the way of them getting things done.
They'll pursue what's needed to make new things happen, and they'll do it no matter what the odds. Regrettably, this also tends to happen without much thought as to consequences after they've shoved their new thing down everyone's throats.
They may get one innovation accepted, but they'll likely have much less luck with the second and subsequent things they try to introduce. Cowboys are aware of this fact, but their danger is they're focussed so much on right now they don't permit themselves to consider the long term future of their innovation programme.
The Defeatist.
If you got to choose the kind of bad innovator you hired by mistake, you'd want the defeatist.
The only danger that comes from having a defeatist innovator is that you have to carry the headcount without getting any return.
The reason?
The defeatist will look at any new thing and be so overwhelmed by navigating the organisation to get success they are unable to do anything at all.
These are the individuals whose first response to any innovation is 'that's too innovative for us'.
The problem of course, is that the defeatist doesn't have the right amount of influence to get what-ever-it-is accepted, and for some reason is unable to admit it.
The Consultant. At the other end of the scale (from the Gadgeteer), you have Consultant-Innovators.
They don't focus on the answer to the business situation (an answer that will, hopefully, be something innovative), and instead concentrate of defining the problem to be solved. Now, of course it is necessary to have a pretty good definition of a problem before it can addressed in any reasonable way, but the consultant-innovator will write reports and requirements documents till the cows come home.
The Talker. A superlative communicator, you can put a Talker on a stage with a crowd, and you'll get an energising result.
The Talker is also a magic network and can get meetings with anyone. However, despite all this, nothing much ever happens, because the Talker doesn't do execution.
The Lone Ranger. This is the innovator who prefers to work in splendid isolation.
They prefer everything to be under their personal control, and cannot bear to delegate.
The need to be involved in every detail.
Their thought is that they, and they alone, are all it takes to get new things out the door. This usually involves significant individual heroics, but the Lone Ranger will probably not deliver very much despite this. Ultimately, new innovations usually require a team of people, and the Lone Ranger hates teams.
If you have one of these terrible innovators, you should fire them quickly.
If you can't fire them, you need to sideline them somehow. But, of course, the best strategy would be to avoid hiring them altogether. Ultimately, creating an innovation programme is a big enough challenge without having Terrible Innovators around who make things harder.
If you're managing an Terrible Innovators . categories: innovation program,innovation,management,human resources,marketing
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