I spend a lot of time thinking about and reading about innovation, and a popular topic is how to make large organizations more innovative.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of articles providing tips, strategies, frameworks, incentives, programs, and general advice on how to enable companies to be more innovative.  This isn’t exactly my sweet spot as I’m not a consultant working with companies fulltime to make them more innovative.  But I do have an opinion based on my own experiences:

Want to be more innovative?  Hire a Chief Contrarian Officer.

Okay, you don’t actually have to use that title.  They could instead be the VP of Arguments, Manager of Disagreeing, or Director of Unpopular Opinions.  But whichever title you choose, the person must have 3 characteristics:

1. They are in a role with ready access to, or are a part of, the company leadership team, and they participate in strategic decision-making.
2. They are individually inherently innovative.
3. They aren’t “drinking the Kool-Aid”.

I realize with the last requirement that this is the antithesis to how many leadership teams are assembled.  If you aren’t drinking the Kool-Aid, you aren’t invited in.  But that is the exact reason why it is so important to have someone purposely thinking differently than everyone else.

Think of this analogy.  Your leadership team is in a car and the CEO is driving.  He’s driving straight ahead, and everyone else is diligently looking straight ahead with him.  Then you go through an intersection, and you get sideswiped by an oncoming car.  You need someone in the backseat of that car looking left, right, and behind to see what no one else is seeing.  That is your Chief Contrarian Officer – your “CCO”.

What else does this person need to be successful?

1. The CCO must be personable.  She is often the lone voice of the minority opinion.  It will be difficult enough to change the minds of the majority, but twice as difficult if the majority doesn’t actually like her.
2. The CCO must be diligent.  The only way to convince people of the unconventional is to make compelling arguments supported by all possible evidence.  Building a case will require substantial work.
3. The CCO must be convincing.  She must be a very strong communicator, and be able to read and adapt to each person’s individual objections.
4. The CCO needs to be diplomatic.  She must realize that when she takes the opposite side of conventional opinion she will enjoy few successes.  She must accept failures without becoming disruptive or a distraction.
5. The CCO must be respected.  The four previous points lay the groundwork for the CCO’s opinions to be respected, but ultimately how the CEO publicly treats those opinions will determine whether the person and role are ultimately respected or not.

What do you think?  Does your company have a Chief Contrarian Officer?

Image from Cinema.com