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Book review

Riding the Waves of InnovationKaren K. Wollard

The cover of the book promises to

Harness the power of global culture

to drive creativity and growth.Riding

the Waves of Innovationoffers new

perspectives and strategies for

encouraging the growth of innovation

and creativity while identifying and

removing obstacles. Effective product

and service innovation requires a

process that is much more

encompassing than a few creativepeople huddled together in research

and development departments.

Companies that want to create a

culture of innovation must consider

three levels of culture: creative

individuals, complementary teams

and supportive organizational

resources.

Whats worthwhile?

Organizational development students

and practitioners will find familiar

theories and concepts presented in a

new and thought provoking way. The

authors challenge the conventional

wisdom of dichotomies and

two-ends-of-a-spectrum by showing

how creativity and innovation happen

as individuals move along a

continuum, adapting as need and

circumstance dictate.

Using simple graphics and line

drawings reminiscent of Peter

SengesThe Fifth Discipline, theauthors challenge traditional theories

and thinking, demonstrating that

innovation comes from finding new

ways to combine the strengths of

contrasting ideas. Chapter three uses

a funny bit from a John Cleese sketch

to demonstrate what happens when

two concepts collide, using humor to

show difficult it is to hold two different

perspectives.

The most important learning from this

book is the idea of dilemmas

methodology, that teams and

organizations who grapple to find

creative ways to integrate differences,

diversity and dichotomies are going to

innovate and thrive. Challenges

encourage learning and creativity.

Whats inside?

Chapter 1 begins with a discussion of

the contrasting attributes that

challenge organizations to innovate.

Innovation is needed to find ways to

combine what appear to be two ends

of the spectrum in ways that serve the

customer. These pairs include such

items as complexity and simplicity;

high quality and low cost; supply and

demand; opportunity and crisis;among others.

Chapters 2 and 3 probe individual

creativity. Creativity is imaginative,

original, purposeful, and valuable

thinking. Creativity is done with a

purpose. Some people like to start

with the big picture while others prefer

to begin with the details. Creativity

melds perspectives, allowing for the

possibilities of something different.

This chapter revisits the Myers-Briggs

Type Indicator (MBTI) and its

dichotomies, i.e. perceiving/judging,

sensing/intuiting, thinking/feeling and

extroversion/introversion. The MBTI

attempts to place individuals at a

single place on a continuum, but

humans in reality move along the

continuum constantly. The authors

offer an integrated type indicator,

which suggests that most people

PAGE 40 jDEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS j VOL. 26 NO. 5 2012, pp. 40-41, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1477-7282 DOI 10.1108/14777281211258716

Dr KarenK. Wollard is a HRD Consultantat

Kelly Wollard & Associates, Inc.,

Hollywood, Florida, USA.

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have preferences about how to

approach a problem, but use much

flexibility when seeking solutions.

Creative people find options that

integrate opposing ways of

processing information, arriving at

more innovative approaches. Cultural

preferences also have influence.

Chapters 4 through 6 deal with the

contributions of teams and the roles of

individual contributors. Beginning

with a discussion of the different roles

team members can play, the authors

explore the dilemmas that teams face.

This leads to a discussion of tensions

between roles and how the success of

teams requires managing the crucial

decision points. For example, the

team must find a balance between

being too critical and being too

imaginative by finding a way to ensure

that good ideas can be recognized

and encouraged.

Beyond roles, creativity comes from

diversity, which is often the result of

interactive cultures. The book

identifies seven dimensions that differ

across cultures, such as being more

individualistic than group/social

interest or ascribing status more to

achievement or potential. This is the

area discussed further in an earlier

book by the authors. Each dimension

leads to potential misunderstandings,

but can also lead to new insights andperspectives. Innovative teams have

been shown to integrate different

views effectively. Whether the

diversity is across nationalities,

disciplines or departments,

innovation is encouraged by

integrating and valuing diverse

opinions and inputs.

Chapter 7 discusses the dynamics of

organizations in creating an

innovative culture. This is done

through a discussion of an innovative

16-week experiential education

program that used dilemmas

methodology. Students were exposed

to numerous dichotomies and

challenged to find innovative

strategies to create new products,services and business strategies. The

program proved more successful

than traditional educational practices

in helping students develop their

talents across five different

continuums and become more

innovative.

Chapter 8 identifies the traditional

dilemmas facing organizations and

the emerging values required for

innovation to be achieved. Each of the

12 identified pairs are discussed,

beginning with centralizing

knowledge while decentralizing

activity and ending with building a

profitable company and building an

innovative network. The tension of

resolving each dilemma requires the

need to innovate.

Chapter 9 introduces four cultures

along two continuums:

egalitarian/hierarchical and person

centered/task centered. Successful

cultures integrate values and resolve

conflicts by integrating theirresponses and reconciling

differences as situations dictate. Most

organizations begin as families, take

on the responsibility of incubating

new ideas, become guided missiles

as they shepherd products to market,

and finally becoming obsolete while

preparing to radically change or

disrupt its sedentary ways.

There is no magic formula that will

make an organization innovative, so

the last chapter poses 15 questions

for leaders. Leaders must probe

whether their organizations are

innovative, whether their people are

creative, and whether there are

opportunities for people to play, to

experiment and to take risks. Leaders

must be able to remove bottlenecksand protect fledgling ideas. Leaders

must make it clear that learning and

knowledge are crucial and that new

ideas can come from everywhere.

Innovating requires resources and

support. Innovative companies need

to have suppliers and customers who

are part of their network of creativity.

And ultimately, leaders must help their

organization change cultures when

new situations demand it.

Whats the recommendation?

This is a useful book for practitioners

who work in organizations that are

open to innovation. Recognizing that

dilemmas and challenges are

opportunities for creativity and

innovation is crucial. By beginning

with individuals, then teams, then the

organization and culture, this book

gives practitioners and students a

way to disassemble what they are

observing and then reassemble the

pieces in ways that will lead to morediversity and further innovation.

Reference

Trompenaars, F. and Hampden-Turner, C.

(2010),Riding the Waves of Innovation,

McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

VOL. 26 NO. 5 2012 jDEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS jPAGE 41