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What is #Innovation? Are you a #ThoughtLeader?

 

The Law of Diffusion of Innovation

 Ever tried to define innovation?

Technically it’s “an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or group”

Do you want to be innovative but don’t know what that really means for you or your organisation? Not sure how to go about embedding innovation?

The book “Diffusion of Innovations” by Professor Everett Rogers first identified the theory, to explain how, why and at what rate new ideas and technology are spread.

Four key elements were identified as influencing the spread of innovation:

1.    The innovation itself – what is innovation?
2   Communication channels – how does the innovation message spread?
3.    Time – rate of adoption.
4.    Social system or culture – a collective group engaged in problem solving to achieve a common goal.

Setting the scene for innovation:

Innovation must be widely adopted in order to be successful and the range of adopters are shown in the diagram below:

Hopefully this short 5 minute video, “First Follower: Leadership Lessons From Dancing Guy” by Derek Sivers, might help highlight how innovation can be adopted and spread throughout organisations:

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•  The top 2.5% are the Thought Leaders, innovators who inspire followers and who are not afraid to take risks – aka “Dancing Guy” the “Lone Nut”, out there running the risk of failure and humiliation.

• The next 13.5% are termed the Early Adopters and possess a high degree of opinion leadership. They start the “Following” which encourages others to jump on board. These are the first few people that jump up and join in the dancing, confident enough to join in now that some of the initial risk has been diminished.

• Typically 10% of the population “get” the innovation, therefore its all about addressing the gap, which was aptly referred to by Geoffrey Moore as “Closing the Chasm”.

• A tipping point is reached at between 15-18% before the innovation gains momentum “now we have a momentum”,   with the innovation being embraced by the 34% of Early Majority (a chunk of the field), who have a more considered approach, taking their time before jumping in.

• Followed by the 34% Late Majority who are sceptics, joining the party well after its started. Finally the masses are onboard and dancing away, when there is no risk.

•  The 16% of Laggards are resistant to change and have closed mind sets. Then come the stragglers, who join in because everyone else has, but they don’t really want to, but don’t want to look out of place!

• Saturation point is eventually reached, where there is no further uptake of the innovation and there will be no further increase in market share. Either everybody is up dancing in the field, or those left are simply never going to be prepared to adopt the innovation.

• So what does all this mean in practice? 
• How can dancing in a field help embed innovation? 
• What is the innovation lifecycle?

Embedding Innovation:

Basically in a nutshell Professor Everett Rogers identified the following steps in order to embed innovation:

• Are you an innovator? 
• Does this model of embedding innovation resonate with your experience of innovation in organisations? 
• What stage are you at in the Innovation Lifecycle? 
• What adopter approach do you typically take?

You might find this Forbes post on The 5 Personalities of Innovators - Which One Are You? helpful in answering some of those questions:

Now you are ready to go forth and innovate, or at least identify and adopt innovation. Enjoy!