Techies.  Propeller heads.  Geeks.  Nerds.  The great unwashed.  ‘Them’.

Suits.   Overhead.  Clueless. Management.  Style without substance.  ‘Them’.

Business is Business, but it can’t run efficiently without technology.  And technology without business purpose is simply playing.  Getting business people to work effectively with technology by understanding the art of the simple, the possible and the stuff of technical nightmares is not easy.  Guiding technologists to think about the application of the stuff that drives them – what it does for top or bottom line, how it differentiates, why it’s unique – is a question of getting people to appreciate different perspectives and is a critical part of stakeholder management for success in any endeavour.

I have met business people who proudly claim technical ignorance, and do not see this as a handicap but – in some cases – a badge of honour.  That’s not healthy.  I can somewhat see an argument for not limiting your horizons, but I don’t subscribe to it.

Some technologists are idealists, who think that just doing something because it’s cool means they’ll get paid without understanding the applicability or the context in which something cool might happen.  The meme “1. Do something inexplicable 2. ??? 3. Profit!” is supposed to be humour, not a mantra for life.

A successful organisation needs those driven by business, and those driven by technology: a balance of both is key, along with a mutual respect and understanding.  Ideally, it needs a function who can quickly rationalise both perspectives, and form the bridge between the vision and the execution.

It is extremely noteworthy that the astounding ideas for business that I’ve been involved with have not mostly originated from business people, but from technical people who have stepped out of their comfort zone.  Innovation drives ideas, and on balance my experience says more innovation comes out of the technical field than the business field – and that technical innovation leads to disruption, meaning you need to clearly need to bring business focused stakeholders on board.  The more disruptive, the wider the supporters’ expertise needs to be.

Business people complain that technologists rely on jargon, and do this without any hint of irony: the realisation that business is just as crammed full of jargon, and is just as unfamiliar or impenetrable to someone not in on the lingo, is sometimes not made.

Mix into this the fact that the lines of demarcation between sales, sales support and presales are incredibly fuzzy and it’s a recipe for a dynamic, changing and exciting place to be.  Some people will like this, others will feel incredibly uncomfortable an insecure.

An approach I’ve had success with in the past has been to forcibly mix the business and technology experts into an “expert team” around a particular challenge or business area with the objective to deliver differentiation and client value.  A little more direction is needed, and of course good governance and control, but the results can be highly interesting and unexpected.

Business needs techies.  The techies need the suits.  Don’t just deal with it, embrace it: vive la différance!

So, we can embrace the Millenials, or we can mold them into the existing way of doing business.  Given that creativity is now the biggest leadership quality that CEOs are looking for, I think the right approach to take is obvious.

Yet pragmatism is, of course, the way forward. Things won’t change overnight, but an organisation will only maximise benefit from the right time to market for their ideas…

My view is that leadership must be open to embrace new ideas and value creativity in reality, not just talk about it!  That means someone in the board/SMT/LT must make it their job to ensure such innovation is brought out and captured, but also handled effectively and progressed as far as it is logical to take it.  An important point is to ensure there’s no fear of failure here: many ideas will fall by the wayside, and the sooner something that will not work is stopped, the better.  Ideas are free, they can give you a lot, but they can cost you a lot, too.

Is it possible to measure creativity? Because if it’s not measured you won’t get it from a board member, however the measure must be right.  It’s not just about value: a more holistic approach is necessary. The key piece is to ensure that we not kill the whole thing we’re trying to achieve: more creativity!

And yes, a process is necessary – but that should be lightweight and able to flex.  Ideas need a team behind them, and that team must share the vision of the idea: that can only be initiated by the source of the idea, the creator.  There is no single way to push every inspiration to its natural conclusion, but control and measurement are pretty much a guaranteed way to ensure they die.  Spend 15 minutes watching that link, it’s worth it, but 3 things that’ll kill creativity are surveillance, overcontrol and competition.

That is rather at odds with corporate culture in many organisations.  Of course we cannot remove these things, but they can be approached using my favourite word: pragmatism.

I like using competition to kick start ideation, but to make the prize repeatable: if there’s things that are deserving of winning, allow them to win.  I ended up with 3 winners the last time I ran an innovation drive using competition.  And the idea that ended going furthest was from the shyest, and the least business aware person!

Another important point is to allow the source to take the role they wish in the development of their innovation/disruption.  Many techies will not want to think about the business applicability, but to get attention and funding there needs to be some relevance and resonance with business: the innovation lead must ensure the source is involved, driving as they want to drive, but is getting the support and mentoring they need to advance to the next stage.

I have run innovation processes, and have been astonished by some of the ideas that have come out.  The more disruptive, the less attention paid to the status quo, the better.  Some are truly revolutionary, and others are small evolutions, but all have been worthwhile of attention.

Creativity rules.  It will come for free from the new workforce, who don’t have the fear of failure.

Put the pieces in place to ensure the ideas that are born are given the change to live – and die.  And watch the difference to your business creativity, vision and value.