Communication and repetition are vital for innovation
I was working out this morning before work and as usual, watching the breaking news. At 7am there are a range of news choices, and strangely each network seems to have the exact same advertisements on during the breaks. As I was working out I realized that I knew the side effects of several medications that I don't need and don't take. These side effects include headaches, vomiting, and so on. The reason I know these is because there seem to be five or six pharmaceutical commercials on heavy rotation. Thankfully, based on both the conditions they promote and the side effects, I'm not using any of them. But listening to the adverts and thinking about how much I'd heard about the various medications and their side effects got me thinking.
What if we innovators could create a regular, recurring, looping set of adverts for people in business, so that we were comfortable with the language and approach of unfamiliar methodologies and tools without ever knowing we'd gained the knowledge? Can we create comfort with unusual techniques and tools by building confidence and awareness slowly over time?
Reach and Frequency
I've written before that good messaging requires both reach and frequency. If you want someone to remember your message, you've got to reach them frequently. Psychology suggests that you need to hear a message 7 times in order to fully incorporate it in your thinking. If we only talk about or do innovation in extreme circumstances or very rarely, and fail to communicate about the tools and methods otherwise, we can't indoctrinate people and make them feel comfortable with the tools and methods. And when people feel uncomfortable with new tools or methods, they follow one of a few well-trodden paths: 1) they stall or stop progress until they do feel comfortable with new language and tools or 2) they simply ignore new tools and methods and revert to older, trusted tools and methods.
Reach, frequency and clear messaging about innovation is important, as my experience with medications I don't need or take demonstrates. Having seen or heard these commercials for weeks or months as I work out in the morning, I could easily tell you which address specific illnesses or symptoms and even what some of the side effects could be. Now, imagine that we could do the same thing with a positive force - innovation - that many cultures view as dangerous and disruptive. How much more receptive and capable would the average employee be to innovation opportunities if the ideas, methods, processes, "rules" and other aspects of innovation were inculcated the way pharmaceutical drug commercials do for the average viewer?
Creating Innovation Commercials
It's not as if corporations lack the ability to "advertise" important information to their employees. If anything the average corporate employee would probably claim to receive too much communication, which in reality is probably accurate since so much of it is poorly conceived and targeted. It wouldn't be difficult to include some clear innovation oriented messaging, definitions, background and other messages within existing channels, and to reinforce these in every team meeting, quarterly result and so on. And the more these messages are consistent, drilling in a specific definition or outcome, or reviewing a specific set of innovation tools, the more quickly these messages will be received and implemented.
Pharma companies use television, radio and print advertising because they know they need to reach many people in many channels, and they repeat the same basic messages over and over again because they recognize it takes many interactions with the same messages to change the way people think. If they can convince their consumers to acquire and use drugs with the list of side effects that is always listed in the ad, then certainly corporations can build credibility and confidence in innovation methods, skills and tools by using the same communication devices.
I look forward to the day I walk into a large corporation and see an "ad" streaming for innovation tools, which describes how the tool is useful and the positive side effects of actually trying to innovate. Physicians follow an important oath, the Hippocratic oath often shortened to "Do no harm". As innovators our philosophyshould be "Instruct thyself and others". The difference is our side effects are almost always positive.
What if we innovators could create a regular, recurring, looping set of adverts for people in business, so that we were comfortable with the language and approach of unfamiliar methodologies and tools without ever knowing we'd gained the knowledge? Can we create comfort with unusual techniques and tools by building confidence and awareness slowly over time?
Reach and Frequency
I've written before that good messaging requires both reach and frequency. If you want someone to remember your message, you've got to reach them frequently. Psychology suggests that you need to hear a message 7 times in order to fully incorporate it in your thinking. If we only talk about or do innovation in extreme circumstances or very rarely, and fail to communicate about the tools and methods otherwise, we can't indoctrinate people and make them feel comfortable with the tools and methods. And when people feel uncomfortable with new tools or methods, they follow one of a few well-trodden paths: 1) they stall or stop progress until they do feel comfortable with new language and tools or 2) they simply ignore new tools and methods and revert to older, trusted tools and methods.
Reach, frequency and clear messaging about innovation is important, as my experience with medications I don't need or take demonstrates. Having seen or heard these commercials for weeks or months as I work out in the morning, I could easily tell you which address specific illnesses or symptoms and even what some of the side effects could be. Now, imagine that we could do the same thing with a positive force - innovation - that many cultures view as dangerous and disruptive. How much more receptive and capable would the average employee be to innovation opportunities if the ideas, methods, processes, "rules" and other aspects of innovation were inculcated the way pharmaceutical drug commercials do for the average viewer?
Creating Innovation Commercials
It's not as if corporations lack the ability to "advertise" important information to their employees. If anything the average corporate employee would probably claim to receive too much communication, which in reality is probably accurate since so much of it is poorly conceived and targeted. It wouldn't be difficult to include some clear innovation oriented messaging, definitions, background and other messages within existing channels, and to reinforce these in every team meeting, quarterly result and so on. And the more these messages are consistent, drilling in a specific definition or outcome, or reviewing a specific set of innovation tools, the more quickly these messages will be received and implemented.
Pharma companies use television, radio and print advertising because they know they need to reach many people in many channels, and they repeat the same basic messages over and over again because they recognize it takes many interactions with the same messages to change the way people think. If they can convince their consumers to acquire and use drugs with the list of side effects that is always listed in the ad, then certainly corporations can build credibility and confidence in innovation methods, skills and tools by using the same communication devices.
I look forward to the day I walk into a large corporation and see an "ad" streaming for innovation tools, which describes how the tool is useful and the positive side effects of actually trying to innovate. Physicians follow an important oath, the Hippocratic oath often shortened to "Do no harm". As innovators our philosophyshould be "Instruct thyself and others". The difference is our side effects are almost always positive.
Voted 2nd best innovation blogger two years in a row!
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