On People, Dissent and Inventive Thinking

People, Process and Technology—if I were to prioritize these three pervasive elements in any organizational entity, I would order them as:

People First, Process Next and Technology, If Necessary (in that order)

My Structured Thinking framework takes into cognizance that People factor, no doubt, would be the single most contributor to facilitation or retardation of inventive thinking. In a traditional organization driven by manufacturing-era mindsets, everyone is treated like a cog-in-a-wheel and part of the rigid hierarchy; alignment and resonance are more encouraged than (positive) dissent and deviance. Yesterday, I happened to browse through an interesting book titled:
“Creating the Innovation Culture, Leveraging Visionaries, Dissenters and Other Useful Troublemakers in Your Organization” by Frances Horibe (Publisher: John Wiley). Unlike many books on Innovation which narrate tons of case-studies, heroic tales and innovation processes in organizations, this book delves on just one topic—dissenters as a useful resource of innovation.

• Distinguishes positive dissent and ‘unhealthy’ dissent
• The role of a manager as a political handler
• Coaching dissenters
• ...

Here are few insights (extracts) from the book:

“Most managers don’t realize they easily suppress dissent. Speaking truth to power is an important component of an innovative culture; managers may fear that dissent will create chaos but it is possible to welcome dissent while still moving forward.”

“I don’t shoot messengers—therefore I have them,” a wise CEO once said.

“Organizations that don’t allow dissent inadvertently discourage innovation. Dissent and innovation are opposites only in the same way exhaling and inhaling are. You must exhale to be able to inhale. You must have dissent to have innovation.”

May be an eye-opener for managers who flock themselves with ‘yes-men’ of ‘same values’!
Let’s have a dissent in our expression—albeit a positive and creative one (BTW, who qualifies that?)

KG Krishna