by Roger Dennis

So you’re in charge of innovation? Read this…

From James Gardner (Chief Technology Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions in the UK, and ex- innovation guru at Lloyds Bank) comes this ode to senior executives who find themselves in the startling – and potentially exciting – position of holding the innovation candle:

You need to build your innovation effort from the bottom up as well as from the top down. The little people at the front line are just as important as the ones in the center who make the decisions. It is the front line and their managers, after all, who will be affected by anything you do. If they love your innovation effort, they will make sure you succeed. If they don’t, you will certainly fail.

via Dear Senior Executive… – BankerVision.

2 Comments

    1. Having worked in very large organisations alongside people in the C-suite, I can easily envisage the term being used. I was pretty sure that this was the perspective James was talking from and he confirmed this when I asked him for his response, which is as follows:

      “Little People” is not meant to be a pejorative term, but my apologies if it caused offence. What I meant to imply is that there is this towering hierarchy in any large organisation where decisions are made from the top, and everyone else (the people who are little in comparison to the tower) is expected to obey.

      Interestingly, here in the UK, you often hear front line staff refer to themselves as the “little people” when talking about decisions on their managers, particularly when they don’t like them.

      So apologies if this made anyone uncomfortable.It was unintended.

      Reply

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