ESF project 4895: Meer werk maken van innovatie voor werkgelegenheid en arbeidsmarkt
ANALYSIS FICHE OF LITERATURE
TITLE OF LITERATURE: Your company’s secret change agents
AUTHOR : R. Tanner et al
TYPE OF AUTHOR (academic, consultants, practitioners, other): Academic
COMMISSIONER OF LITERATURE (IF APPROPRIATE): Harvard Business Review May 2005
ORIENTATION OF LITERATURE (check with X):
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innovation in general: X
innovation by / within the public sector:
innovation oriented towards citizens:
innovation oriented towards social and employment issues typically dealt with by ESF:
LESSONS LEARNT REGARDING:
A. How to define innovation e.g. in types
B. How to formulate an innovation strategy (in terms of scope, types of innovation,
requirements)
C. How to organize innovation as a process in different stages?
Rather than: 1) dig deep to uncover root causes of problems 2) hire experts / import best practice 3)
Have leaders act as champions
A better way is: capturing positive deviance.
This is applicable to problems that are not merely technical, with a correct proven solution or just
requiring brainpower to find a good solution.
It is applicable to issues that require behavioural/attitudinal change and where there is no apparent
off-the-shelf remedy (complex issues).
Step 1: make the group the guru
Rather than have a “champion” which absolves the community from owning any solutions, those in
the trenches need to look for those others in the trenches that already do things better by doing
different. These deviants are like the rest of the community, which makes it easier to transfer their
practice.
This goes against “best practice” thinking where an external authority decides what is best and
should be adopted. This tends to ignore the specific circumstances that made a practice successful
somewhere. This is also a warning: it does not suffice to have a champion look for positive deviants
and then impose their practice. Implementers need to go and find out, see for themselves,take
ownership. The leader only facilitates this.
Step 2: reframe through facts
First, take the conventional presentation of the problem. Second, find out if there are exceptions.
Use hard data for this. Third, reframe to focus attention on the exceptions (how are they managing
it…?)
Rather than experts coming in with best practice, the community identifies pre-existing solutions.
Rather than send the message: why are we not doing best practice (outside-in) already (are we
stupid?), solutions from inside out are leveraged.
Step 3: make it safe to learn
Positive deviants may fear being “exposed” if doing so challenges the status of powerful others.
Therefore, it may be good to use low-profile positive deviance workshops to explore “safe” problems
first. After that, quietly move into harder topics.
Step 4: make the problem concrete
Portray the issue in a compelling way, no one can ignore. Reality must hit home! Even dramatise it.
Step 5: leverage social proof
Get those who are “deviating” to talk about it and about the benefits and start a movement where
participants take small steps.
Also, participants in this way act themselves into new ways of thinking, rather than think into new
ways of acting.
Step 6: confound the immune defense response
Introduce already existing ideas (so they are context adapted) into the mainstream without excessive
use of authority.
D. How to define outputs of innovation e.g. in terms of idea, concept, prototype…?
E. How to make decisions regarding progress of an innovation?
F. What roles exist for different actors in the innovation process? What competences are
required for these roles?
G. How to organize interaction with external stakeholders (open innovation)?
H. Specific tools that are explained (list briefly for each tool in what stage, by which role, why,
how it is to be used).
a) Tool 1: