An Old Saw on Innovation

Here is a story about a hard working but inexperienced do-it-yourself-er working on a home improvement project. It may be a parable for our corporate innovation efforts?

 

One day, this DIY guy went to the local hardware store to buy a saw for a tree-cutting project. The hardware store clerk showed him various makes and models before finally presenting him the premier chainsaw. “This one will cut four cords a day, guaranteed.” This was enough to convince this hard worker to buy it and take it home, full of hope and expectation.  The next day the proud owner of the new chainsaw ate a hearty breakfast before tackling his trees. He worked very hard until late in the afternoon, then he took a break and  measured how  many cords he had cut. To his great disappointment he found that he had only cut one cord. He thought maybe there was something wrong with the saw.   The following day, determined to achieve the four cord guarantee, he got up earlier and worked later; and when he had finished for the day, he found that he had only cut two cords of wood, still a full two cords shy of what the clerk had promised him. So the third day, he got up even earlier and worked non-stop all day until it was too dark to see. But still, when he measured his output for the day he had cut only three cords.    Now he was certain there was something wrong  with  the  saw.  The next  day,  he took it back to the hardware store, put it down on the counter in front of the same clerk who had sold it to him and complained, “There is something wrong with this chain saw. I worked from early morning to late at night and all I could get was three cords! You guaranteed me four.”  The clerk carefully examined the chainsaw. The blades looked sharp. The chain slid through the bar effortlessly. He checked for oil. Everything seemed to be in order. “Well,” the clerk said, “let's go outside and start her up.” The two went outside and after just one pull of the starter cord the chainsaw started with a roar. The diligent do-it-yourself-er jumped back startled and exclaimed, “What's that noise?”

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Are we using our skills and knowledge in the best way we can? This is a perennial question that follows stewards of innovation management systems. Are we fully using the competencies that we have, or are we cutting wood the old fashion way, even with a chainsaw in our hands?  Answering this question in the context of operational routines—where the skills, knowledge and experience resident in our organization are already aligned with fairly well defined tasks—is one thing.

Answering this question in the context of innovation efforts, where neither the context is known nor are routines established, is another thing altogether.    How we define a person's skills, knowledge and experience is determined in part by the times and places wherein they have applied those skills and knowledge in the past. Dorothy Leonard was getting at this innovation management dilemma when she observed how core competencies can become core rigidities when specialization becomes captive to what is relevant only to established routines.     Applying the skills, knowledge and experience developed in one operational context to the emergent realities of an innovation context requires a healthy dose of adaptation and improvisation. It is this willingness, confidence, and faith to improvise and be flexible that ends up being the more precious resource. And this is a resource that may be more responsive to invitation, experimentation, and playfulness (innovation efforts) than to conservation, preservation, and control (operations).    Asking the best and brightest in our organizations to take what they are good at and adapt and improvise may indeed be the best way to avoid cutting the wood of opportunities the old fashion way and innovate our way into the future, instead of simply survive.   _________________  This article was originally published in Innovating Perspectives in August 2008. For this and other back issues of our newsletter, please visit our website at innovationsthatwork.com or call (415) 387-1270.