Alexa - in previous discussions and events that we have hosted, we have heard about GSK's Pulse programme - and it sounds like they are trying to use Pulse as a catalyst to build a wider innovation community in the company. Have you come across that example?
I think on one hand, you could think of multiple identities and internal "tribes" as schizophrenic and disruptive, but it is the part of the process of institutional change. Let's face it, change is hard. And even harder in a large corporation, so it's easier to break things up into smaller teams to pilot different ideas and see where they go. The trick I think is strong leadership at the top: a balance between tolerating difference and temporary "tribalism," but also having the authority to spread what has proven and tested to work to other groups once they have been tested by the original smaller group.
Exactly. It takes confident, clear leadership at the top: the type of leadership that embraces growing people and taking on risky ideas. But it also takes leadership at all levels to take on the joy of being a creator and solution-generator.
Yes. Pulse takes folks out into the field to work on social impact projects. the challenge is then what happens when they come back to the company. they often aren't equipped to align social and business value. hence, the need for up-skilling and capacity building around intrapreneurship.
Alexa, great question. I think the issue is that corporations have been designed around a different definition of success to date. They have gauged success based on the ability to maximize financial profit and not social or societal value.
This is changing, though, people are demanding strong community, the ability to self express and create impact - this is translating to what customers and employees are demanding so corporations are needing to redesign.
Very interesting conversation! Let's move onto the second question:
Q2. What tactics have you seen for reducing an initiative's dependence on one person / leader - and democratizing ownership of an idea or venture?
agreed. reminds me of Dov Seidman's book How. the idea that the "how" you work in an organization and the culture you generate is equally important to the what and why.
So there is a really interesting idea Russell: how do we create incentives for this type of behaviour? How can incentives help spur executives to directors to managers to explore and create informal collaborative communities?
i think this is the primary challenge of intrapreneurs - is how to make the long-term appear urgent among corporate priorities.
Arthur, I'm glad you mention Marshall Ganz. I had the honor of being in a workshop with him earlier this year.
Ganz has this really useful framework for helping organizers/intrapreneurs to tell their stories and to build a community: story of self, us, and now. Worth checking out: http://www.wholecommunities.org/pdf/Public%20Story%20Worksheet07Ganz.pdf
Which is a challenging task in itself and one we at the Lab constantly have to evolve our perspective and work on. One example is the work we do with developing a community of economic justice campaigners and their leadership capabilities in a 9-month programme. By creating a learning community and a peer group they are able to explore new forms of leadership in an experiential way. http://campaignlab.org.uk/
yes. leadership is about defining a call to action where others can find purpose.
exactly. many corporations are even seeing anti-advertising as the new advertising as a way of coming across as more authentic brands. so an indication that things are shifting.
Lee-Sean,
I agree with your points - leadership is required to foster tribalism and disruption. Much easier said than done..
One way is to shift the identity of that idea or venture from a personal brand to a movement brand.
For example, LIVESTRONG. Despite all of the controversy surrounding Lance Armstrong as a person, the Foundation that originally bears his name continues on. There are millions of yellow-wristband wearing people who still identify with the story of fighting and surviving cancer and who are working for cures. You can't take that away from people, even if Lance himself now suffers from a tarnished reputation.
I know when Acumen Fund did an assessment of their organization one of their top risks was their founder, Jacqueline Novogratz. They felt the organization was too dependent on her brand and leadership. so for organizations to have the foresight to identify that over-dependence is key.
I think a great example relating to some work in our community is the UK crowdfunding association and other peer-to-peer lenders looking to democratise financial services. http://www.ukcfa.org.uk/ It is showing the trend towards collaborating and co-creating new services which are driven by people and not a management team. Democratising finance is a hot topic right now but the principles of how it works, driven by social media, individual empowerment etc. mean it can be applied to other initiatives.
I moderate deliberative dialogues. The participants share the leadership and move together to a joint decision.
within a corporate context, i think a lot of intrapreneurs determine their success by the number of other people who run with their idea. Within Accenture, for example, few know that ADP - their non-profit consulting arm - was the brainchild of Gib Bulloch, a social intrapreneur. Many think it came from somewhere "up top." And that sense of skewed ownership was key to Gib's success.
Really great point, Lee-Sean - so many "communities" are created primarily as top-down broadcast platforms, rather than genuine, peer-to-peer engagement platforms.