Focus on the can-do innovators
If innovators are on fire, truly believe in their idea, they will do anything to make it happen. On the other hand vocal, creative people with great ideas, but who count on others to try them out are wasting your and their time.
I recall an innovator on the other side of the globe, who had already a “150%” day job. She came up with an original way to increase access and affordability of a key medicine by eliminating traditional distribution costs. She was convinced it would work and made time to overcome complex legal challenges, technical barriers and find colleagues to collaborate on her experiment. She only needed me to give her a call now and then, to vet a few ideas. This was one of the can-do’ers, who typically during my check-in calls asked for advise on alternative solutions or for new connections.
There are also the ‘innovators’ with really great ideas, but who keep complaining about others not helping them or coming up with excuses why they didn’t progress. Redirect your energy to the can-do’ers.
One caution: innovators can be ‘too married to their idea’. Help them to decide when to stop if it becomes obvious they are on the wrong track, e.g. when tests to validate key assumptions fail.
As Michael Dell said:
“Real entrepreneurs have what I call the three Ps (and, trust me, none of them stands for ‘permission’). Real entrepreneurs have a ‘passion’ for what they’re doing, a ‘problem’ that needs to be solved, and a ‘purpose’ that drives them forward.”
So, as Innovation Leader, identify the can-do passionate innovators. Engage with them. Listen to them. Find out if their innovation meets a real customer/business need. Then provide them with all the needed attention, connections, experts, time, encouragement, visibility you can get. They are out there and they need you!
Thoughts?