These processes, coupled with weak critical program managers, become a sort of wet concrete that preserves the status quo. The traditional organization assumes many logical reasons for ignoring radical innovation. One of the reasons is resultsoriented, bottomline, toughtalking managers. They focus on certainty, quantitative metrics, and operating efficiencies, and end up avoiding risks and getting leapfrogged by competitors. They reward those who think and behave like themselves, and often ignore program managers who have radical innovation competencies.
Radical innovation capabilities atrophy and thus an organization's strategic capability is degraded.
I'll continue being a good engineer. This program manager was referring to the peer pressure exerted by the toolsfocused engineering culture he worked in. People do what is measured, and one of the best ways to create good program management is to include performance evaluation. Ken Delcol of MDSSciex has an excellent approach to fostering program manager competencies suitable for radical innovations. MDS Sciex's performance factors match well to the eight competencies that I described above.