Innovate or Die
Welcome to 2010 - the beginning of the "new normal."  Although there are signs that an economic recovery is underway, any realistic reading of the data tells us that the major economies of the world - especially the United States - still have a long way to go in digging out from an enormous hole.

Our individual and collective tendency to focus on the most significant immediate economic crises has tended to deflect attention from longer-term change.  For example, one key factor that fueled the growth of the US economy for many years no longer exists.  For decades following World War II, the U.S. had more productive capacity than the rest of the world combined.  Over the years, however, that advantage has evaporated; today, the rest of the world has ample productive capability of its own. 

We're all aware of this general trend, but immediate economic concerns (lately, it's been bubbles, accounting games, Ponzi schemes, etc.) often prevent us from giving this phenomenon - or its consequences - adequate attention.  For example, without its previous advantage in productive capacity, future growth of U.S.-based businesses will increasingly depend on organizations' ability to innovate.

Indeed, innovation is the watchword of the day. But innovation won't occur just because CEOs decree that it should.  It can only occur consistently in those organizations that have created a set of conditions and circumstances that foster innovation.

In order to do something new, it is necessary to learn.  At the most fundamental level, innovation cannot occur without learning.

But most organizations are not very good at learning.  Responsibility for learning is often treated as a backwater in many large organizations. It is all too frequently seen as an "employee benefit," rather than a strategic investment.  This is a structure much more likely to promote decline than to promote innovation.

CEOs who are serious about innovation must begin to give learning the attention it is due.  That, however, will require much more active leadership than most are currently exercising.