Keeping Your Organization I/U Balanced

The I stands for Innovation, the U for Utility. Let's simplify this by breaking all organizations into two types: entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial. 

In an entrepreneurial environment an organization is prone toward innovation. Their experimental attitude is a big plus unless taken to excess. 

When excessively involved in pursuing innovation, the organization becomes mired in tinkering and adjusting. Innovation becomes the end in itself. The organization gets so involved in making changes that making a living receives little attention. This organization tinkers itself into mediocrity, perhaps extinction. 

The other type of organization in our hypothetical example is non-entrepreneurial. It exists in stark contrast to the entrepreneurial enterprise, paying little attention to anything resembling innovation. Growth is minimal; it's a dull place to work. Things are done the way they were twenty years ago. This utilitarian organization is archaic and its performance shows it. 

Neither of our hypothetical examples are achieving organizations. Both are out of balance, although in opposite directions. 

Excellent organizations have an equilibrium, a corporate gyroscope that keeps their innovative flair and utilitarian need for profit in balance. Each supports the other interdependently. A company that's balanced effectively blends the virtues of innovation with the utility of making a living.