The Burden of Maturity
Recently my wife and I had occasion to reflect on the different levels of maturity that our children have to deal with as they go about their growing up. The discussion evolved, unexpectedly, to organizational maturity. Don't ask me how the leap happened, but it did.
What makes the human drama so perplexing and interesting is that we are all very different. We learn differently, our brains are wired differently, we are different. Why should maturity be an exception with our institutions? At the end of the day our institutions (and dare we say "governments") are managed by us.
In my eternal quest to try to understand how best to manage companies via an innovation imperative, I find that this maturity coefficient must be relevant and it will influence an organization's innovation DNA. A lack of maturity severely retards development and the generation of new ideas. Enhanced maturity allows for more openness, exploration and the generation of ideas (quantity and quality).
Focusing back on the individual; one of the burdens of professional maturity and the ability to understand the need for change before others, is that one stands alone - in many instances - and this is not a good place to be in organizations that do not assign value to maturity and fore-vision. We must develop support structures for people in these circumstances.
Recently I heard from an Innovation consultant that described a sudden insight from one of his clients when discussing his company's ability to generate ideas. His insight was that it is about quantity and from there the ability to manage the funnel to identify the jewels. Couldn't agree more.
The thing is, I instinctively know that there must be a strong correlation between an organization's ability to generate ideas and its level of maturity. Now we have to prove it.
What makes the human drama so perplexing and interesting is that we are all very different. We learn differently, our brains are wired differently, we are different. Why should maturity be an exception with our institutions? At the end of the day our institutions (and dare we say "governments") are managed by us.
In my eternal quest to try to understand how best to manage companies via an innovation imperative, I find that this maturity coefficient must be relevant and it will influence an organization's innovation DNA. A lack of maturity severely retards development and the generation of new ideas. Enhanced maturity allows for more openness, exploration and the generation of ideas (quantity and quality).
Focusing back on the individual; one of the burdens of professional maturity and the ability to understand the need for change before others, is that one stands alone - in many instances - and this is not a good place to be in organizations that do not assign value to maturity and fore-vision. We must develop support structures for people in these circumstances.
Recently I heard from an Innovation consultant that described a sudden insight from one of his clients when discussing his company's ability to generate ideas. His insight was that it is about quantity and from there the ability to manage the funnel to identify the jewels. Couldn't agree more.
The thing is, I instinctively know that there must be a strong correlation between an organization's ability to generate ideas and its level of maturity. Now we have to prove it.
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