Innovation - Plant Your Garden Well

​Innovation is a big topic in civic circles these days. Creating value out of new approaches and ideas is at the heart of this. But first, an interesting example of innovation. 

The picture below is of bio-sensitive tatoo ink. Imagine not having to sample your blood to see the glucose level, just look at your tatoo and it will tell you by it's color if you need insulin. Or, if your are dehydrated. Or, if your white-cell count is up. Or, any number of other indicators. Just one example of innovation I came across recently​. ​​
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Such a buzzword, Innovation. Means so many things to so many people. Can't live without it, can't be a successful organization without it, gotta have it. In local government we won't be designing bio-reactive tattoo inks, but we can have equally impactful innovations that help thousands of people.

I gave the keynote address at a lottery tech conference in October, and this is what they wanted to hear about. It gave me a great chance to get my thoughts together on the topic.

So what exactly is innovation? Ask ten people, you will get ten ideas. This isn't like project management where we can summarize the project by scope / schedule / budget. Innovation strikes a chord with many people, not always in a popular way. The first challenge is to get everyone on the same page.



I like to think of innovation like a vegetable garden. You don't just throw seeds into a weed patch and shout "GROW". You have to spend time preparing the ground. You have to get the soil right. You have to water it. You have to till it. You have to keep the critters out of it. All of this has nothing to do with what is planted, but it has a lot to do with how well things grow. A properly prepared and cared for garden will grow an amazing variety of vegetables.

I cannot drive innovation by telling people - "hey you, go innovate and do some stuff" any more than a seed will grow on it's own. It doesn't work like that. The correct culture needs to be in place. Preparing your organizational culture is sort of like preparing the garden.

Companies have made fortunes by helping organizations determine what innovation is, and what it means to them. I've spent some time over the last year looking at this. I am convinced that our capacity for innovation will grow as our culture grows and changes, as we till and prepare the soil.

Over the next blog posts, I will lay out for you the following:

• The Myths - Stuff you will hear people say about innovation, where it may be misguided, and how you can deal with it. 
• Innovative Culture - The three things you need to focus on to have an innovative culture. Will be three separate posts. 
• Obstacles to Innovative Cultures - Here is the stuff that gets in the way of innovation. ​

So, stay tuned. More is on the way! Nothing like a goal and a commitment to incentivize me to keep up with the blog.