Innovation Requires Courage and Intelligence, But Not Permission

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Innovation Requires Courage and Intelligence, But Not Permission

By Beth Comstock, CMO at GE

Too often, we seek permission in business because it's the safe thing to do. We want permission to try something different, to innovate, to lead and, occasionally, to get out of our own way. If something goes wrong, there are more people to blame.

But with the accelerating pace of innovation and disruption, I've found permission is a luxury that we can't afford. We need to act with urgency and often thismeans seeking out partners or paths that wouldn't traditionally work. Waiting on permission can slow us down.

Seth Godin, the marketer famous for coining the phrase"Permission Marketing," framed the problem posed by this other form of permission seeking in a blog entry hat took on risk-averse corporate cultures.

"Where, precisely, do you go in order to get permission to make a dent in the universe?" Godin asked. "If you think there's a chance you can make a dent, GO. Now. Hurry. …. You have my permission…Not that you needed it."

Corporations who hire good people often create processes that get in the way and well-intentioned managers sometimes seek control that creates distance from those who are embedded in the markets they serve. On the other end, innovative employees need to summon confidence to pursue an idea, even if it's not the way business is usually conducted.

At a global company, sometimes the farther away a team is from headquarters the more intuitive their actions are. I've seen this visiting GE teams in Australia. They rarely have the biggest budgets, but they also don't initiate months of mind-numbing study and reviews before pursuing an idea. They don't wait for permission. They just do what seems right for the customers at hand. Maybe it's because they are far away in terms of time zones and the geography they get "less help" from their corporate colleagues. But more often than not, their actions are rewarded with success.

I recently read an interview in Fast Company with retired General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, where he reflected on the importance ofempowering people on the ground to make decisions.

Faced by an opponent without a central command, U.S. forces found their traditional military structure too slow to react. The leadership soon realized that troops needed to make decisions faster than the traditionally hierarchy could accommodate, so they had to become a network. As General McChrystal put it: "We found that the wisest decisions were usually made by those closest to the problem."

My experience at GE has taught me similar lessons. To deliver for our customers, it requires courage and intelligence to be bold and innovative, but rarely permission.

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