My Company is Launching an Innovation Initiative! Am I Too Old?

Source: rocket50

By: Janet Peischel rocket50 Contributor          

Date: July 5, 2023

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg believes that “young people are just smarter.” By Silicon Valley standards, Zuckerberg himself now would be considered well past his prime. But it raises the question of whether or not people are able to learn new processes, technologies and behaviors after a certain age. Whether they’re able to adapt to change or “innovation”. 

What is innovation?

In its simplest terms, innovation is successfully implementing a new idea and creating value for customers and stakeholders. Innovation itself isn’t new, but by labeling it and talking about it, innovation has come to command a larger stage than it might have in the past. These days, we tend to think of innovation as a group of employees teaming together to find creative new ways of doing things. 

Innovation may solve problems, save money or time. It may streamline processes and either create or eliminate jobs. According to Sinnaps, regardless of the product or industry, 84% of global business executives believe that innovation is paramount to successful growth strategies.

What are some examples of innovation?

Google: The introduction of Adwords, which changed the way we advertise. Innovation was the birth of pay-per-click.

Facebook: Regarded as one of the most successful innovation examples, the father of social media.

WhatsApp: Meta’s cross-platform communication system, freeware that launched in 2009.

Salesforce: Their CRM system is one of the strongest marketing innovation examples. It harnesses cloud computing in customer relationship management. Salesforce is also known for its company culture, equalizing pay between men and women.

The good news: Innovation favors seasoned workers

Older workers faced with innovation initiatives may be uneasy. They may wonder if they’re too old to rethink the way they do their jobs. In an innovation initiative, everyone’s expected to contribute to the process. According to one 55-year-old worker: “Innovation sounds like a young person’s game. Will older workers be taken seriously?” 

The Kauffman Foundation, which studies these kinds of trends, asserts that the optimal age for innovation is now between 55 and 64, and it continues to trend upward–not downward. Today’s vigorous older Americans, with increased lifespans and improved physical health, are continuing to contribute as they age. Many have reinvented their careers multiple times. 

Think of the Silicon Valley inventors 

These are the guys who launch their startups, nurture them through growth stages, sell them, make a fortune and start over with a new idea. They could be on the golf course practicing their golf swings, but they’re driven by inventiveness. These are examples of relentless innovators who seek out and embrace new and better ways of doing things.

• The technology associated with a talented, younger workforce ironically has stunted the innovative maturity of many. 

• Those pursuing careers in research stay in school longer to gain the necessary knowledge to make significant contributions. 

• There is a host of other problems that holds back young workers, including poor communication skills, fear of failure and unrealistic expectations.

• The result? A younger workforce that’s not yet ready to lead complex innovation initiatives.

“We've never needed our older innovators more than we need them now”

You may love to brainstorm ideas and come up with concepts that are creative and totally unrealistic. But to bridge the gap between those unrealistic, innovative ideas and the reality of producing deliverables, you need people with experience and industry knowledge who understand your business. And those are likely to be older workers. When it comes to an innovation initiative, businesses really can’t overestimate the value of their seasoned older workers and their institutional knowledge. 

According to Mark Anderson, at a TEDx talk “Innovation Has No Expiration Date,” at the University of Nevada in March 2019, “We've never needed our older innovators more than we need them now, not just to fill our technical talent gaps, but to provide meaningful mentorship and encouragement for the rising generation.”

Advancing skills and knowledge of workers

Mark Anderson is the Director Nevada Industry Excellence, whose career passion is strengthening the manufacturing industry and economy by advancing the skills and knowledge of employees. The first U.S. employee for Panasonic Energy, a partner in the Tesla Gigafactory, Anderson helped shape the Gigafactory’s innovative and collaborative culture. These are his guidelines for planning an innovation project. It starts with management, and every employee is a stakeholder. 

Planning an innovation project

Below are steps to planning and executing innovation projects. Reading through this list It’s clear that each worker has a responsibility to help reach the group’s innovation goals–regardless of age. 

1. Set purposeful, realistic goals

• It’s critical for the team to understand the purpose of your innovation initiative and have clear business goals that are aspirational but realistic.

• Big picture focus, action, and measurement should be part of goal development. 

2. Consider internal and external factors

• Understand what's happening in and outside your business and the needs of stakeholders. 

• Internal factors can include your company culture, business resources, cash-flow management. 

• External factors can include the economy, competition, and industry regulations, etc.

3. Create a sense of urgency

• Create line items with deliverable dates. 

• Setting smaller milestones within larger goals is important so you feel like you’re making progress.

• Light the fire that inspires a will to change, even if it happens in small doses.

4. Leverage your organizational strengths

What differentiates your business? Strategy is about understanding your company's strengths and leveraging them to get ahead. 

5. Prioritize your organizational culture.

• Working to align with your culture can go a long way toward moving your strategic plan forward. 

• Employee buy-in and enthusiasm starts with understanding goals and each person’s responsibility to help reach them. 

6. Establish commitment from leaders

Savvy leaders guide change, show their own commitment and delegate properly to reach larger goals. 

Key takeaways

While it may sound intimidating, experts agree that an innovation initiative is not necessarily a young person’s game. It requires industry and business experience to lead and help execute this kind of companywide initiative. Businesses turn to their older workers with their years of experience and institutional knowledge to drive change. To be successful, an innovation initiative needs to be a top-down driven approach that’s tied to business goals and deliverables. Every employee becomes a stakeholder in its success. 

Janet Peischel is a rocket50 writer and the owner of Top of Mind Marketing. She writes about lifestyle issues, products and trends of the  50+ population. “We represent a huge market that’s vocal, active, and determined to stay active and involved!”

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