Why Does Innovation Get Stuck?

Why does Innovation get stuck? Because media companies often only innovate where it is easy to do. Possibly banal – but widespread:

🟢 Developing new products often works very well: with a development budget (limited additional money) or commitment, with wild ideas, laboratories and “somehow” – or even structured processes (🟡), for example, the new Instagram-channel or the data bot about the corona situation.

🟡 What we do less often is change workflows and try out new methods. Some consequences:
– Products are unsuccessful, for example because we haven’t spoken to the # users… again! (methods)
– Even good products die because there are no resources for continuation in the “regular business” – because we do not change the regular business (workflows), for example we do not stop doing less succesful things. (Unless we condense work until people groan or get sick.)

🔴 In my perception, the reason for this is often that companies do not address the structural innovation (transformation) of the organization: cultural change, a new understanding of leadership, changed supervisory bodies.
Why? Because this process is the most demanding, possibly difficult. And because bosses have to change themselves and their work when it comes to this topic. Cultural change needs resources, processes, and the commitment of the management level.

🟡 and 🟢 will only work in the long term if companies also address this issue 🔴. If not, working at the company will be exhausting, especially for employees who are expected to “innovate” – but who wear themselves out in innovation-averse structures.