Learning to think and do small / PB in the FT

I really enjoyed my friend and colleague Paul Bennett's recent piece for the FT:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a63acc20-f5ac-11de-90ab-00144feab49a.html

Paul's essay triggered a few connections for me.

First, there's how to get big companies to learn to move fast, or perhaps move at all. I've written about it here a bit (Small to learn, Get generative by thinking small) and Colin's "Business in Beta" pattern on IDEO.com does a really great job of capturing this trend.

Here's Paul:

What hit me was the scale of the enterprise and how a small seed of an idea could be world-changing in its impact.

..and...

Personally, I have long believed that not every idea has to be mega, mammoth, gargantuan or a billion dollar disruption. Often, the small, well-designed, intelligent and, most importantly, do-able ideas are infinitely better.

... and the pièce de résistance...

Rather, it sees it as the best way to learn how to get closer to its consumers - in the field through experimentation and prototyping, rather than intellectualising and theorising - and to bring that learning back into its core business and apply it there. It is learning-by doing rather than death-by-discussion.

Second, there's a motivation link to doing and being able to connect to something bigger than yourself, but not so big that you can't see yourself in it. It's super important for innovation. Leaders need to ensure an organization's people stay inspired. Tim Brown talked about it here and I shared some thoughts here (What's your purpose?)

I'm about a third of the way through Dan Pink's new book on motivation. Pink certainly foreshadows early in the book the link between purpose and new corporate forms such as the L3C, Fourth Sector/For Benefit and Yunus' idea of "social businesses."

There's something inspiring and motivating about working for something other the machine trying to make a big, big impact. Chip Heath (along with his brother Dan) describe the importance of connecting to something bigger than ourselves to help make an idea, innovation or story sticky (e.g., the accountant who put a man on the moon). I see folks struggle with this all the time at companies big and small. I suspect that's one reason organizations aren't always flat - motivation and purpose can be found by organizing smaller cohorts amidst the big (e.g., "hot teams").

Paul again:

Employees want to work on things they believe in, in places that support those belief systems. Creating impact outside has huge impact inside.

...and Paul quoting an exec...

"Even the people in Paris who book our travel to Bangladesh feel like they are part of this project..."

I guess the only thing I'd say in response is the importance of commitment. You need to mean it, act like you mean and get people to feel like you mean it. People can smell the bullshit. And if they smell it, they'll wait you out. Seems like Danone is doing it.