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Guiding innovation

Posted by Grant Brewer on 01 Dec 2006

Every business thinks that is should innovate. It is usually not good enough simply to be an innovative organisation; your organisation also needs to be capable of managing the flow of new ideas and of nurturing these ideas to life. The key to creating an innovative organisation is to make innovation a part of the culture of the organisation. A key part of this cultural change is about creating the context in the workplace in which innovation is most likely to happen. Frequently this means creating an empowered, team oriented environment. Working alongside the culture is an effective management process that guides and nurtures ideas with all the artistry of a tight-rope-walker. It isn't going to be an easy walk, but the reward at the end of the line will be worth the effort.

Every business thinks that is should innovate. Frequently this is the right idea - new products, process improvements, or better customer service are all the result of some kind of innovation. What should also be immediately clear is that innovation takes many forms. Seeking simply to innovate is likely to result in strategic disappointment since you need to provide more direction or purpose if you're to effectively direct innovation. Sending out the message that your organisation now values and rewards innovation is unlikely to achieve much. If anything it will be wasteful because team members will waste their time on ideas that are not important to the organisation.

Innovation needs direction and a purpose - particularly if you're going to match innovation success to performance management. Creating direction usually requires communication. Your team are not going to discover the direction by themselves. They will need to hear it repeatedly so that the message sinks in and is internalised. The need to innovate and the nature of the innovation should become part of the cultural fabric of the organisation.

Recognise that innovation isn't easy

The meaning of innovation to the organisation shouldn't be taken for granted. Innovation is a multi-dimensional concept and means different things to different people or organisations. Most importantly, innovation is not the same as design (as in product packaging or advertising) and shouldn't be seen only as process improvement or new products. There are many ways in which new ideas can benefit an organisation - and all of them are a form of innovation.

Strategy doesn't necessarily need to be innovative

It is also interesting to note that a good strategy doesn't necessary need to be innovative itself or rely on organisation-wide innovation to be effective. It is possible to develop an effective and competitive strategy based on, for example, simply getting greater volume or by copying another product. (Of course, these things could in some definitions be seen to be innovations themselves!). However, in most competitive industries, the marketplace and the products or services on offer change too fast to enable an organisation to sit back on its existing point of view. In fast changing markets, the ability to innovate will be a crucial organisational skill.

This is a critical issue to understand in studying innovation - the ability to manage innovation is critical. It is usually not good enough simply to be an innovative organisation (ie, an organisation where people frequently come up with new and interesting ideas or methods of work); your organisation also needs to be capable of managing the flow of new ideas and of nurturing these ideas to life.

Innovation needs to be managed if it is to become repeatable

It is notoriously difficult to manage innovation. Sometimes, managing innovation can seem like trying to pick up mercury - it keeps slipping from your fingers just as you think you've grasped it. One of the secrets is to stop trying to manage the actual innovation. Put an end to the open-ended strategic brainstorming meetings. No more suggestion boxes. No more "hi everyone, in this session we're going to brainstorm new ideas to improve our customer service." Innovation just doesn't happen on demand in a meeting room because the strategic planning timetable demands it.

Instead, focus on managing the workplace and on creating a context for team members that encourages communication, collaboration, free thinking and new ideas, whilst tolerating failure in parallel with demanding performance. This is an environment in which ideas can flourish. Focus on the workplace culture and on getting the right people into the workplace. Too little emphasis is placed on getting the right people into your business if innovation is important. Your learning and development processes should support recruitment by building creativity, collaboration and the ability to work in the uncertain world of new ideas. If you have the wrong people (eg, people that have their hearts in an old way of operating) your probability of increasing innovation decreases. It is difficult to change people's mindsets.

Once you've got a clear understanding of the nature and direction innovation should take and you've established a culture or context that encourages innovation you're ready to focus on the management process. That last sentence is easy to write - don't be misled. Getting a clear sense of direction or purpose, and creating an innovative culture can take years; it is definitely no easy feat.

An innovation management process should seek to identify ideas, nurture the good ones, project manage the final candidate ideas to implementation and guide decision making throughout the process. The goal is to capture the flow of ideas in the organisation. Don't make the mistake of trying to capture everything because achieving completeness will come at the cost of bureaucracy. Judgement shouldn't be part of the initial process since you want to capture volume with the goal of making people aware of the ideas (because ideas tend to spark other ideas) and to further encourage new ideas.

It is a good idea to establish widely decision making gates that are used to filter the ideas that management are keen to pursue. An important point is that an innovation management process shouldn't seek to be the only way of managing innovation in the organisation. There should be space for other ideas to develop in the organisation. When these other ideas get noticed, they might be brought into the management process for funding or collaboration. It is critical for management to resist the urge to over-control or over-manage innovation. In particular, management should avoid culling projects too soon, whilst being guarded about leaving poor ideas developing too long. This is some of the art of innovation management since it is difficult to put rules and measure into the process that separate ideas that have run their course from ideas that are just developing into something interesting.

Create an culture & context in which innovation can happen

The key to creating an innovative organisation is to make innovation a part of the culture of the organisation. A key part of this cultural change is about creating the context in the workplace in which innovation is most likely to happen. Frequently this means creating an empowered, team oriented environment. Working alongside the culture is an effective management process that guides and nurtures ideas with all the artistry of a tight-rope-walker. It isn't going to be an easy walk, but the reward at the end of the line will be worth the effort.

Guiding innovation was published in Intellgence Magazine as Strategym #44 in January 2007.

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Essays | Strategy | Intelligence Strategym

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leadership (7) | innovation (3) | innovation management (1)

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