What does it really mean to be innovation-led (or what’s with all the Post-Its)?

Being innovation-led is a noble goal. Truly innovation-led teams are not hampered by the status quo. They think creatively, work collaboratively and are encouraged to take risks. They come up with great ideas and feel personally and professionally rewarded by working this way. This way of working also makes good business sense, as innovation leads to growth which, of course, leads to healthier bottom lines.
But being innovation-led isn’t just a mindset. It requires adopting certain behaviors, regardless of whatever capabilities and processes are put in place. As a noble and worthy goal, this is all very easy to say but much, much harder to do. In order to be innovation-led, teams must totally change the way they work and think.
What does it really mean to actually behave in a manner where organizations thrive and grow through innovation?
In order to answer this question, I will pose another: Have you ever wondered about the almost comical ubiquity of the Post-It note in creative and innovation work? It may be a stereotype, but it’s an accurate one. If you take a peek into an innovator’s work process and environment, you will usually find a wall or two covered in Post-it notes. If you take a class on design thinking or innovation processes, you will be asked to work with Post-its. I, personally, am now so ingrained in thinking, ideating and note-taking via Post-its that I literally carry one or two packs in my purse at all times.
It used to be that the chief indicator of creativity at work was a drafting table, the domain of a highly trained craftsperson who toils away with ink-stained fingers. Now it is a wall covered in colorful squares, democratized to be the tool of anyone, anywhere. But why is the Post-It so dominant and important?
In answering the question of WHY the Post-It note, we first need to address the HOW — and yes, there’s actually a HOW. It’s not that you have to follow these steps with Post-Its (to the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as the Post-It police), but if you don’t, you are not realizing the true benefits of working with them in the first place.
Proper Post-it Practices:
1) Limit it to one thought per stickie note WITH short three to six word sentences and no paragraphs.
2) Always use a sharpie or thicker pen.
3) Write legibly.
4) Use color, size and proximity to each other to suggest hierarchy and connections.
5) Stand back and look at them.
6) Move them around and reorganize.
7) Throw them away (or better yet, recycle!) when you need to move forward.
Believe it or not, this rather mundane seven-step set of instructions is actually the key to the importance of Post-its AND what it means to be innovation-led. Here we go…
Post-Its notes are impermanent and lack preciousness. This means you can easily add thoughts to them or toss them out without feeling the pain of letting go of treasured ideas. It means that you can put an imperfect thought down without fear, inviting collaboration rather than criticism. It means ideas can easily be built upon and shifted as needed — which is how good ideas come to be. It means you can iterate on your ideas, continually making them better.
Being innovation-led means forgoing your ideas as precious on their own, and welcoming the collaborative shaping of ideas together. Being innovation-led means letting go of ideas in order to make room for better ones. It means taking risks and the not fearing imperfection. A PPT deck is precious, but a wall of Post-It notes is not. If you make that wall precious, you’re not realizing the benefit of working with Post-its.
Key behaviors: iterative thinking; collaborative shaping; risk taking.
Post-It notes require an efficiency and clarity of thought. This means that you must drill down to the kernel of an idea or thought in order to capture it on the 3x3 real estate that is the stickie note. It means that thoughts are instantly stripped of fluff, leaving only the central essence of what is important. It means you can literally chunk out complex ideas via a series of small squares — with one small part per square helping bring clarity to the big picture.
Being innovation-led means bringing clarity to complex problems. It means not giving up because things are hard or complicated. It means you are willing to find new ways to tackle old problems by looking at them differently. It means finding your way through the fluff to the core idea.
Key behaviors: driving for clarity; seeing things differently.
Post-It notes go on walls and are meant to be looked at. When you put something on a wall — be it a painting, a television or our beloved Post-It notes — you do it to stand back and look. The value of looking at a wall of stickies is that several people can look at once and can collaborate and interact with the content simultaneously. Unlike a PPT deck, the stickie note wall can be added to, moved around, shifted and — going to the point above — completely scrapped. Looking at a wall of Post-Its might allow you to see something in a new way, or discover connections between ideas that surprise you (see below). This is also why it is important to write legibly and with a thick enough pen so that the viewer can actually see each idea from a few feet away.
Being innovation-led means finding ways to work together — it means tearing down the cubicle walls and constructing shared spaces where ideas can grow and be shaped together. It means being willing to work together. Good ideas rarely (if ever) land fully baked and brilliant in a person’s mind. Being innovation-led means looking at work together and doing the hard work of continually shaping ideas. You need the space to do this well.
Key behaviors: Collaborative shaping; team orientation; prioritizing collaborative spaces.
Post-it notes can reveal connections. From the point above, as you look at the wall of Post-Its, not only can you see connections between ideas, but you can immediately act upon any insight by literally moving one Post-it to the other to connect them. Post-it notes are meant to be moved, and the genius of the adhesive technology means that you can restick them several times before they lose their sticking power.
Being innovation-led means you are willing to see things differently and look for new connections. It means you are willing to act on, and see opportunities arising from, those new connections. It means you challenge yourself every day to see things differently and to question how and why things currently happen. It means you bravely break down barriers between silos and forge connections to the benefit of the organization.
Key behaviors: Seeing connections; questioning the status-quo; courage.
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To become innovation-led, companies must scrap old, outdated practices and policies and get used to a new way of working: one that’s centered around collaboration, experimentation, risk-taking, and asking — and answering — the big, tough questions. While a Post-It is just a piece of paper, what a Post-It note does is more important. When used as a tool to support innovation-led behaviors, the small but might stickie note has the power to help transform your company’s way of thinking and doing, emboldening employees and propelling you towards an exciting future focused on growth, innovation and making a real difference.
