... and only 1% inspiration!
TL; DR
You’d think it’s obvious that innovation work takes hard, sustained efforts. But it’s surprising how often people forget it and only consider the “1% of inspiration.”
But back to the case study that will illustrate the point:
I normally talk about "corporate" innovation. But I really mean "innovation in existing organizations." That can include non-profits and governmental organizations just as much as business.
(For example, the "godfather" of modern innovation craft, Steve Blank, has done a ton of work with non-profits and governmental agencies. Agencies and efforts like ideo.org explicitly apply our work to non-profits. Non-profits themselves have mature innovation capability, e.g., 18F in the U.S. federal government. And that’s just scratching the surface and not even considering the excellent work done by innovators with less fancy public personas.)
Here then is a case study about the effort involved in innovation work in which we visit non-profits and government agencies.
It’s about the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the largest city in the county where I live. According to a story by Bloomberg, the city has made significant strides in reducing homelessness, at a time when homelessness has increased across the U.S.
So far, so good. Minnesota's absurdly cold winters (I have experienced -30° F/ -34° C) make ending homelessness even more important than usual.
But what makes the story relevant specifically to doing credible innovation work is the effort it has taken even for partial success. According to a new story in Bloomberg, the city's progress has been hard and expensive to achieve and still did not result in a complete win.
This combination of major effort and messy outcomes reflects the messy reality of innovation work much better than glossy case studies–or teams' and leaders' wishful thinking–do.
