The Innovation Calendar & Excuse Generator

by Dale Dauten

"Disneyland will never be complete, not as long as there is imagination left in the world.” - Walt

What’s new? Well, there’s the new committee, the new proposal, the new report. Not so new, really… more like, the same old new. Then again, perhaps you tried something new-new on Creativity and Innovation Day, back in April. I hope so, because you’re probably not going to try anything new-new now, not with summer upon us. In fact, let’s think about the best time to innovate.

THE INNOVATION CALENDAR (and EXCUSE GENERATOR)

June, July, August: CORPORATE HIBERNATION. With so many executives out on vacation, it’s impossible to get all the signatures to fund anything new, and if you could, with so many staff people out, you’d never assemble the planning committee. Best wait till Fall.

September: FALLING BEHIND. After the summer hiatus, all the pent-up demand for meetings and conferences make this a hectic, distracted time. Also, there’s the planning process to get underway and the finalizing of budgets for next year. Best clear the desk first, then dig in on new ideas later.

October: OPPS! The budgets for this year are used up. Best to wait till closer to the new year and fresh budgets.

November, December: Holi(wheredidthe)days(go). Bows and bureaucracy – the parties, celebrations and events compete for time with the end of year paperwork. Best to wait till the party’s over to try to get creative.

January, February: THE DEAD OF WINTER. Just as you start to recover from all the holiday events and time off, you make the changes in your staff that you’ve been putting off. You are also hit with resignations – employees who waited till after the holidays to resign. So you have to ramp up employment searches. Shorthanded and having to interview candidates, you have no chance to think about anything new. Best to just hang in and survive till Spring.

March, April: CATCHING UP. You’re training the folks you hired and reorganized earlier in the year. Plus you have your annual reviews and your preliminary budgets. You have taxes and spring breaks. Moreover, upper management is inspired to do some spring cleaning – they’re talking reorganization -- and so it’s best to lay low and focus on short-term results.

May: FULL (EMPTY) CIRCLE. It’s almost time for summer vacations. Wait a minute – that means it’s been a year and no innovations. Best get started. You put together a proposal, only to learn that budgets are being slashed because that new competitor, the innovative one, has cut into your customer base. Best to hunker down and wait for things to loosen up.

June – December: HUNKERING

January: LAY-OFFS. At last you are free to be creative… in your job search.
Said another way, there are always at least ten good reasons not to innovate and one reason to go ahead anyway: If you don’t, someone else will.

CONCLUSION

Most organizations were founded on an innovation. What’s the shelf life of a founding idea? Some are good for months, some for years, some for decades, but they are all running down, wearing out, waiting for some competitor who is right now slouching toward the marketplace.

Meanwhile, the work gets done, the field gets plowed, the mules get fed and everyone feels they’ve earned a rest. Just then, there’s a noise on the road and all heads turn to watch a tractor pass by. Then, you look back over at the mule and think, Working hard isn’t going to work. That’s when it hits you: You are the mule. And you realize then that your only choice is to be the mule or be the one with the tractor.
* *

© 2003 by King Features Syndicate, Inc