The Intrapreneur's Dilemma
I was the other day at the World Economic Forum Media and Entertainment industry network meeting in New York. It was a really valuable meeting with lots of very enlightening discussions on the future of the media industry in these innovative times.
Here is a thought that is relevant for the present challenge of the media industry. It is generally valid, not only for the media industry, and applies to all people and traditional organisations who are seeking to innovate. Let's call it 'The Intrepreneur's Dilemma'. An 'intrapreneur' is an entrepreneur within an organization. Here goes:
When someone tries to innovate within a traditional organization,
few will understand what he/she is doing,
but everybody will understand who is a trouble-maker.
After the innovation has been embraced by the organization,
few will remember who started it,
but everybody will remember who was a trouble-maker.
This is the dilemma encountered by many intrapreneurs -
they risk punishment for success.
few will understand what he/she is doing,
but everybody will understand who is a trouble-maker.
After the innovation has been embraced by the organization,
few will remember who started it,
but everybody will remember who was a trouble-maker.
This is the dilemma encountered by many intrapreneurs -
they risk punishment for success.
Organizations that want to be innovative need to find solutions to the intrapreneur's dilemma and its consequences, if they don't wish to set negative examples that will scare off people from intrapreneurship. Here is an example: as long as a new project is of little impact and not well understood, the intrapreneur will be fighting for its continuation while others may ignore its existence or perhaps wonder why it should be allowed to steal attention from the more important core activities. Once a project has impact and receives recognition, incumbents within the organization will want to influence or control it. People may reason that 'a project as important as this one should not be run by a trouble-maker'. This situation requires a constructive interaction between a skilled intrapreneur and an enlightened organizational leadership. A good innovation system within the organization may help provide solutions, but I don't think it can replace individual savvy and diplomatic skills.
If anybody who reads this has a good story to illustrate the 'intrapreneur's dilemma', or knows of descriptions of similar phenomena under different names, send me an email or leave comments and links here below.
posted by David Nordfors at 8:52 AM
10 Comments:
Hi David,
I really liked your post as you are spot on this dilemma. For your information, I am the founder and chief facilitator of INTRAP which is a network for people working on the intersection of leadership and innovation. Check out www.intrap.com.
We have many intrapreneurs in the network and I know many of them have been labelled as trouble-makers.
Let me know if you would like to get in touch with such people and I will make the introductions.
Best regards,
Stefan
stefan@intrap.com
www.intrap.com
www.stefanlindegaard.com
Hi Stefan!
Thanks for your comment on the 'intrapreneur's dilemma'. It will be great if people want to share their experiences on this topic here in the of comments. And if anyone has any good advice on how to handle the dilemma - that will be very interesting!
If there are enough good comments, I will try to summarize them in a new post.
cheers,
/David
Hi David,
My gut reaction to this is that the notion is really more The Intrapreneur’s Snare, namely the (possibily irresistible) tendency to blame others for "not getting it.” A species of self-pity, or blaming others for one’s own failings, if you will. Granted that some organizations are more open to new ideas and approaches than others, and granted too that bosses range from sunny paternal types, judiciously encouraging all good ideas to grow and pruning back only the bad ones, to assholes (cf. Bob Sutton’s book The No Asshole Rule) , how often does it really happen, if you exercise the individual savvy and diplomatic skills that you point out are irreplacable, that an innovator will arouse only or even mostly resistance or hostility and be known as a “troublemaker”?
The key to avoiding the snare would be to be aware of it and to always first ask whether one’s own savvy, diplomacy, and realpolitik have been up to snuff.
I called the snare possibly irresistible because if you have, in fact, produced something innovative, then it's hard to resist the notion that you're smarter than others, and that any indifference or hostility you arouse as you go about your merry, creative way, airing the latest product of your sterling mind, can only be due to inferiority of character or even actual malevolence in the souls of those hemming you in. Whereas the truth may be that indifference is due to the nature of life outside the nursery, where nobody owes you anything, and hostility is due to your arrogating to yourself the right of other people to judge the value of your product. It’s some kind of paradox—people do need to be told what to think (by critics, by innovation bloggers, by intrapreneurs internally marketing their ideas), but they also need to come to their own judgment. So maybe a troublemaker intrepreneur is one who either doesn’t try hard enough on some level—or who who tries too hard, neglecting the sovereignty of others' judgment. No matter how good you are at the art of woo, people have got to make up their own minds. Or maybe a troublemaker at one job would be a prized team player at another. It’s not easy…
Marc Lemay
Thanks Marc for your intelligent and eloquent remark. The 'Intrapreneur's snare' of sinking into self-pity and blaming ones shortcomings on others is certainly valid. It certainly has overlap with the 'intrapreneur's dilemma'. But are they identical?
While the 'intrapreneur's dilemma' refers to intrapreneurs being outmaneuvered, the 'intrapreneur's snare' refers to intrapreneurs not being good enough at maneuvering. They refer to the same thing, but from different points of view - which is significant, because they locate the problem in different places. One in the organisation, the other in the intrapreneur.
Both are valid, sometimes even in the same case. There are difficult people who have been behind the start of brilliant innovations within traditional organisations, and who were left behind, because they were not good enough at moving the initiative forward. There are also gatekeepers within organisations, who first tried to stop something from happening, and then got the credit when it happened, after outmaneuvering the originator.
This adds to the complexity of the challenge of innovation in a traditional organisation.
Dan Maydan said...
Hi David
A very interesting discussion on the intrepreneur's dilemma.
There are many variables to this dilemma which are mostly dependent on the phase of development of the company, its type of business ,its size and most important culture. If you take companies like Google or 3-M most probably you will not find the situation you describe.These companies are never the less a minority and most other mid and large size companies will act the way you describe in your article. A true entrepreneur will most probably not last and will find his way to a more suitable place including start ups.
Last but not least you should remember the phases of a project.
1 enthusiastic
2 working very hard and complete dedication
3 disillusion
4 success
5 departure of key contributors
6 praise for the non participant
Dan
Hi David,
Thanks for starting this interesting discussion. Intrapreneurs sure do have a challenging time within established organisaitons. In fact, it doesnt really take long for the "establishment" to set in - even young organsiaitons (5 yrs old) have shown that the established way of doing things is no easy to challenge.
My experience has shown that
a)entrepreneurs (those that have been sucessful at start ups) find it very hard to innovate within an organisaiton
b)for those that want to, its important to have buy-in from key stakeholders (board, manager, peers and others). Buy-in should not merely be surfacial - but genuine - for what the intrepreneur is trying to do.
c) Those that are really serious are more concerned with the impact and making it work - than whether its happening within an established organisaiton, will go on their own and make it happen....
Neeru
When I was working at Varian, a group developed the first practical helium-neon laser, headed by Herb Dwight. His manager derided the work as useless (i.e. he was a troublemaker). Herb took his group outside the company and created SpectraPhysics. He went from intrapreneur to entrepreneur. SpectraPhysice became a world laser powerhouse.
Later, at SpectraPhysics, another troublemakersuggested high-power, kilowatt-level lasers (the
helium-neon laser were milliwatt level) but management rebuffed him. He took a group out of the company and created Coherent Radiation.
QED.
Your piece on the perils of intrapreneurship is right on.
j2
Hi David:
I felt so identified with your "Intrapreneur's Dilemma" that you have inspired my new blog post: http://www.corpangels.com/blogs/?p=34
Basically, I'd like to explore how we turn the "Trouble Maker" role into a positive and strategic role - what I call "Strategic Irritant"...
I am in Menlo Park, btw. Care for coffee sometime?
Cheers,
Paul To
http://www.corpangels.com
Classic. Great discussion, I've been an intrapreneur for a long time, both by action/word and deed, as well as by title (Innovation Manager to be specific). The whole challenge can be very dependant on culture, timing and other environmental conditions within a company or simply within a small team. A company can opening embrace Innovation but still foster legacy culture and individuals who don't appreciate and REMEMBER the trouble-makers. My approach to this is similar to what the American Continental Army did with Yankee Doodle-Dandy. I adopted the moniker myself: I amended my title: Innovation Manager, Change Agent and Trouble Maker.
Hi everyone,
This topic is very interesting because it talks about the situations I live at work everyday.
My story starts when I obtained a degree from the MBET (Master of Business Entrepreneurship Program) in the University of Waterloo three years ago. My goal is to be an Entrepreneur.
After that investment I didn't have money for a start-up. So, I decided to go back to the company I was working before I took the program. I came to the company in a different role, working for the Corporate. Since I arrived to the company my goal was to deliver results and add value in an intrapreneur way.
Unfortunately, the barriers in the big corporation were difficult. Mergers, new bosses, new policies, procedures..etc.
I'm still in the company, and I have been fighting everyday for my goals, and the way my Manager thinks of me is "Trouble Maker".
In the last five months I've been dealing with tasks for support. This role gave me the opportunity to be the person to go in case of problem and solve it from the root. So, I guess that's what an Intrapreneur do first... quick wins.
Recently I talked to Management about the possibility to go back to a role where I can add more value. I'll see if I can get there.
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