I'm back with my thoughts on innovation. In this article I will cover the innovation framework and some of the techniques that can be applied in order to establish and improve Innovational culture in your organization.
The most innovative companies follow the 3P framework. This framework is base on People, Process and Philosopy (reference to The Innovator's DNA by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton M. Christenson).
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| 3P's |
People
First of all, People are the ones who innovate. It is necessary that the senior management team lives and breaths innovation. They need to truly believe in it, promote it through organization and excel at discovery. The organization needs to monitor and maintain an adequate proportion high discovery skilled people at every level vs. delivery skilled people.
Process
Second, the organization needs to have a process in place in order to repeat success and to learn from its mistakes. This process needs to include the following phases: collection, selection, goal setup, approval and monetization. One simple and effective processes is "The i5 Process".
Each phase of the process starts with an 'I', thus the name. For more information please check "Innovation in a Box". The Process and tools are here not to create innovation but to help the organization with it. It definitely helps if these tools are of interactive nature; for example, utilizing an intranet for improving the accessibility and usability of the process, which eventually effects the adaption rate.
Philosophy
Companies that encourage innovation have the following four pillars as a foundation of their innovation culture:
1. Innovation is everyone's job
2. Disruptive innovation is part of the company's innovation portfolio
3. Deploy lots of small, properly organized innovation project teams
4. Take smart risks in the pursuit of innovation.
From my perspective, the first and foremost important step in building an innovation driven company is to build the Innovation Culture. This is achieved through a strong visionary management team, with a process and structure in place, where investment is done on building the required skill set and with an attitude that failure and experimentation are viable options.
Here are some techniques that can help in building a more innovative culture:
Knowledge sharing across the organization
I do not even need to highlight how important is to share knowledge and information across your team members. Some techniques are well-known such as corporate intranet, billboards, and informational monitors across the office. The whole point of doing this is to benefit of the collective innovation capacity.
Second, the organization needs to have a process in place in order to repeat success and to learn from its mistakes. This process needs to include the following phases: collection, selection, goal setup, approval and monetization. One simple and effective processes is "The i5 Process".
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| The I5 Innovation Process |
Philosophy
Companies that encourage innovation have the following four pillars as a foundation of their innovation culture:
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| Innovation Culture |
1. Innovation is everyone's job
2. Disruptive innovation is part of the company's innovation portfolio
3. Deploy lots of small, properly organized innovation project teams
4. Take smart risks in the pursuit of innovation.
From my perspective, the first and foremost important step in building an innovation driven company is to build the Innovation Culture. This is achieved through a strong visionary management team, with a process and structure in place, where investment is done on building the required skill set and with an attitude that failure and experimentation are viable options.
Here are some techniques that can help in building a more innovative culture:
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| Idea Management Process |
I do not even need to highlight how important is to share knowledge and information across your team members. Some techniques are well-known such as corporate intranet, billboards, and informational monitors across the office. The whole point of doing this is to benefit of the collective innovation capacity.
Thus, in order to inspire an innovational culture you need to build a culture that explores the ideas that are on the market right now, collect them as study and inspiring material, share them among team mates and encourage an environment where those ideas are discussed.
Idea Collection and Management
In order to action knowledge sharing it is obvious that we need to have an infrastructure in place for idea collection, taxonomization and management. This enables us to have a system that allows us to use our collection as research material and reference material for future needs. A simple mechanisms to achieve this is by using excel spreadsheets. A more sophisticated way is to use a well-structured database and search engine. Go for a simpler solution as the first step.
In order to action knowledge sharing it is obvious that we need to have an infrastructure in place for idea collection, taxonomization and management. This enables us to have a system that allows us to use our collection as research material and reference material for future needs. A simple mechanisms to achieve this is by using excel spreadsheets. A more sophisticated way is to use a well-structured database and search engine. Go for a simpler solution as the first step.
Risk taking - experimentation
In order to have a culture of innovation one needs to be free to experiment and fail. Learn from past experiences but do not repeat the same mistake. By saying this I mean: all results need to be recorded and lessons need to be learned from past failures. Only by having the freedom to fail one will be free to perform experiments, but do not repeat failures.
Embrace a culture of questioning
Promote an environment where every question is treated with same importance and respect. Only if one asks questions, one will be able to make the change - innovation. The best innovators are people who constantly are asking questions and at the same time look for solutions. They do not accept the status quo as a viable state.
In my next blog entry I will be talking about how to learn and grow an individual discovery skill.
Till next time...
In my next blog entry I will be talking about how to learn and grow an individual discovery skill.
Till next time...
Thanks for sharing. You have identified an important element of "Knowledge Sharing" within an organization.
ReplyDeleteAn important question about "Lessons Learned" is that; do we share it in form of a physical lessons learned repository? For example: in organizations, projects of similar nature are initiated frequently. The lessons learned from previous projects are limited to the people who worked on that specific project. There should be a mechanism/process where lessons learned are uploaded to a repository and whenever a similar project comes up, the lessons uploaded should be considered as PRE_REQ to the new project execution.
Keep Writing! Sharing experiences is a top value payback to the community.
Really nice information you provided here. Am much impressed and please keep update like this.
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