Do You Job Swap?

by Stefan Lindegaard

A while ago, I read an interesting article on how P&G and Google benefited by swapping employees for a couple of weeks.

This is a great way to learn new things and a good approach to establish long term partnerships.

Furthermore, it helps a company develop a more external-focused culture which is quite useful as we move towards open innovation.

I can’t get access to the original article but I found a copy here: A New Odd Couple: Google, P&G Swap Workers to Spur Innovation.

You should also check out the comments made by Innosight as they wondered how many other companies will team up to do this and if a more formal network and a business model will emerge to facilitate it.

It has...

Innovation leadership and culture: Observations from Johnson & Johnson

by Stefan Lindegaard

I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jeff Murphy over the last couple of months. Jeff is an executive director at Johnson & Johnson where he is working with improvement methodologies and business innovation.

At a meeting a couple of months ago, we got into a discussion on key leadership behaviors and decisions with regards to innovation leadership and culture. Jeff works with this at Johnson & Johnson and he has made the following observations on what business leaders who are seeking to improve their organization’s innovation capability and capacity should do.

They should:

• make innovation a TRUE business priority
• encourage cross-functional collaboration on innovation.
• make innovation part of everyone’s performance review. Recognize publically and  rewardappropriately.
•...

Defeating the corporate antibodies

by Stefan Lindegaard

Change is frightening to many elements inside the typical organization. Change threatens people’s power, their status, their egos, and, in some situations, even their jobs. Change can make someone’s expertise obsolete and thereby make them obsolete as well. Because people are afraid of change, innovation efforts often cause the eruption of corporate antibodies that fight to kill innovation and maintain the status quo.

The factors that cause angst within a closed system of innovation may prove to be even more threatening when a company shifts toward open innovation. Executives and managers may feel they can control the degree of change and shape it to their own needs as long as everything is happening within the organization. But start to bring outside forces in and it’s...

Six ways to make top executives understand innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

In my previous post, I argued that most top executives do not understand innovation. Check this link: Why top executives do not get innovation

It is a major challenge for an innovation leader to operate in an environment where the top executives don’t get innovation or – perhaps even worse – do understand it but are unwilling to fully embrace it because it means going against the board of director’s focus on short-term financial goals.

What can you do to thrive in such an environment? Based on my experiences, here are some methods to apply:

•  Challenge and stretch the mindset of the top executives. Innovation is a holistic activity that needs to be understood and embraced by everyone from the top to the...

Do you job swap?

by Stefan Lindegaard

I just read an interesting article on how P&G and Google really benefited by swapping employees for a couple of weeks.

This is a great way to learn new things and a good approach to establish long term partnerships.

Check out this short article to learn more about how and why these innovation leaders made their employees swap jobs: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hc2R2XPvVoPxwYrItOdbFWjE6o0AD94I91V81

Why not start something similar with the partners of your company?

Who’s right?

by Stefan Lindegaard

I often talk with innovation leaders who believe their company does well on innovation. This contrast what the below people further down the org chart says.

Are leaders generally on the same page as their employees or do they tend to exaggerate the state of the organizational innovation capabilities?

What is your take on this?