Mark
Twain, once said, “name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.” He
was right. Most innovations and breakthroughs come from mistakes,
serendipity, false starts, set backs, and misapplications. Many
innovations were unplanned and unexpected.

At their outset, many
were unrecognized and unwanted. Innovations, breakthroughs, and major
changes often come from unpredictable chaotic, and random events. That’s
why the accuracy record of economists and planners’ confident and
logical-sounding projections and predictions is so abysmal. It’s amazing
how the same people who laugh at fortune tellers often take these
elaborate plans and projections seriously.

Yet when innovative
opportunities knock, many managers are in their backyard looking for
four-leaf clovers. But if someone who can’t count finds a four-leaf
clover, how lucky is he or she? The editor and author, Elbert Hubbard,
observed, “a failure is someone who has blundered, but is not able to
cash in the experience.” Most managers fail to cash in on unexpected
opportunities.

There seem to be two core reasons for that. First,
they don’t recognize the failure, set back, chance event, unexpected
offer, or new wrinkle as a potential innovation they could cash in.
That’s often because they haven’t progressed to the empathic level of
customer and partner listening and understanding. They take the market
or customers at face value. They’re only looking at today’s data or
current performance gaps. These near-sighted managers can’t see beyond
what is to what could be.

A second reason many managers fail to
cash in on unexpected opportunities is because there’s no effective
process for doing so. If it’s not in the official development plans or
budgets the unhatched, potential innovation has no place to incubate,
break out, and grow. That brings us to the innovation paradox: Random,
chaotic, and unpredictable innovations need a stable management system
and process to nurture the growth and development of “lucky breaks.”

As
a long time student and practitioner of innovation, I still find James
Brian Quinn’s classic Harvard Business Review article one of the most
useful on the topic. The title of the article says it all: “Managing
Innovation: Controlled Chaos.” It’s a perfect description of the
management-leadership balance found in highly innovative teams and
organizations. Controlled chaos aptly describes the unstable and stable,
unplanned and planned process of successful innovation.

Strategic Opportunism and Organizational Learning

“The
universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to
grow sharper.” – Eden Phillpotts, early 20th century English novelist

In
his article on “Crafting Strategy,” Henry Mintzberg provides a good
insight to how strategies and innovative actions evolve and compliment
each other in top-performing organizations: “Out in the field, a
salesman visits a customer. The product isn’t quite right, and together
they work out some modifications. The salesman returns to his company
and puts the changes through; after two or three more rounds, they
finally get it right. A new product emerges, which eventually opens up a
new market. The company has changed strategic course.”

But in
most organizations that salesman would be told to get back out and “do
his job” by selling the customer the original product or some high
priced add-on or support service. If he did make modifications, he’d be
shot for not following the standardized process. In other cases, he’d be
told to submit a Product Modification Input Solicitation form sending
copies to product development, strategic planning, and three other
committees to review. His regional manager would need a copy attached to
his Call Report explaining where, when, who, why, and how he was
spending each day of his time.

Successful strategies and
innovations that evolve and cash in on unexpected problems or
opportunities are part of a dynamic, organization learning process.
Experiences, expertise, ideas, market and customer shifts, feedback,
input and the like shape the emerging strategies and point the way to
innovation pathways.