Walking home from work tonight I was thinking that most everything written about innovation is useless. It’s generic banter. Fixing companies must be done in the context of their problems by people passionate enough to constantly push against the dead weight of status quo.
If we learn anything useful from the Tom Peters of this world, it’s the need for passion. Arriving home I read, hot on the heels of Culture eats strategy for breakfast, this beauty from Tom Peters…
If Drucker and Bennis and Collins and Peters and Co. (charter members of Guru Nation) are/were so damn smart-wise, why is corporate performance so shabby in general? …the “solutions” were not actionable by “real people” under stress….
Strategy don’t matter for diddly if the “corporate culture” [an anathema word at McKinsey at the time], is disfunctional/mis-aligned.” That is, if the “strategy” ain’t implementable, it’s de facto a shitty-useless strategy.
So, should I pass on publishing books on innovation? ;-)
Yes! Unless… unless they infect people with the passion to change. Doing that in text is rare these days. Film and other artifacts may have an advantage there. MIG will be offering a service soon to address this shortcoming of innovation-by-report.
John Maxwell espouses the importance of passion in his book: “Talent Is Never Enough”. http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Never-Enough-Discover-Choices/dp/0785214038/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200267032&sr=8-1