Ever feel like your innovation program is full of people similar to the road painter who left this lasting example of his or her laziness?

Maybe it is a risk averse senior management team who takes the easy way around what they perceive as risky.  You know the type...they are one's who approve innovation initiatives in the famous "crawl, walk, run" method.  Only allowing enough resources to ensure that safe, incremental ideas move forward.  They hope that they can slowly starve this experiment into corporate creativity and innovation while still looking like they responded to the desires of its grassroots support.

Or perhaps this photo reminds you of your middle management team who constantly complain that they just don't have the time or resources available to devote enough attention toward developing breakthrough ideas, concepts or prototypes for your organization.

Maybe this photo reminds you of the individual contributors in your organization who fear the retribution of failure for trying something new so they simply take the safe and most efficient course of action in their daily routine. 

I know that sometimes, as you develop your drive for creative thinking and innovation within your organizations, it may feel like the people I described above seem to come out of the woodwork to kill, shoot down, ignore or otherwise pay lip service to your efforts.  These risk-averse corporate "anti-bodies" typically keep to themselves until they see something out of the norm.  That's why they seem to come from nowhere when the words creative, innovative, risk, challenge, new, or fresh are uttered anywhere in the organization.  The simple fact is, all organizations have them, even the most innovative, and you just need to know how to deal with them when they appear.

So here are some tips for dealing with these "anti-bodies" and convincing all levels of your organization to get off the road painting machine, move that branch, and pursue excellence through creative thought and innovation management initiatives:

• Ignore them and have the courage to keep pushing
• Find those who are willing to support the innovation efforts and have them help you sell it...you aren't alone and you don't have to fight this all by yourself
  
• Speak the language of those you are trying to convince...senior management wants to hear about tangible benefits, middle management wants to hear about freeing up time and resources, individual contributors want to know you have their back if they try something risky
• Separate creative and innovative programs from the normal company measurement and metric system.  If you are trying something new, existing success metrics and goals will likely not apply.  Why force these new initiatives into that system?  Set up a "skunk works" or other method for keeping the program beyond the reach of business as usual
• Provide training on creative thinking and innovation.  Maybe the fear being exhibited is just a fear of the unknown
• Ensure that you have a strong and robust innovation/idea management process.  Many times management just wants to know there is some method to the perceived "madness"
• If your culture is really risk-averse, its okay to start in a "crawl-walk-run" fashion.  Showing some small successes will usually lead to obtaining more latitude.  Remember any step, small or large, is still a step forward

Have a GREAT week!!!