Impediments to Innovation

Week 5 Discussion

Week 5 Discussion 1: Impediments to Innovation

Post by Day 3
Respond by Day 5
Point Value: 5

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As you have seen in your readings and in the videos on innovation, there are many possible impediments to innovation, at a personal level, organizational level, even at a societal level. Consider your current enterprise and answer the following question:

What are the impediments to innovation in your company? How can they be overcome?

1. Limit your answer to 500-700 words.
2. Respond to at least two posts of your classmates, evaluating their responses to promote active discussion.

RESPONSES

Hi Cynthia,

Dynamic post this week! Your post pulled me because of the ten barriers listed. The list was the first thing I read, and without any other information, I tried to relate these obstacles to the discussion question. Do you know if John Hall ranked those barriers?

After reading the remaining text, I couldn't agree more. I also discussed the importance of a flat org when trying to achieve innovation. I think hierarchy is necessary, a person in a management position could hinder a creative process. Management guru Peter Drucker once said, “management consists mainly of making it difficult for people to get their work done.” In addition to poor leadership, some employees are resistant to change. You explained change management is challenging within your organization, I'm here to tell you it's not just inside your company! You did an excellent job on the post, and I would say it takes a lot of emotional intelligence to overcome obstacles of management and peers and you seem to have a good grip!

Keep up the awesome work.

Thank you so much Ulysses for reading my discussion post.  I always enjoy your insights on the material, its been a pleasure to take this course with you. I have learned so much from your experiences and from our other classmates experiences as well.  I thought that this article put together by Forbes writer, John Hall was spot on.  What grabbed my attention was that he collected this information from inspiring innovation leaders like Jack Dorsey from Twitter and David Karp from Tumblr.  They and others top innovative companies shared their experiences at a conference in New York.  Hall created this list of barriers to innovation from this conference.  I found this so enlightening as I was able to relate many aspects of my organization.  Here is the link to the article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2013/04/29/10-barriers-to-employee-innovation/#2754facb1113

Do you feel that your organization can relate to some of these barriers to innovation as well?  

The quote from Peter Drucker was so intriguing.  When you think of it is true in many cases, as I mentioned how my division’s management at times can’t get out of their own way.  Though my company has a well diversified innovation portfolio in many sectors, it will need to focus on adding to our division’s portfolio and properly managing for innovation and ingraining it within the culture for sustainability and creativity flow.  

Hi Bhaskar,

It was a pleasure on taking another course with you.  I always find your posts so illuminating.  I appreciate learning so much from your experiences.  Being an Aerospace and Defense company, I can only imagine how innovative thinking and strategy goes into every aspect of what the employees do.  You provided a great evaluation in this post of “short-comings” to your firm’s innovation listing, a lack of strategy or vision, lack of innovation culture, and a lack of investment and coordination.  You have thought of some strong solutions to these issues.  I especially, enjoyed your thoughts in regards to innovation culture.  I discussed innovation culture being a barrier to my organizations potential for a thriving innovation culture.  

We both share the thought of the importance of the culture being ingrained within in the firm from the top down to the bottom of the organizational hierarchy.  And most importantly, it includes the intangibles of culture: the beliefs, expectations, and sense of purpose of those in the organization.  Your thoughts collaboration and brainstorming are spot on.  Collaboration often brings new perspectives and ideas to the innovation process.  I mentioned for my organization staying open-minded, collaboration, and possible flat management as options to nurture an innovative culture.  As an after thought, to my original post.  I wanted to add adopting the mindset of embracing failure as many great innovative breakthroughs come from unintended results.  This also helps the flow of creativity.  An innovative culture begins with the organizational attitude of accepting that the world really has changed. It’s about cultivating a mindset to learn to see the world in new ways.