Innovation Engine Blog

Idea Parenting: It's All About Follow-through - BusinessWeek

Spend enough time around innovation and you become aware of a startling analogy: Ideas are just like children. Ideas need a loving set of parents to conceive them, encourage them, challenge them, and protect them until they are ready to stand on their own. Good parenting will produce ideas — born as simple insights — that can change the world. The problem is, we as corporate executives (parents) abandon our nurturing role too early. And just like in any family (or company), once the core set of parents is gone, the child (insight) suffers.

Companies that understand this establish a small, core innovation team made up of all the key departments necessary to take a product from idea to marketplace (so yes, finance and manufacturing people are on the team) — that stays with the insight all the way from discovery to launch, both internally and externally.

This team approach works for three reasons: It’s small; it’s focused, and it’s empowered. By defining clear objectives, putting a budget behind them and giving the team access to any part of the organization — including the executive leadership team — it will have the power and the vision to carry an idea from inception to the end consumer.

And that’s the key — upholding the responsibility of being an idea parent. Don’t hand off your beautiful baby until it’s ready to stand firmly on its own — your idea deserves it.

Read more about Idea Parenting in our BusinessWeek column

Original post March 18, 2009

Six years ago, my wife and I were asked by an adoption agency to write a very important letter. The letter was to be given to perspective birth mothers to help them decide whether we would make good adoptive parents. This gut wrenching experience created two amazing results. First and foremost, it resulted in our family being blessed with our youngest son. Secondly, it made me realize that we should never be afraid of writing about our passions. I am thankful to have an amazing son as a daily reminder of this insight.

As a dad and an inventor, I have come to realize that raising ideas is very similar to raising kids. Both must be loved, defended, challenged and encouraged. That’s why when I look around Maddock Douglas I see that it is full of idea parents.

Here is something to consider: Who are the idea parents in your organization? If the ideas and innovations in your organization lack parents, they will never develop fully. Look at the last really successful new product or service your company has launched. I am certain you will find at least one passionate idea parent in the mix. 

The Idea Parents at Maddock Douglas have a lot on their minds. As the first company to deliver Agency of Innovation® services, we have been asked to speak, write and sing about new product development. While singing about innovation may not appeal to most companies, our folks responded by creating an in-house band.

In the months (and perhaps years) ahead, some of our brightest will share their thoughts about the ideas they are most passionate about. Our goal is to help you be the best idea parents you can be.

Comments

Greg	March 17, 2009 12:00 AM GMM, As the brand owner in a financial services company, I can relate to your parenting analogy. Being the brand manager and ﾑownerﾒ, I often feel like a dad yelling at my kids when they drop the brand on the floor or try to float it in the tub, and worst of all, take it on a long trip to a place it should never set foot. But more analogous to your ﾑidea parentﾒ reference, I see a lot of ﾑidea orphansﾒ left roaming the white boards, on yellow sticky post-it notes left behind, or being dropped off at the neighbors cube. How do I motivate my team members to ensure that they focus on bring one good idea to life instead of throwing a bunch of ideas out there that seemed to never graduate and move out of the house?
MichaelBurns	March 18, 2009 12:00 AM Michael, As a Creative Consultant, Copywriter, parent, advocate and lobbyist on issues that concern parental involvement, I really enjoyed reading this post, and think you have touched upon something that needs and deserves broader recognition and attention. First, I think you'll find that the best 'idea parents' are not only passionate about their role, but also maintain a high level of necessity. While I realize that the substance of your post isn't about parents in the classic sense, your own personal story helps to illustrate a larger dilemma. That how little recognition that parents have in our society, and how their daily pressures and responsibilities as vital caregivers often translate to the higher level of personal and professional necessity that I'm speaking of, cultivating more facile and innovative thinking, sometimes by doing more with less. Your post also speaks to an important issue concerning corporate cuture and internal innovation. Specifically, that innovation flourishes in the interstices of unlike people and ideas. With inbred cultures which are becoming more commonplace, I find that parents are often looked at as being 'distracted' or weaker than their peers, due to their homelife and responsibilities, when in fact, they are amongst an important minority of stakeholders who have far more to offer than most people realize when it comes to individual contributions, at home and at work. Taken back to a more holistic view, the more people and companies who seek to understand and harness such potential, I think we'll eventually find a greater emphasis on championing those who come to the table with a pre-existing desire to do more.
MichaelBurns-cont'd	March 18, 2009 12:00 AM ...parents in the classic sense, your own personal story helps to illustrate a larger dilemma. That how little recognition that parents have in our society, and how their daily pressures and responsibilities as vital caregivers often translate to the higher level of personal and professional necessity that I'm speaking of, cultivating more facile and innovative thinking, sometimes by doing more with less. Your post also speaks to an important issue concerning corporate cu
MichaelBurns-cont'd	March 18, 2009 12:00 AM ...culture and internal innovation. Specifically, that innovation flourishes in the interstices of unlike people and ideas. With inbred cultures which are becoming more commonplace, I find that parents are often looked at as being 'distracted' or weaker than their peers, due to their homelife and responsibilities, when in fact, they are amongst an important minority of stakeholders who have far more to offer than most people realize when it comes to individual contributions, at home and at wor
MichaelBurns-cont'd	March 18, 2009 12:00 AM work. Taken back to a more holistic view, the more people and companies who seek to understand and harness such potential, I think we'll eventually find a greater emphasis on championing those who come to the table with a pre-existing desire to do more.
mike Maddock	March 19, 2009 12:00 AM Mike, thanks for the very thoughtful post. There is no greater responsibility or opportunity than parenting. For me it has been a humbling and invigorating experience. The greatest gifts my parents gave to me were self-esteem and curiosity. They saw to it that I was grateful for the beauty and future discoveries all around me. They made me believe that anything was possible. I am doing my best to do the same for my family at home and my family at work. GMM
M A J Jeyaseelan	October 15, 2009 12:00 AM I like the post and the comments. What Greg talks about idea orphans and the lack of appreciation of the role of parents is so true in real life I had to come out and pursue my ideas independently when I found the support for new ideas within corporate structures is always vitiated by uncertainties Can uncertainties breed creativity. I am not sure
T A Balasubramanian	October 16, 2009 12:00 AM Excellent analogy. There's no denying that we are bound to be 'proud idea parents' when we become passionately attached to the ideas we spawn. Maybe we could look at designing 'idea playpens' and 'idea babysitting' in organizations if the parenting becomes tedious at times for the moms and dads.

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