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- October 30th, 2006
- 2 Comments »
- Innovation
This week in pm-clinic: Innovate or die
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum:
Is innovation for innovation’s sake a good idea? I think not, but my new VP has it in his head that our entire organization needs to be more innovative – despite his lack of clarity about what that means. So all of the team leads (including myself) are like a pack of wolves, pacing and racing around our projects.
New ideas are flying all over the place (reorgs, new technologies, new directions), but progress on existing projects has stalled, morale is volatile (rising and falling daily), and there is a shortage on meaningful decisions about why we’re changing things, or how those changes will be made.
How can I help my VP sort out what innovation means? (Or is this some kind of leadership game where he’s testing us by watching our responses)? Or more cynically, protect my team and existing projects from this chaos until it passes?
- Innovate or die
2 Responses
- Scott (admin) - October 30, 2006 at 5:07 pm #
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Innovation is such the buzzword these days – I’m suprised its taken so long to hear an innovation related situation.
I agree – I’d try to at least translate the innovation label into something useful. A list of questions – a checklist for identifying innovative things – something. I might even work with the other team leads to do it on our own rather than wait for the VP to do it (which it sounds like he wont).
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I’d do my just work and try to leave whole mess behind as much as possible. I wouldn’t enter into “Look, I’m the most innovative” game and try to isolate the team from the mess.
I know one manager who were able to play exactly that role for years. Her team was thrown between different divisions and different locations, but all they have to do was to pack their servers and go wherever they were told. She brought isolation from the mess on the top into perfection. It was good for her team, however it was usually a problem for her current bosses (they were changing because of those reorganizations).
It’s definately not the perfect way to manage for the time of peace, but when you don’t know how tommorow will look like it’s safe, especially for the team. And soon someone will ask: hey, what about projects? Then, you’ll have your answer.
Ah, I’d leave the VP and wouldn’t try to clean up the mess. If that’s the game (I wouldn’t bet – it’d be too costly) playing safe is uhm… safe. Especially in the long run. On the other hand if he’s serious I’d rather think about getting things done instead of dealing with you-don’t-know-who. Not worth a risk.