If you want to create innovation, don't create an innovation department.

One of the biggest myths about innovation is that you can squish it into a central 'Innovation Department' powered by innovative people.

It suggests that innovation can be managed centrally and creates a false divide between 'them' and 'us', the ordinary people who are not special enough to be innovators but also off the hook because innovation with a capital 'I' is somewhere else, being taken care of by someone else.

To be truly innovative, innovation must be part of every part of the business.

Likewise, when it comes to transformation projects, which often require a big investment of time and money, you need to recognise that it's the organisation you are transforming.

What message does it send to have a department called 'Change', or 'Continuous Improvement' or 'Customer Experience' when you are trying to become a customer-led organisation that embraces change as its natural state by constantly identifying and flexing to meet evolving customer needs as part of business as usual?

The reality is that once people have dibs on a label, they get protective about it, often to the cost of achieving the goal.

Does the label really mean that much?  Yes – it does.

You can be working on a project where using the term 'Customer Insights' becomes contentious because the 'Customer Insights' team hasn't been consulted first. This is nonsense.

In a customer-led organisation everyone has to surface and respond to customer insights and yes, some will be better at it than others, just as some are better sending emails than others. Get used to it.

You cannot be truly customer-led unless every part of the business leads with customer needs.

I think organisations should stop focussing on labels and focus instead on hiring for the right attributes and developing the overall level of ability across the organisation, just as you would for any other fundamental, expected capability in your organisation.  

If it’s something you expect all your people to be doing, don’t give it a department.