Send to a Friend
Add a Comment
Innovators share the lessons they've learned during 2006
By Chuck Frey
In early December 2006, I posed this question to InnovationTools readers:
"What is the most important lesson you learned regarding innovation during 2006?"
This year's request resulted in a record number of responses - nearly 60 of you shared your thoughts and insights, which were better than ever. Thank you! Responses came from all over our innovative planet, including Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela - very cool. There's no question in my mind that innovation is a worldwide phenomenon!
Here are the insights you have gained about innovation during the last year:
Use customer communities to innovate
One of the take-aways that surprised me most from my new book, Outside Innovation, was the fact that online customer communities were one of the key ingredients for success in 80% of the dozens of organizations I studied. Forward-thinking execs actively monitor the online communities in which their customers and prospects "hang out" to spot new patterns and behaviors. Savvy product developers invite lead customers to participate in closed communities in order to pick their brains about the problems they're trying to solve, the outcomes they're trying to achieve and the work-arounds they've already improvised. Smart business people engage their most insightful customers as co-designers, co-creators and co-inventors, encouraging them to share their ideas, their creations and their solutions with other like-minded customers.
Innovators both empower and harness the collective wisdom of their most inventive customers, often by amplifying customers' creativity by encouraging them to strut their stuff to gain recognition from one another and from the company's own thought leaders and subject matter experts.
-- Patricia Seybold, author, Outside Innovation
Companies are gaining momentum in breaking down barriers to innovation
One key thing I learned this year is that companies of any size are further along in revamping how they approach innovation than I thought. That said, even the early majority of firms are finding they lack the champions and the internal entrepreneurs needed to dream up and execute bold ideas. Companies have been operationally-minded for so long that even with emphasis on innovation, they aren't able to bust the bureaucracy and execute quickly. You can dream up a great idea, but if it takes months of hassles and delays to get approval from your boss, her boss, and your bosses boss, forget about it. So we're still finding a lot of structural resistance to this new world order but I do see progress when senior management is onboard.
-- Robert Tucker, author, Driving Growth Through Innovation
Never stop learning about innovation
I learned that there are “thousands of additional lessons” to learn about innovation! After nearly 20 years in the “innovation and creativity” space, I still “yearn to learn” how to foster more, better and faster innovation. Every day and every week, I continue to learn more from resources like InnovationTools.com. I’ve also learned the importance of focusing on sustainable “continuous” innovation. SolutionPeople often makes it easy for organizations and individuals to be innovative once; the big challenge is to replicate innovation and repeat success continually. If we synthesize the lessons from past successes (and failures) and apply them to current and future innovation opportunities, continuous innovation becomes a reality.
-- Gerald Haman, SolutionPeople.com & the Chicago Thinkubator
Never forget the power of questions
Never forget the power of questions. In a recent interview Google CEO, Eric
Schmidt, said “We run the company by questions, not by answers.” Innovative
leaders put the emphasis on questioning, not telling. Ask fundamental,
challenging questions and encourage others to do the same. For example: “What
business are we in? Why do customers buy our services? What is our real
added value? Is there a better way to do this?” The style and type of
questions matter. Don't ask aggressive, inquisitorial questions, such as: “What
went wrong? Why did you screw up?” Instead, ask broad questions, like these: “What lessons can we learn? What are the opportunities for us here?”
-- Paul Sloane, Destination Innovation
Don’t pigeonhole innovation!
It is a mistake to pigeonhole innovation and creativity -- either in terms of people or process. It sounds wrong on the face of it to say that only certain people are "allowed" to be innovative within an organization -- and it is wrong. Yet it happens all the time. Also, when innovative thinking is only funneled into "new products" initiatives or "new process" initiatives, a huge amount of potential value is lost. This too happens all the time. The fact is, if you take a creative approach to all you do, you have the potential to open up value for the organization in all kinds of ways. And personally, you have the potential to open up your whole life. There's great power in innovation and creativity -- don't limit it.
-- Renee Hopkins Callahan, the IdeaFlow Weblog
Embrace the values of innovation
It is critical for leaders to discuss innovation in terms of fundamental values. The books and speeches of innovation gurus tend to focus mostly on the economic case for innovation, i.e., it will create radical new value for customers and organic growth for the enterprise. If leaders want to unleash the deeper passion of potential innovation contributors, however, the work of innovation must be more than a way for companies to make money. The six core values of innovation -- capability, inclusivity, possibility, opportunity, sustainability and responsibility -- are key drivers of success and advancement for all enterprises in the 21st century. Embracing these values and infusing their meaning into the organization's innovation efforts can help to energize, inspire and engage employees, customers and business partners in making innovation a genuine priority.
-- Jeff De Cagna, Principled Innovation LLC
Trust is critical to innovation
I think the one thing that most helps spur innovation is, as Stephen Covey the younger says in his Speed of Trust book, simply a trusting work environment. If people feel supported and respected and are given the freedom to "think out loud" with others, great things can happen. People who might not otherwise be considered creative -- or who might not think of themselves that way -- really respond to work environments where they feel they can speak their mind freely and without feeling they will suffer any consequences or be thought less of for having spoken.
-- Hobie Swan, Mindjet Corporation
2006: A turning point for open innovation
As I look back at 2006, I have two “lessons learned” to share: one general, one personal. First, for business in general, I believe that 2006 will be remembered as a turning point in the adoption of “open innovation” models. It’s not really a new concept, but many, many companies learned this year that all of the smartest people don’t necessarily work for them. Hopefully they found this out by partnering with entrepreneurs or acquiring external technologies. The not so lucky ones learned it when agile start-ups disrupted their markets with breakthrough innovations that came from outsiders, not “industry leaders.”
Secondly, on a personal note, I look back at 2006 as a turning point in my own development as a corporate executive turned entrepreneur. Innovation is a risky and scary process. Add the extra element of entrepreneurship and its easy to become risk averse and lose conviction for what you know in your heart is the right thing. I enter 2007 less focused on analysis and more committed to informed instinct. What’s the worst case scenario, I have to go get another job?
-- Michael Docherty, Innovation.Net Blog
Properly frame innovation challenges, identify all stakeholders
A major lesson I learned the past year about innovation is the importance of framing innovation "challenges" properly for ideation AND determining if all of the key stakeholders are involved. This may sound trite or like an obvious assumption, but I've experienced problems a number of times when I learned there wasn't depth (vertical) of buy-in as well as breadth (horizontal). I have been working with sponsors of the Global Innovation Challenge, as I think you know, in addition to some of my own clients and the "presented" challenges typically need quite a bit of reframing and an outside perspective (the other thing I learned!).
-- Andy van Gundy
Resurrection of the Chief Innovation Officer
One of the most striking developments in the innovation area past year or so is the creation of the position "Chief Innovation Officer" (or something similar) in many large corporations. This is eeringly familiar and similar to the creation, sustained for about 5-7 years, and the sudden demise of a very similar position called Discovery Director, Innovation Manager, etc. for many Fortune 500 companies in the mid 1980's to the early 1990's framework. Almost all of the companies who have created these positions had these other positions 20-25t years ago. All of these positions and programs (many funded as specific programs) ended quite suddenly in the 1993-95 time frame when the economy went into the tank. Studies of these programs and their demise have been published.
We then discovered SIx Sigma, Lean, etc. as the miracle to saving ourselves. Now that's "over" (i.e. no longer a competitive advantage-everyone's doing it!) and we have discovered that saving ourselves into double digit growth is not possible and we need innovation (again).
These new positions and emphasis are an improvement over the past efforts in a couple of ways. First, they are corporate directed and not focused under the R&D function. Second, they appear to have more senior level support than the previous efforts. They appear to more business than product focused. They are also attempting to use far more sophisticated tools and processes that go beyond conventional brainstorming. These area all good signs. However, these new positions have several key challenges related to these improvements.
First and foremost is the recognition and dealing with corporate memory. The legends of previous corporate risk takers who are no longer around is often not recognized. The "new" innovation leaders believe, with good intention, they are starting anew and the slate is wiped clean. No way. It takes several years, at a minimum, for the actual doers in the organization to believe that if they go out on a limb and get out of the box with concepts and ideas, that they will not eventually walk the plank. This lack of understanding has been visibly demonstrated in Q/A sessions at recent innovation conference panel sessions where this sudden change is treated as an everyday occurrence that can be dismissed in its implications. These new Chief Innovation Officers can greatly speed up this transition time by making public, visible, and supportive commitments to risk takers.
Second, the focus on business vs. product is a good sign. What does the customer need vs. what else can I do with what I make is a big improvement and generates more commercially viable ideas.
Last, the stretch from business vs. function is another hopeful sign but the jury is still out here and we have a long way to go. Many organizations have not yet recognized that their product or service is performing a function and there are many potential ways of providing this that may or may not be within the current capabilities and skills of the organization. Historical examples would be the "indicator" business, and the transition from stick pointers to flexible metal pointers to laser pointers. Another would be "image" capture -- scratching on surfaces, thermal imaging, chemical based photography, electronic photography. This type of business transition takes tremendous humility and foresight, and may require the total replacement of oneself in many ways.
These new CIO's have a great challenge and I wish them well!
-- Jack Hipple, Innovation TRIZ
Never stop questioning and changing
Put yourself out of business! If you fall too much in love with your own rhetoric (or haven't changed it too drastically in the past couple of years) you are doomed! Innovation isn't accomplished with one surefire system but with the freshening of your best practices. Put yourself out of business before a competitor or the staleness of your rhetoric gets boring. Look at competitors with pride instead of disdain, look at other categories for freshening processes or stimulus. Challenge the efficacy of your way of thinking, stay confident but poke holes in your most sacred beliefs, at least in the sanctity of your own office. Never stop changing, questioning, re-arranging. Comfort is not for the innovators - there should always be some tension, uneasiness with today's thinking, because tomorrow will be different and so should you. Just so you don't think I sound too preachy, I continue to learn these lessons the hard way by the way and probably will all of my life.
-- Marco Marsan, Marco Polo Explorers
Five rules for successful innovation
Successful business innovations that drive growth require:
- Vision to create new products, business models or processes that make a difference and create new markets
- Systematic processes and rigor that stimulate creativity and learning to execute on the vision
- Reward and recognition system for teams to take measured risks and experiment
- Focus on clear and present customer needs, the market facts, and the intangible
- Growth-oriented leadership that is decisive, inclusive, focused, takes risks, and has market expertise.
-- Sanjay Dalal, Creativity & Innovation Driving Business Blog
Know the customer
Talking about product, you need to deliver the product/concept that links with consumer mind, heart and cultural heritage. To be sure that you have the right product proposition the traditional left brain quantitative studies will not tell you enough. It is necessary to understand consumer emotions. Related to building innovation pipeline, people who define the next consumer propositions need to also be involved and sweat also the business strategy.
-- Elizabeth Quintana, Frito-Lay
Develop a "creating community"
The greatest lesson for me is still the people, its the people, the relationships among and between the people not the tools, techniques, processes, models. Most innovation programs to me as an outsider looking in still are the program du jour and not efforts at developing a philosophy or way of life with an organization. My focus has been becoming clearer and clearer over the 30 years that I have been doing speeches, presentation, workshops and occasional consultation or coaching assignments. Develop a creating community: Integrate creative thinking, creativity and innovation into the culture. Do not simply put in a new process for innovating because that is what sells.
-- Robert Alan Black, author of Broken Crayons: Break Your Crayons and Draw Outside the Lines
Spend more time clearly defining the problem
Albert Einstein once said, "If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it." The problem with most businesses is that they spend 1 minute defining the problem and 59 minutes finding solutions. When I work through the creative process with organizations, I get them to spend more time finding the right opportunities rather than chasing problems they think need to be solved.
-- Stephen Shapiro, author of Goal-Free Living and 24/7 Innovation
See the world from the customer's point of view - before you innovate
The importance of doing primary research -- wearing out shoe leather meeting with people face to face and observing them to learn (1) what they really need that's not met by current offerings, (2) how exactly they'd use something that addressed that need, and (3) why no one is already offering something that meets that need. Things are the way they are for a (usually pretty good) reason and you'd better understand that reason before you try to bring about change through innovation. You can't discover that by researching online or reading books or holing up in a lab or R&D department. You can't even discover it by surveys or interviews. You have to see it for yourself, see the world from your potential customer's point of view. People can't tell you what they don't know -- you have to help them find out what they need, and then you can innovate.
-- Dave Pollard, author of the How to Save the World Weblog
Innovate at the intersections of disciplines
The most vivid and useful addition to my innovation knowledge base in 2006 is the discovery and realization, advanced by Karim Lakhani, an assistant professor in the Technology and Operations Management unit at Harvard Business School: "Innovations happen at the intersection of disciplines. The problem may reside in one domain of expertise and the solution may reside in another."
-- Brian Barron, General Innovation Inc.
Look outside the company for great ideas
Two primary lessons: first, the importance and value of the open innovation approach. Looking outside the company and being willing to source great ideas from anywhere is truly a break through approach. It fosters stamping out the NIH (not invented here) syndrome, the single biggest barrier to thinking and acting innovatively that most companies encounter in my experience. Many great examples abound of companies large and small that have embraced open innovation. Secondly, innovation is a process and like any other process it can be streamlined and improved using Lean techniques and even some of the elements of Six Sigma. Faster and more efficient innovation and product development processes are critical for companies to develop and maintain a competitive advantage in today's global economy. Using these continuous improvement tools is a no-brainer for any company that's serious about growth.
-- Charlie Alter, Magnet Client Services
Innovation must be everyone's job
In order for an Innovation program to work in any company, the innovation process must be a ubiquitous tool for all levels and all facets of the company, from the company maintenance worker to the CEO. No one can be excluded and no one is exempt. Everyone must try to contribute, to think in newly developed ways to incubate creative processes. This is how any company will continue to foster growth and a climate of interdependence. It can never be us vs. them, whether the "us" is hourly manufacturing workers and the "them" is salaried marketing exempts, or the "us" is the company and the "them" is the competition. We are interconnected and must innovate systematically, utilizing all the parts and making a new engine together. Don't bash the competition, take what is working for them and build on it. Don't brush off an hourly worker's idea as a complaint about working conditions. Take the idea and polish and make it something really worthwhile. Do this together by really listening without judgment. The social interaction and value free considerations are what will really drive your Innovation process to become the force driving your company.
-- Darlene J. Waldmiller, EMEDCO
Help people understand the need to change
I teach a course for Learning Tree International called Managing Information Overload. It's taught all over the world. The lesson I learned during 2006 is that to help people accept and adopt a new approach as their own that you have to help them understand and recognize that their current approach is not working. Once they agree that their current approach is not working then, and only then, are they open to new approaches. When it comes to working with people I've learned that you need to be firm on decisions yet flexible on solutions so that you can adopt new ones when the decision you made was not the best one! Book more time with the family before they disown you!
-- Arnold Villeneuve
Innovation must be part of the organization's DNA
What we have learned is that huge benefit from becoming "branded" as an innovative company is the ability to recruit smart people. The next ten years will see a huge battle for talent and that battle will determine the leaders of tomorrow. And the innovation must be baked into the DNA of an organization starting at the top. Innovation cannot be purchased. Staid companies that purchase innovative companies, grind them up and spit out the bones. And lastly, with the right will, a clear plan that is well communicated and executed every day - change does happen and celebrations follow
-- Michael Hagerman, Stratage Inc.
Recognize that everything can be improved
Innovation to me means being ever willing to break the rules of the game. It means nothing is ideal.
-- Tokunbo Olanrewaju
Passion is the linchpin to innovation
"Innovation" is a big fat generic concept in most corporations... like "God" or "life on other planets" or "empowerment." Unless the individuals within a given corporation have a genuine sense of urgency, personal ownership and passion for innovation, nothing significant will happen. Innovation begins within the mind of each person. Corporate initiatives that don't awaken the basic human instinct to innovate within each individual will be doomed. For me, as an "innovation consultant," it has become increasingly clear that the short amount of time I have with my clients needs to be devoted to awakening the passion to innovate. Tools, techniques, theory, data, models and bibliographies are all fine, but it is the passion to innovate that is the key driver of success. No passion, no innovation. Plain and simple. Unfortunately, most organizations squash passion. That's why start ups have a much easier time innovating than Fortune 500 companies. Small companies are more human scale. There is more of a sense of community, more freedom, more experimentation, more fun, and more timely feedback. The best thing any one of us can do when we work with organizations is to hold up a giant mirror and ask our clients what they see. Are they modeling what it means to be innovative? Are they creating the kind of organizational culture that is conducive to innovation? Or are they asking other people to do what they themselves have not done?
-- Mitch Ditkoff, Idea Champions
Look for simple yet innovative problem-solving methods
We often fail to see available resources and subsequently underestimate their potential for simple yet innovative problem solving. Triz and SIT thinking will help you overcome this inertia and develop a more innovative mindset.
-- David Vertegaal, Praxus
Force-fit metaphors to develop breakthrough ideas
My most useful lesson this year has been that force-fitting metaphors to novel solutions is often difficult but always worthwhile. Some of my most novel and useful responses to challenges, this year, have been as a result of ensuring that I don't give up on force-fitting. It's often the easy option to move on from say a particular superhero if you can't make a good fit to a challenge. However, you can almost always get something worthwhile out of persistence.
-- Derek Shields
Innovate the way in which you think
That innovation is much less than people tend to believe, and much more than what it would be expected to be! That the most complicated part to innovate is your brain. That having as many recipe books as feasible does not exempt you from cooking. That if you want to lead in creativity you have to lead creatively.
-- José Manuel dos Santos, Innovagency
Getting the idea is easy; improving it is hard work
Taking a sabbatical year in a physical stimulating environment (long distance cycling) really helps you to get good, feasible creative ideas. The first basic concept of a new idea is mostly very easy. Working this basic concept into a simple and practical feasible idea is the hardest part, which takes more devotion.
-- Leon Marchal
"It" is in all of us
For those of us who have a professional passion surrounding these topics, it is sometimes easy to forget just how natural and innate creative thinking really is for people. I learned my most valuable lesson this year from a team of IT leaders at one of my favorite clients who were overseeing a critical project that recently, due to the discovery of a greatly flawed technical assumption, was tasked to deliver the twice the amount of deliverables for the same amount of budget. When I arrived, they were spinning their wheels, incapable of generating any positive alternative solutions. We locked ourselves in a room for the day, and after about an hour of breaking down assumptions, eliminating "we don't do it that way" excuses and freeing them of their existing constrained thinking, something amazing happened.
Suddenly free of the office politics and ingrained process thinking, they started generating great ideas, and a lot of them. They had a blast, the time flew as fast as the possibilities, and the group ended the day with a large number of actionable ideas. As I sat alone, recording the all of the ideas for our future "narrow the funnel" session, I came to the realization that I had just as much fun watching them transform from a negative group of paralyzed thinkers into a liberated group of free thinkers. It was always in them to generate these ideas; they just needed someone to poke them with a stick. And the lesson that I learned that day...is that "it" is in all of us, naturally, and if we stop to rediscover it from time to time, there isn't anything we can't do. Oh, and for the record, the project, under their leadership, and using a combination of two of the ideas we generated in that day-long session, delivered exactly what the business requested, along with a few "extras," at 92% of the budget. It reminded me of the great Walt Disney quote, "It's kind of fun of fun to do the impossible"
-- Paul R. Williams, Think for a Change LLC
Innovation vs. creativity
Brainstorming and other toolkits are merely techniques to resurrect our creativity. Quite surprising, or maybe I should not be surprised at all, there are still a lot of people who are still unclear on the difference between creativity and innovation, or which comes first. Some even think they are similar! Basically, if we do not allow ideas to arise (being creative), how can we put these ideas to create profit and value (the definition of innovation!)? If we continue to kill new creative ideas for the fear of losing something we already got, we would be losing the chance of experiencing something newer in life!
-- Dr. Michael S.J. Butterworth, OutOfTheBox1
The incredible power of "what if..."
Keep saying "what if..." Like, "what if I give you more than just one response?" Though it may be faster to communicate with those whom you've established a rapport, great things come from the struggle to communicate with people who do not think like you.
-- Evan Tishuk
Innovation and knowledge creation
I've learned that innovation is seen by individuals and groups in many different ways and we as a society lack a cohesive definition. Those that are seeking this are on the path to great wonders. Innovation is tied to discovery while creativity and invention are tied to technology and art. Innovation is constantly converging and rooted in empirical thought while creativity and invention are diverging and rooted on rational thought. Both types of thought can be summarized in one knowledge creation process that applies to both empirical and rational thought.
This single knowledge creation process is very similar to scientific method. It is a universal process that is the engine of all social advance. Without leveraging this knowledge creation process, society does not advance. Likewise, leveraging it, accelerating its use, or mechanizing it, can result in exponential and even mind-boggling social advances.
We have unconsciously used this process more pervasively in recent years simply because we have increased human knowledge connections and availability, but as a society, we have not matured to the point that we are 'consciously competent' in this knowledge creation process.
But we are all headed toward this conscious competence. The concept known by many as "Singularity," or runaway and exponential increases in social advance (as in Moore's Law), is really the mastering of the knowledge creation process.
Singularity is simply a full realization of the knowledge creation process and is the end of the path we are now on -- the end of the information age -- and the beginning of a space age. When we fully understand it, we will mechanize it, and this has the potential to produce great wonders for humanity.
Innovation is a subset of this process and people seeking to understand innovation fully are on track to realizing this ultimate tool for social advance. They simply need to unify the myriad of conflicting definitions into a single concept, which will be the concept of knowledge creation.
-- Bruce LaDuke, Instant Innovation, LLC
You don't need to own the expertise
I have never had problems generating new and interesting ideas; however, the challenge has been in the implementation. During 2006, I've spent some time as a university lecturer initially saddled with old teaching material. I decided to spend some time revitalizing the teaching material, especially through its design and electronic delivery; however, I did not possess the expertise. Normally, I would instinctively seek to acquire the expertise myself but this proved too expensive in time and dollars. During this exercise I learned three important lessons: (1) we do not need to personally own expertise, (2) innovation needs a mechanism for actively seeking out pertinent expertise to aid implementation; (3) strategic partnering should be driven and focused by our need for 'external' pertinent expertise. Bottom Line: In a networked world, you are not an island.
-- Brett Peppler, Intelligent Futures P/L
Encourage ideas from your team members
Leaders that are brave enough to step aside as idea machines are the winners. They profit a great deal if they instead lead the innovation process in order to bring out the team's creativity. That brings out the truly novel ideas. I've learned that there simply isn't an end to how many ideas there is in every given challenge. So why stop at five or ten? There's a much better chance in getting one splendid new idea out of two or three hundred.
-- Eva Åberg, Medvind produktion & utbildning
Effective innovation is all about balance
In this past year, we've seen our clients increasingly becoming focused on innovation and grappling with the challenges that it presents. If there's one takeaway from all the work we've done, it's that effective innovation is about striking a balance:
- Thinking big AND taking small steps
- Bold breakthroughs AND quick-wins
- Being visionary AND being tactical
- Striving for excellence AND focusing on execution
- Being creative AND being strategic
Innovation is about moving from theory to practice. When organizations get focused on action and "how-to", the faster they'll see results and value. And that's what innovation should be all about.
-- Chetan Chandavarkar, futurethink
Help others to develop their creativity
Living in a developing country, Panama, there are a lot of lesson about creativity that can be learned. Personally, I have learned this year that with effort, discipline and determination everybody can develop their inner creativity qualities. Additionally, I have decided that I can play an important role helping people to learn about creativity, to find their personal ways to become more creative. On the other hand, the lessons I have read help me to improve my writing skills and my ability to help people finding ideas in many areas such as writing, painting, designing, organizing activities to improve reading skills and to create new teaching techniques. As a result of this experience I decided to write a book on creativity and to improve my traslating skills to translate some English articles into Spanish so more people can read them.
-- Nelson Riquelme Pereira
Become a better information manager to innovate better
I'm not a very good dancer my wife often tells me, but I've become a great T.A.P. dancer. In other words, Tap into your innovative thoughts, Arrange them and present them in a format that makes it fun. This process has served me well enough to keep on practicing and aiming for innovation excellence. In dealing with people, who happen to be the most important portion of a process, I have come to deeply understand the importance of the human condition in relation to innovation. We who claim to use the tools and techniques of effective information management must be aware that we are continually learning. Becoming a better information manager enables you to become a better innovator.
-- Wallace Tait
Innovation is like cooking
The mix of necessary innovation ingredients can be combined into almost any special brew you need, as long as you know what you're cooking for. During 2006, the company I work for tightened up the strategy work, refocused on its core business, downsized, outsourced and completely switched from a successful broad innovation focus towards a much more strict and centralized view of what is affordable to spend time on. This could have been completely devastating for the innovative culture and for employee creativity. But now I realize that all the necessary ingredients are still there - but in new portions. If you know what you want to brew, success is a matter of which ingredients to use, how to mix, in which order and the time you as a chef need them to boil together.
-- Johan Eriksson
Innovation must be codified
The most important lesson I learned in 2006 was that innovation requires a reliable process. Far from a sporadic creative event, leading organizations must treat innovation as a systemic and systematic process. The world is awash with creativity and technological breakthroughs, available at the click of a mouse via the web. Companies need more than invention and brainstorming; they need a reliable innovation process, just as they have processes governing all other aspects of their business. Innovation, the goal of creating new value from all sources of knowledge, is the antithesis of unreliable, hit-and-miss, trial-and-error, psychological means of lateral thinking. Making effective progress requires more than inspiration. If corporate pronouncements of innovation are to be credible, innovation must be repeatable, procedural and algorithmic. Innovation must, and can, be codified.
-- Franc Acosta
Innovation is all about the journey
One of the nicest things about innovation is that you can never exhaust opportunities for more and/or better innovation - it is a never ending goal.
-- Tal Givoly
Don’t rely on e-mail to solicit and gather ideas
Ideas matter, because every innovation starts as an idea. Sending mass e-mails to everyone in a company or division soliciting ideas can do more harm than good if a system isn't in place to manage the inevitable torrent of responses and feedback.
Counterintuitive lesson of the 2006: When justifying investment in the Innovation Pipeline (projects or process), it is at times more convincing and credible to look at actual historical cash flows and profits from new products than projected future cash flows.
-- Matthew Greeley, BrightIdea
The balanced brain approach to innovation
The big learning for me in 2006, after several years of working with clients on the adoption of different approaches to innovation, is that innovation is not "the next thing you do." Rather, "it is about everything that you do. While the train has been coming for some time, I felt a little like we were "pushing innovation" and that it wasn't naturally fitting into my clients' businesses. I finally realized that we didn't need to change what we do, but instead we needed to incorporate innovation into everything that we already do. I also came to realize that while we were very focused on innovation methodologies, we weren't spending enough time focusing on activation of the right side of the brain, resulting more of a whole-brain kind of approach to decision making in business. We've changed all that and now we're trying to help others achieve balance between the right and left side of the brain, because we think the market is at risk of letting the pendulum swing as far right as it swung left during the era of continuous improvement. You see, continuous improvement, process excellence, call it what you may, has gone too far in teaching us that all we need is the left side of our brain to be effective; that's simply not true. Whether taking a methodical, data driven approach to things, or applying years of experience and intuition, we need a well-balanced application of our cognitive powers to achieve optimal results.
-- David Silverstein, co-author of INsourcing Innovation
Enthusiastic leadership is critical to innovation success
I believe all of us in the innovation business are familiar with the what surveys find to be critical components of innovation initiatives, typically: trust, management buy-in, diverse teams, good tools and so on. But, in 2006, I noticed one other factor that appears to be extremely important in a successful innovation initiative: enthusiastic leadership. When looking at how successful idea management implementations have been, those overseen by enthusiastic leaders inevitably see better results in terms of not only generating more ideas but also realizing a higher level of creativity. Moreover, creative ideas are more likely to be implemented when an enthusiastic leader is in charge of the program.
One might argue, of course, that enthusiastic leaders are more likely to exist in a business environment which provides trust, management buy-in, etc. And I have no argument about that. Nevertheless to have such a clear indicator of how successful an innovation initiative is likely to be is indeed useful.
Enthusiastic leadership does not only apply to idea management. Enthusiastic facilitators generally run more successful brainstorming events than emotionless facilitators - even when the enthusiastic facilitator is less professional or less well trained than the emotionless one. Likewise, enthusiastic leaders of creative teams also seem to being in better results than their less enthusiastic colleagues.
Now, in 2007, I hope to devise a method to instill enthusiasm in less than enthusiastic clients!
-- Jeffrey Baumgartner, JPB
Frame challenges in terms of desired outcomes
The key success element in successful ideation is to set a high and wide enough challenge to enable really diverse perspectives to flourish. Challenges/problems framed in terms of products and services will get you nowhere interesting. Challenges framed in terms of desired outcomes lead to rich and diverse solutions.
-- Gordon Soutar, InoSens
The growing importance of intellectual property
The biggest lesson I've learned over 2006 has been the rapidly emerging issue of innovations and intellectual property (IP). It's become a national strategic issue in the United Kingdom, and is now rising up the list of priorities in the USA as well. As the global economy continues to become increasingly interconnected and ever more knowledge and innovation based, the lesson becomes lucidly clear: whoever owns the IP of the future will own the world.
-- Chris Harris, author of Hyperinnovation: Multidimensional Enterprise in the Connected Economy
Three diverse innovation lessons
- Working under pressure can boost creativity and innovation.
- Synergy: the whole greater than the sum. Using this principle can lead to new interesting findings and insights.
- Serendipity: there are some useful discoveries hidden where it is least expected.
-- I. Jaganjac, B&H
It’s all about people
We can talk, learn and use a lot of best methods to lead to great innovations. But finally what really counts is the quality of people involved with the innovation: How they handle it, how they are committed how they handle teams, how they work under difficult circumstances, etc.
Innovation is a matter of mindset and how an individual can cut across the red tape and other organizational barriers to lead from the idea to a product. Methods, approaches and systems are all useful to some extent. But what makes the difference are those who are using the tools. The importance is the spark in the eyes of those who lead and can convey the message to their environment.
The interest in working with approaches like the one SIT (Systematic Innovation Thinking) is proposing is the fact, that the personal involvement is in the center and catalyzes the individuals’ potential primarily in the ideation phase of the entire innovation process.
-- Dr. Jürg Löliger Ph.D, Nestec
What’s needed? A thinking workforce
My lesson learned regarding innovation and creativity is to generate a thinking workforce that is constantly seeking to improve all aspects of business activity through an idea generation program. This is the main purpose of our organization, to make innovation part of the culture for all employees.
-- Altaf Khan, Almajdouie Group
Focus on people who want to be innovative
Innovations are created only by those few who feel like doing it. You cant force people to become creative. If you deal with innovation, you shouldn't spend time trying to motivate each and every person. You should deal with those who are inspired by the idea of bringing ideas into reality. The driver of innovation is in people’s hearts and minds, not in the hands of their employers.
-- Marina Boikova, Foresight Media
Technology as an amplifier for innovation and collaboration
In 2006 I realized that Internet technology has achieved a level of ubiquity that allows the meaningful interaction of people who want to share similar ideas and goals - for real. It may sound trite, but the truth for many of us who have attempted to connect and grow a particular concept is that technology tends to be more limiting than supportive. This past year though, I observed and participated in wonderful intellectual exchanges that occur millions of times a day all over the world. It was effortless in the sense that the technology was not a barrier, but a connector. I also realized that innovation takes place in the space between people. The genesis may come via technology, but the nurturing and the ultimate value can only come about through face-to-face connections. Metaphorically speaking, the internet lets you do your homework. But it's meeting with your professor in his basement office that gets you the A+. This is innovation for innovators: a technology, a model and a mindset that truly supports the advancement of an idea, regardless of its difficulty, origination or outcome. I am excited by the prospects of 2007 and beyond.
-- Chris Flanagan, Business Innovation Factory
The democratization of innovation
The best and most breathtaking innovation usually occurs where we expect to find it least. This is especially true within organizations -- where it's not always the highest-ranking, most talented employees who have the best and most innovative ideas. It's also true about the types of companies we consider to be innovation leaders... You don't have to be an Internet company like Google or a biotech company like Genentech to be innovative. In 2006, I think more people than ever before started to realize that it's not only companies like Google and Apple that have figured out innovation. Suddenly, we're hearing about large, established corporations in forgotten sectors of the economy that are unlocking billions of dollars in value through their innovation initiatives - companies like General Electric and P&G. These companies are being joined by other multi-billion-dollar giants as they figure out the business of innovation more rapidly than anyone probably thought possible. They realize that innovation is the key to the competitiveness of American industry on a global basis. Just as American industry was able to deal with the threat from Japan in the 1980s, it's likely that American industry will be able to deal with the threat from India and China, thanks to world-changing innovation.
-- Dominic Basulto, Business Innovation Insider Blog
Process and attitude are critical to the success of innovation
It definitely needs more than just creativity to make innovation work. You need to have a stage-gate process which guides the idea on a concept level and than into a solution. Without honest top-level commitment you may forget about any innovation initiative right from the start. In the end it is all about mindset and attitude. You may have the right process and great ideas - but without an idea-rewarding mindset and attitude no chance will be made. On an individual level you need to have courage to challenge the existing and your assumptions and the willingness to change for the different.
-- David Jeggle, Avenue Innovation Development
Clear the path for innovation to happen
Innovation is not about what you put in place, it's about what you get out of the way.
-- Fred Mandell, HotHouse Innovation
Assess your corporate culture before embarking on an innovation initiative
As the leader of a team responsible for developing recommendations on how to foster innovation as part of the company culture, we realized the importance of first examining the organization's culture. The team recommended that managers and employees complete a short survey using a free, industry-standard tool known as the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument. We felt it was important for senior management to review the survey results and reach consensus on the current culture, as well as the desired culture. We also felt it was critical for senior management to identify those cultural elements that should be preserved, as well as identify aspects of the desired culture that needed to be emphasized. The dialogue and consensus from these meetings was essential to establish the existing cultural baseline and clarify the vision of the desired culture. The team felt this solid base of cultural understanding and vision was essential prior to developing and implementing any plans. So, when you embark on a journey to change your organization's culture, we recommend that you pack a pound of patience, several gallons of persistence, and an accurate cultural compass.
-- Frank Spicer, Nielsen Media Research
Overcoming the "why bother" syndrome
Even when they know how to solve a problem that has been bothering them, or even know its solution already directly, most people lack will and intention to solve it. It seems to be part of a syndrome in which people are convinced that they themselves cannot possibly make any difference and so why bother. This is so completely antithetical to the traditional American can-do attitude, alarm bells should be ringing on it all over. I propose this very issue as the basis of some specific problem-solving efforts by whatever methods. If we don't solve this one, what difference will it make whose and whatever methods came up with brilliant answers on whichever problems? Second -- and I think it's part of the same syndrome -- I'd like the worldwide creativity revolution to turn some of its attention to some of the problems most worth solving. We are all "owners" of these problems in that we are all affected by those problems and by the decisions taken in their context.
-- Win Wenger
Related Web site: none
Published on 12/27/2006
|
