Okay, so I was wrong. I’ve been saying for about 9 months now that Innovation is holistic. That part is not wrong, I still believe that.

What is wrong is saying that companies should not Do Innovation that they should Be Innovation. My point has been that methodologies, tools, techniques and deliberate process are not magic bullets, and, they won’t work without a “feeling” of being innovative all the time.

What I was wrong about was to emphasize the Be over the Do. It’s not about one or the other, it’s about both. Companies, leaders, must manage the polarity of doing and being, the yin and the yang of innovation. Yes, you need a cultural Be for an organization to succeed at innovation. And, their must also be a cultural Do that picks up on the best tools and techniques for innovation and puts them into the daily schedule. It’s not one or the other, it’s both + and. It’s about balance.

To do is to be. –Socrates
To be is to do. –Sartre
Do-be-do-be-do. –Sinatra

I think Sinatra wins for best polarity management! Polarity Management is a concept innovation managers should be more aware of. I’d suggest reading Power Surge by Margaret Seidler or the work of Barry Johnson.

Leaders must manage various polarities. Accountability and Freedom. Innovation and Tradition. Candor and Diplomacy. An entrepreneur must manage the polarity of Greed and Altruism. Each polarity has a downside we are afraid of. What we must be most careful of is not going so far in the other direction to avoid what we fear, that we fall into the downside of the other polarity. For instance, it’s great for an organization to want to do nice things for society, that’s Altruism. And, at the same time, if Greed is feared, then the organization may not prosper enough to do anything good for society.

So, balance of polarities is what will help an organization become holistically innovative.

Shout out to Liz Monroe-Cook who’s presentation at CREA on Polarity Management gave me this obvious-in-hindsight, insight. Thanks Liz!