Creative Deviance

Problem Definition:

Hierarchy boundaries kills innovation, too many layers and top-down structure might cause loss of innovation
opportunities.

Justification of the Problem:

Companies stand against their growth by establishing long, rigid hierarchies.

The reasons might be:

 Dependency on the leadership vision and underestimating creative alternatives stemming from lower
levels, that is lack of trust in those calibers to take the business to new horizons.

 Bureaucracy, complex procedures, poisonous routine.

 Fear of losing control, causing unclear ownership, and interdependent accountabilities.

Example: WhatsApp was originally founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum. Acton applied for jobs at
both Twitter and Facebook way before WhatsApp became a widely popular mobile app. Both times he was
rejected. In 2014, Facebook announced a $19 billion deal to acquire the mobile messaging app, WhatsApp 1.

It cost Facebook billions to acquire the new product, while they could have saved much money in 2009 when
Acton was applying for a job and proposing the WhatsApp project2.

Alternatives:

1. Motivate innovation and avoid suppressing ideas.

2. Allow side project time.
3. Less Centralization, “less mechanistic, more organic structure”.

Alternatives Evaluation:

1. Motivate innovation and avoid suppressing ideas.

 Welcome new ideas or workflow change suggestions.
 Take time to study ideas, avoid turning them down so quickly.
 Never judge ideas as “bad” ones to encourage others to speak out the “good” ones.

1
WhatsApp story
2
WhatsApp Acquisition
  Encourage brainstorming and teamwork that could result in substantial innovation.
 Organize innovation competitions.
 Interpret motivation into tangible rewards.
 Recognition is an important motivation tool.
 Give credit to the intellectual property owner(s).
 Involve lower-level employees in decision making.
 When approving an idea, seek all possible ways to implement it and remove obstacles.

2. Allow side project time.

 Side project time is a benefit that allows employees to work on their personal projects during some
part of their time at work. (Usually a percentage)
 Side project time is limited by two conditions:
 What the employee works on is the intellectual property of their employer.
 If requested, an explanation must be given as to how the project benefits the company.
Example: Google's email service ‘Gmail’ was created by the developer Paul Buchheit on his 20%
time allowed for his side project. A few years later, Gmail set the record as the
first Android application to reach one billion installations on the Google Play store3.

3. Less Centralization, “less mechanistic, more organic structure”.

 Creating an organic organizational structure adapt with rapid changes of the disruptive technology.
 Free flow of information and low formalization would help create an innovation-striving atmosphere.
 Flexibility doesn’t negatively impact accountability and ownership, both advantages can be met in a
well-tailored organizational design.

Recommendations:

I recommend “innovation motivation” and “tendency to organic structure” alternatives, they are what a
company needs to stay creative, that’s what mega companies like Apple and Google do.

3
Side Project time