October 6, 2011 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Innovation is as much about what an organization stops doing as about the new efforts that it starts, says Rick Wartzman, executive director of the Drucker Institute, which is dedicated to carrying on the work of the noted author and management consultant Peter Drucker.
“Every organization has a finite amount of resources,” says Mr. Wartzman. “So the first step toward innovating is what Drucker called ‘planned abandonment.’ It’s figuring out what you’re going to stop doing to free up those resources and to stimulate the search for the new.”
Mr. Drucker recommended that every few years organizations review all of their products, processes, and distribution channels, essentially putting each one “on trial for its life,” says Mr. Wartzman.
During that exercise, he says, the organization should also try to determine where each product, process, and distribution channel is in its lifecycle. The questions to ask, says Mr. Wartzman: “Is it starting to decline? Is it still heading toward peak? Is it close to peak and, if so, when will it decline and how quickly is it likely to decline?”
“Even on successful programs, nothing stays static,” he adds. “That’s why programs can’t stay static, either. They constantly have to change.”
Mr. Wartzman is one of three dozen nonprofit leaders, grant makers, and innovation experts that The Chronicle spoke with for a recent article about innovation in the nonprofit world.
The investigation found that while a growing number of charities are taking a more deliberate approach to fostering new ideas, the hurdles are significant. Money for experimentation is hard to come by. Carving out the time to try new things while keeping current efforts going is difficult, and both nonprofits and foundations have a deeply ingrained fear of failure.
What do you think? How would you describe the current state of innovation in the nonprofit world? What is your organization doing to cultivate new ideas and approaches? What’s standing in your way?
