Imagine two teams given the exact same task. The first team consists of four people who have been given clear goals, clear instructions, and clear requirements. They know exactly what needs to be delivered. They know why the company needs the results. They understand the importance of the assignment. But they don’t really find the work particularly interesting. They do it because they have to. The second team consists of two people. They have the same assignment and the same expected results. The difference is that they find the challenge exciting. They experiment. They laugh. They test ideas. They eagerly discuss different solutions. They are driven by curiosity rather than requirements. Which team would you put your money on?
Most people intuitively know the answer. We know that desire often trumps effort. We know that energy beats discipline over time. We know that people who want to do something often perform better than people who have to do the same thing. Yet many innovation initiatives are organized as if the opposite were true.
The problem with needs
In most organizations, innovation begins with a need:
- The board wants to increase profitability.
- Management wants to reduce costs.
- The market is changing.
- New competitors are emerging.
- Regulations are changing.
- Technology is developing faster than before.
All of these needs are real. They are often important. In many cases, they are absolutely crucial for the organization’s survival. The problem is that needs in themselves rarely create motivation. For the individual employee, phrases like “increase the margin by three percent” or “improve the efficiency of operations” often mean very little on an emotional level.
Needs are logical. People are emotional. This does not mean that people are irrational. This means that motivation arises at a different level than needs. A person rarely wakes up in the morning and feels passionate about optimizing an organization’s cost structure. However, the same person can feel passionate about solving a problem, creating something new, testing an idea or changing something that is perceived as meaningful. And that is where an innovation challenge arises.
Will as an innovation engine
If needs are the driving force of the organization, will is the driving force of the person. Will is not necessarily about what we do. It is often about how we get to do it. Many leaders believe that people want to choose their own goals. In reality, it is often much more important that people get to choose the path.
- A developer may not care much about the company’s revenue goals, but loves solving technically complex problems.
- A designer may not be driven by efficiency, but loves creating better user experiences.
- A project manager may not be driven by strategy documents, but loves getting people to collaborate.
The goal may be the same. The motivation may be completely different. That is why innovation management is so much about translation. Translating organizational needs into human will.
The balance between need and will
Imagine a balance. On one side is need. On the other side is will. If the need side becomes too heavy, coercion arises. Work is driven by demands, control and follow-up. Results can absolutely be achieved, but energy becomes low. Creativity decreases. Risk-taking decreases. Curiosity disappears. If the will side becomes too heavy, another problem arises. People only do things that feel fun at the moment. Important organizational needs are at risk of being ignored. The energy is there, but the direction is missing.
Innovation often occurs in the balance between these forces. When people understand why something needs to be done and at the same time feel that they are allowed to create in a way that engages them. That is when work goes from duty to pleasure.
The result does not care about the path to get there
One of the strangest things about creativity is that the result contains no information about how it was created. A brilliant idea that arises under laughter is no less valuable than a brilliant idea that was forced to come to fruition under stress. An innovative solution created through play is no less effective than a solution created through strict control. The result is the same.
Yet there are many organizations that still treat playfulness and creative freedom as suspect. As if value must be produced through effort to be legitimate. But innovation often works the other way around. When people are having fun, they produce more ideas. When people feel free, they explore more options. When people are curious, they see more possibilities.
That doesn’t mean work has to be easy. It means the path to results doesn’t have to be boring to be effective.
Why willpower beats effort
There’s a reason two committed people often outperform four unmotivated ones.
- Willpower creates energy.
- Energy creates persistence.
- Persistence creates learning.
- Learning creates results.
People driven by willpower often keep going long after others have given up. They try one more idea. They take one more call. They read one more article. They think about the problem on the walk home. They don’t necessarily work more hours. But their minds keep moving. Innovation is therefore less dependent on working hours than on mental energy. And mental energy comes more often from will than from demands.
Turning needs into will
This is where real innovation management comes in. Needs need to be translated into something people want to work with. A company may need to reduce its costs. But no one wakes up in the morning dreaming of cost reduction. On the other hand, people may want to eliminate frustration, create smoother processes, or build a better workday. The same needs can be described in completely different ways.
An organization may need to adapt to a new market. But people may prefer to see it as an opportunity to explore new customer groups, learn new things, or create next-generation solutions. The need doesn’t change. But the story does. And the story often determines whether people feel will or resistance.
A method for transforming needs into will
There is a simple method that innovation leaders can use.
- Start by formulating the need as concretely as possible.
- Then ask what will be better if the need is met.
- Next, ask who will benefit from the change.
- Then look for what arouses curiosity, pride, meaning or playfulness in the people who will do the work.
- If the need is to reduce energy consumption, the creative challenge might be to create the world’s smartest workplace.
- If the need is to increase sales, the challenge might be to understand customers better than any competitor does.
- If the need is to streamline operations, the task might be to eliminate all unnecessary annoyances in everyday life.
Suddenly, people are no longer working with the need. They are working with something they want to explore.
Checklist for balancing need and will
When an innovation project starts, there are a number of questions that can help determine whether the balance is strong enough.
- Do people understand why the need exists, or is it just perceived as a requirement from above?
- Can each participant explain why the question is important in their own way?
- Is there room to choose the method, approach or creative process?
- Do people feel curious about the task or just responsibility?
- Would participants talk about the problem even if they didn’t have to?
- Is there an opportunity to experiment and learn along the way?
- Do people experience that they get to use their strengths?
- Is there something about the task that feels fun?
- Is there something that inspires pride?
- Is there something that inspires the joy of discovery?
The more yes answers there are to these questions, the greater the likelihood that the balance will tip in the right direction.
The real task of the innovation leader
Many people think that innovation management is about generating ideas. In practice, it is often about something else. It is about creating conditions where organizational needs meet human will. It is about ensuring that people understand why something is important while at the same time giving them the freedom to create in their own way. It is about protecting curiosity even when the demands increase. It is about understanding that creativity does not occur despite people having fun. It often arises because people are having fun.
When the balance finds equilibrium
The most innovative organizations are rarely those with the toughest goals. They are often those that manage to create an unusual balance between needs and wants. They understand that needs provide direction but wants provide energy. They understand that demands can create movement but that curiosity creates acceleration. They understand that people don’t have to love every goal, but that they need to feel joy in how they contribute to it.
Perhaps that is why so many innovations are born in environments where people laugh, experiment and explore together. Not because they lack ambition or business goals, but because they have managed to connect the needs of the organization with people’s will to create.
And perhaps that is the most important lesson of all. When needs and wants conflict, friction arises. But when they come into balance, something else entirely arises.
Then energy arises.
And energy is ultimately the most underestimated resource in all innovation. Because when people want to create something, rather than just have to create something, things often happen that no goals, budgets or strategy documents in the world can force. Then innovation no longer becomes a process that needs to be driven. It starts to drive itself.
