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Welcome to the Association Innovation lens on Squidoo! To many people, the very phrase "association innovation" is something of a contradiction in terms. This reaction is neither unexpected, nor altogether inaccurate. Associations lag behind organizations in other sectors of our economy in their pursuit of innovation, but this historical trend is beginning to shift as the unforgiving realities of today's marketplace irrevocably alter the dynamics of association success.
In this lens, I want to share some ideas and insights with association leaders who are opening up their minds to the absolute necessity of consistent innovation. If you have any questions or comments about what I've written here, please contact me. I look forward to receiving your feedback and suggestions for how I can make this lens even better!
Listen to Jeff's audio welcome to the Association Innovation Lens!
Check out the Principled Innovation Blog!
Jeff's Ideas and Insights on Association Innovation
From here, you've got easy access to excerpts of the three most recent posts on the Principled Innovation Blog. To read more, I encourage you to visit the site or subscribe to the RSS feed!
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byDefining Innovation
Jeff's Take on Innovation as an Experience
Innovation lives in the careful balance of systemic freedom and systemic discipline necessary to discover and develop ideas to create new value.
It is freedom that unleashes individual and collective imagination by making knowledge sharing, creativity and collaboration possible. Discipline enables the organization to harness imagination and put it into practice in the marketplace through prototypes, service tests and other experiments. Both the economic value and core values that drive innovation come to life when leaders find and sustain the right balance of freedom and discipline throughout the system that is the organization and its distributed network of contributors.
What's your definition of innovation? Send an e-mail to jeffpi1 [at] gmail [dot] com with your ideas!
Understanding the Six Innovation Contexts
Discovering Innovation Opportunities for Your Association
- Strategic context--The association's comprehensive understanding of the forces driving its operating environment, as well as an appreciation of emerging trends and issues. (Opportunities include strategy and business model innovation.)
- Technological context--The association's use of technology to engage contributors in the work of innovation, as well as the impact of current and new technologies on the association and its members. (Opportunities include innovation in current and new products, tools and other "tangibles.")
- Cultural context--The association's internal climate and intrinsic support for collaboration, including encouraging risk-taking, supporting experimentation and the importance of genuinely learning from failure. (Opportunities include innovation in the structure and substance of the relationships between and among staff, members and other association stakeholders.)
- Intellectual context--The association's mindset and approach to identifying and leveraging ideas and knowledge both internally and externally. (Opportunities include service and experience innovation, as well as innovation around other "intangibles.")
- Financial context--The association's underlying structures for managing both the uncertainty and financial exposure of innovation in order to minimize risk. (Opportunities include process, practice and delivery methods innovation across different association functions.)
- Leadership context--The capacity of association leaders to fulfill their responsibility for making innovation consistently possible without exerting undue influence or control over it. (Opportunities include innovation in governance and stewardship models for both staff and volunteers.)
Making Innovation Happen
Six Key Principles of Association Innovation
- Innovate through the network--No association needs to go about the work of innovation alone. Instead, associations must leverage their existing networks of members, customers, partners and others to capitalize on flows of knowledge and creativity.
- Innovate from the Web--Innovation is a fundamentally democratic phenomenon, and so are the social media tools we can use to support knowledge sharing and collaboration. Associations should use the lightweight platform of Web 2.0 for open, transparent and cost-effective innovation work.
- Innovate to maximize passion--Everyone has a role to play in the work of innovation. Associations can unleash the passion of their members through the pursuit of innovation by allowing them to engage in ways that are relevant and meaningful to them.
- Innovate to make ideas mobile--A static idea is useless. A static idea loses its vitality and decays quickly. Innovation makes ideas mobile, sending ripples throughout the association and across its distributed networks of contributors.
- Innovate to minimize risk--The risk of innovation exists in uncertainty multiplied by financial exposure. Both of these variables are within the control of association leaders who make small bets on smart experiments.
- Innovate by orchestrating and coordinating collaboration--Innovation leadership is like conducting an orchestra, i.e., integrating all of the contributors and their elements, as well as cultivating and sustaining the relationship among them. The best association leaders already operate in this way.
Building an Innovation Library
Six Innovation Titles Every Association Leader Should Read
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
An outstanding exploration of generative strategy and innovation thinking, this book is a welcome departure from the moribund strategic planning models that are so prevalent in the association community.
Democratizing Innovation
This excellent book describes how the work of innovation is open, collaborative and highly democratic in fields as diverse as computer software, extreme sports and surgical equipment. Associations must be next!
How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate
Innovation is not the work of the fabled lone inventor laboring away in the solitude of a cloistered laboratory. Rather, it is the collaborative effort of networks that drives genuine innovation, and associations can be the leading creators of such networks.
Leading for Innovation: & Organizing For Results
A superb collection of essays on innovation from The Drucker Foundation (now Leader-to-Leader Institute) that offers compelling insights drawn from many fields. A particular favorite of mine is John Kao's essay, "Reinventing Innovation," with its focus on innovation as an interdisciplinary endeavor.
The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures
Innovation is about making connections beyond the existing and commonly-accepted boundaries of the marketplace. The Medici Effect will help association leaders recognize potential "intersections" in their own industries and professions.
The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
Move beyond the limiting perspective of the devil's advocate by identifying other personas that can contribute productively to your association's innovation work. This book is a great follow-up from Tom's The Art of Innovation.
The Weekly Surprise
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