How passion projects can ignite creativity in your business
Innovation has always been a hollow word for me. It implies some kind of over-blown process, that only the most highly-resourced businesses can master. To me, ideas, common sense and ingenuity are perfectly good words to describe the act creating a business advantage. Ideas have always been a part of the best business cultures. They are the life blood that drives an enterprise, to uncover new ways of doing things, to create new ventures and become more competitive.
But some companies struggle to recognise that they have this ability within them. They are hindered by a lack of belief in themselves, or a see creativity as a trivial distraction, to their core responsibility of making money.
These are understandable concerns, but shouldn’t prevent a business from flexing its creative muscles. Passion Projects are becoming an increasingly popular way to kick-start creativity within a business. They provide an isolated, low-risk opportunity to investigate business challenges, that could eventually be monetised into substantial ventures. As many brand leaders can testify.
Beyond this passion projects are transforming businesses from within. They allow staff to improve their problem-solving skills, become more self-reliant, and more proactive in their contribution to the collective efforts of the company.
In this article we will:
Discuss the power of ideas within business.
Identify the barriers to creativity and how to overcome them.
Provide guidelines to developing your own passion project.
Outline the many business benefits from pursuing your passion.
The barrier to creativity
Many leaders feel uncomfortable with creativity. Their formative years in business are spent balancing the books, justifying investment, making calculated risks. Understandably so, these are the fundamental responsibilities of any business leader.
I believe it is creativity that is one of the most valuable assets in business, not technology or hardware. Ideas provide answers to impossible problems. Ideas inspire companies to develop new paradigms, entice customers to buy and investors to invest. Take a closer look at the world's most successful companies, and you will discover that creativity is at the heart of everything they do. To put it simply, today's ideas are the source of those we are going to invest in tomorrow.
Many leaders feel uncomfortable with creativity. Their formative years in business were used to prepare accounts, justify investments and make calculated risk. This is understandable, because this is a very fundamental responsibility of every leader.
The intangible nature of creativity can be unsettling. There are no guarantees of a return on investment. Creativity is often thought of as the domain of “arty people.” Who are almost polar opposites of rational business leaders. In some cases, creativity is simply not relevant to some ventures. The legal industry, insurance and other financial practices have to deliver results based on cold, hard facts. When it comes to wild imagination, its simply inappropriate.
There’s a widespread misconception, that only certain people have the “creative” gene. I’ve been part of creative teams for thirty years, in that time some of the best ideas, have come from people who would never call themselves an ‘ideas person’. Anybody can have a good idea, even the most unimaginative amongst us.
Sometimes I think we need a better word for it. ‘Innovation’ is too big a word and overused. Ultimately, creativity is about problem solving, using good, old common sense, which is a quality most people wouldn’t deny themselves.
Ideas separate the leaders from the followers
Industry leaders across all sectors, regularly demonstrate the ability to pull the rabbit out of the hat, surprising us with smart solutions, to problems that we never knew we had. Sometimes these are game changing ideas, such as the Airbnb business model. Others are small details, such as USB outlets in the seat on your plane, to enhance the onboard experience. Big or small, a good idea is progress, providing the momentum that keeps brands relevant, in the eyes of their public.
Volvo is another example. A small team was tasked to enhance the driving experience. What could they add beyond, safety, comfort and performance…? ‘Delivering mail to drivers,’ is a proposition that could easily have been shot down. But now, Volvo are pioneering in-car delivery logistics with Amazon. Such openness to ideas, creates ripples in the company, inspiring others to find their creativity, and ultimately transforms your business into a thinking culture, with the ability to take the business to new heights.
Where to start?
You can’t become a creative culture overnight. Where to start? What will it cost? And typically, what return can we expect? are natural concerns. An attitude to cost elimination, stifles many businesses, who look upon R&D, innovation and think tanks as unnecessary. But look a little closer and you’ll see, that these businesses have the worst products, poor customer experiences and unappealing brands. How to stimulate corporate creativity, is a big question and the answers are unique to each business. But there is a low-risk way, to dip your toe in the water and see where it leads…
The power of passion
A ‘Passion Project,’ is a loose term for an assignment that is unrelated to a team’s day-to-day role. It should be reasonably well-defined challenge to solve, but open enough to allow for exploration. You don’t want the team to stumble through vague uncertainty, but at the same time the challenge should have the potential to yield some unique insights.
People thrive on the privilege, of being invited to apply themselves, to these kind of challenges. It brings out their enthusiasm, this becomes infectious and compels others to become proactive.
Passion Projects are an increasingly common business practice. If you’re one of the millions of people using Gmail, then you’re using the outcome of a passion project by Google . To spark creativity within the firm, the Google founders implemented what they call ‘20 percent time’. Employees are allowed, one day a week away from their jobs, to work on a Google-related passion project, of their choosing.
When Steve Jobs, famously returned to Apple, and asked a young, dejected product designer, if he had any new ideas. That designer was Sir Jonathan Ive, and his idea was a computer that looked like a fuel tank of a Ducati motorcycle. The computer become the first iMac, and the rest is history.
Many of IBM’s myriad of patents, originated from an individual IBMer with the freedom to follow his or her creative instinct, and partner with an employer that values the spark of an idea. But it's not just tech companies that pioneer passion projects. EY have their own program, allowing new recruits the chance to pursue a passion project as part of their onboarding process. Reading between the lines, I’d say they are trying to liberate newcomers to bring their unique thinking into the business, rather than assimilate them into a cookie cutter way of working.
At Mission, we felt our unique brand experience could have more of an outlet, than regular client work. We explored various ideas, and a natural consequence of that soul searching was making our first book. “Point of purpose” outlines our belief, that the most successful brands, are driven by purpose. It’s written by our CEO, Bård Annweiler, but everyone in Mission has contributed, in some shape or form. The collective effort has given us focus, challenged our thinking, tested our ability to adapt to time pressures, and shown that we can do anything as a team if we put out mind to it. Learn more about this project at www.point-of-purpose.com
The benefits of starting a passion project
As I’ve indicated, a passion project can come in all shapes and sizes. It’s up to leaders to demonstrate, that they are committed to maximising the potential of their workforce. And show that creativity is a business practice that you value for opportunities it could bring.
Here are nine business benefits to be gained from passion projects
Empowerment.In challenging times, nothing is more draining on a business than a company with a lack of initiative. It’s like a boat with no wind in its sails. Implementing a passion project, demonstrates that you believe in your people to lead themselves. It shows you hired well and trust them to find solutions through their own means.
Self-reliance. A good passion project should never be easy. The level of ambition should provide a head scratching moment, where staff can see the potential benefits, but cannot see the endgame. Introducing an element of difficulty will stretch the team and provide new insights. A passion project isn’t only about the outcome, but learning new ways to work, and acquiring the personal courage it takes, to succeed in adverse conditions.
Time management. Time can be an issue, in a busy business with deadlines to meet. The passion project should be an option for people to join in with, rather than become an extra burden. If people are genuinely passionate, they will find time and improve their time-management skills, to get involved.
Accountability. Complete, unrestricted freedom to explore, is a recipe for disaster, people feel undirected, uncertain and guilty for wasting company time. A good passion project, like any project has to have some guidelines to drive the desired outcome. Guidelines such as, the objective, who’s in charge, what resources are available etc., are natural aspects of good project management, and passion projects should be no different. This framework will instil a level of accountability, focussing creativity on the specific problem to solve.
Team work. Many organisations rely on structures and hierarchies that prohibit collaboration. In the worst-case scenarios, they form silos that almost become a company within a company, driving their own agenda. A well-conceived passion project, involving colleagues from across the company, can break down these cultural barriers. They can expose the things that unite one another, providing conditions where sharing and learning thrive.
Failure. History has taught us, that failure is a part of any worthy innovation. The path to innovation is often a journey riddled with dead ends. Nobody achieves their goals first time around. But often, the journey is the destination. By making mistakes. you create the opportunity to learn and refine your approach. This is sometimes as valuable, as the outcome itself.
Motivation. The challenge of a passion project and the nervous uncertainty it fosters, can be a great source for developing the determination it takes to succeed. Being trusted with such an audacious task forces individuals to overcome their fears and develop a "stand-on attitude" that can be inspiring for everyone who works on the project .
Trust. Often in larger companies, staff at the front-line can feel distant from their leaders and vice versa. Motivated people want to be involved and give their best, but beyond the scope of their role, they don’t know how to make a positive contribution to the business. Assigning a passion project demonstrates that leadership has you on their radar, they recognise your potential, and welcome your enthusiasm and input. This builds trust within the relationship between employees and leadership, heads off unrest, and strengthens the partnership.
Inspiration. Creativity in a business has a value beyond the outcome. Society respects companies, that are trying to do something, other than making money. There are so many me-too brands, that consumers can naturally feel uninspired. A brand that demonstrates a willingness to improve things for the customer, will at the very least gain attention, but more likely attract loyalty. Investors increasingly evaluate a company’s ability to innovate, as a means to determine its long-term survival in a fast-changing economy. The sheer act of creation inspires all stakeholders to view you as a business that can inspire and drive its own destiny.
Some dos and dont's
Commitment . The implementation of a passion project, can be the first step to developing into a creative culture, which can go a long way to inspiring, developing and caring for talented employees . But management must be seen to be committed to the project, doing everything they can to facilitate it. Otherwise, it will be viewed as some hollow vanity project, to keep the troops quiet.
Reporting . Project management is important, the project cannot be allowed to drift along indefinitely. You must know when to draw the line and review the results. Hopefully the project is well conceived, and the outcome could be put to some use, or even monetised. This is important to demonstrate that creativity isn’t a corporate hobby, but a serious investment in time and money, to explore potential opportunities. Be sure to report back the process and outcomes, to the whole company. Provide emphasis on what has been learned, so this can be built upon by everybody, moving forward.
Initiate a partnership . Sometimes, these kind of projects can be too successful. Some staff can become inspired, using what they’ve learned to formulate their own venture. It’s one of the unfortunate hazards of hiring smart people. There are a few ways around this that could be of greater benefit. One way is to adopt the incubator model, so if a colleague has an idea that is a good fit with your business, then you provide the space and funding in exchange for a share of the venture. Its low risk and a good way to test the potential of a strong opportunity. As I mentioned earlier, many IBMers share patents with their employer.
"Businesses that develop strong creative cultures, will be in a prime position to spark ideas, monetise them, and make a positive change for everybody."
Creativity builds a better kind of business
There was a time when creative endeavour was the driving factor of many business that have shaped the way we live. Thomas Edison, the creator of the light bulb, electric generator and fuel cell, amongst many others, developed all these inventions form his personal passion projects. He partnered with the Thomas Houston Electric company to form GE, which as we know, has gone on to become one of the world most innovative, publicly traded companies.
If you look back, many of the brands and businesses we know today, started out as a force for good. Ten years after the financial crisis, lessons have been learned by both companies and consumers alike. We’ve returned to a dynamic where the digital platform, a need for openness and honesty, and the positive contribution to society, force leaders to reflect on what they stand for and what they provide. Likewise, consumers and investors are voting with their wallets, to support companies who are less self-serving and contributing to the greater good.
