Innovation Is ... Forever Learning #cindertoflame

This article is a tribute to all my connections who work in an education sector (e.g. for a school board, university or college) or provide education services or training within Corporations. The topic is also relevant for students, other learners and employees in any Corporation who are on a forever learning pathway and interested in how it connects to innovation.

I’ll open with this amusing personal story. Together as a family, we were eating at the dinner table. I told my two sons (who were in their teens) that even though I've been in the same management position for 20 years, I learn something new every day. There was dead silence. Then whispers, as one son said to the other: “I told you she was slow.” I briskly replied: “And, my hearing is excellent.”

It’s fascinating that when we're young, we may feel not only invincible but somewhat all-knowing. I recall holding the same belief upon entry into my profession. After all, I completed an undergraduate degree, followed by an internship. This belief gradually evaporated as I encountered unusual and complex situations. I learned to revisit the research and invite diverse expertise to find solutions to challenges.

As a manager, I hired employees and provided performance appraisals. I was shocked when a few employees believed that they had no room for improvement. In retrospect, those were the employees who ceased to grow in their professional career. This was an unfortunate situation of their own creation.

The same is true for people in Corporations who believe that they have learned pretty much everything or have considered all the most viable possibilities. Perhaps this stance is more frequent in a Corporation with an inbred culture, that favours employees with similar traits and views, or operates within a sheltered work environment that primarily draws upon rich internal resources. Innovation studies underscore the importance of learning from diverse sources to expand knowledge, experience and perspectives to generate more novel ideas that can be crafted into innovative solutions.

Continuous quality (process) improvement is considered “small” innovation, associated with a low level of risk taking and change. It is an important innovation strategy for refining processes within a system. However, to solve highly complex problems or address system challenges, there needs to be a disruption that triggers a paradigm shift in thinking and action (i.e. “major” innovation).

Action learning is a successful change strategy for major innovation that breaks down corporate silos and reaches beyond the walls of Corporations. It capitalizes upon expansive networking, collaboration and partnerships to share learning across and between complex systems, such as municipal management and the health system. This type of systems thinking applies a system of systems view to solve immense challenges with interconnections between systems. For example, municipalities strive to promote healthy communities, and affordable access to safe housing and healthy food are two critical social determinants of health that impact health care usage and cost.

Combined efforts are required to prepare for future challenges such as the unprecedented, projected growth in the aging population that will stretch municipal and health resources beyond capacity. Forging partnerships with private sector Corporations is pivotal, they can participate directly or find other ways to give back to communities and support sustainable, quality living.

When action learning is tied to value-based metrics (performance indicators that measure the overall value of a service or product), it can reveal opportunities for greater risk taking, facilitate more difficult and impactful decisions and lead to major innovation.

Cinder to Flame helps Corporations solve complex challenges with strategic services that energize people, fuel a healthy corporate culture and ignite major innovation.

Innovation is rooted in forever learning, remember this one point:

Successful innovation strategies combine the strength of major innovation and continuous quality (process) improvement and it is never a fait accompli. Rather, forever learning informs ongoing, strategic change(s) in response to multiple, complex and competing factors within our ever-evolving world.

After I drafted this article, I stumbled upon this quote from William Pollard:

“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.”

Finally, while learning can lead to inspiration, it is only fruitful when activated.

Explore another angle to the connection between learning and innovation in this article: https://www.cindertoflame.ca/post/moving-from-inspiration-to-action

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