In our previous post we wrote about how talking about innovation is not enough: you also have to act on it. In this post we will give you our insights on how to translate the innovation and creativity talk into real action.
If you are the kind of leader with the insight that innovation is important, and you also do not accept that relying on chance or unpredictable events are valid leadership qualities; if you are the proactive, hard worker who wants to create innovation, what can you do?
Here’s a suggestion for a good start:
* Acquire knowledge – Learn about how you can implement effective innovation through systematic and focused efforts. There are many good training programs and tons of literature for this. Start with a simple test, by asking your associates how they define innovation. If you can agree on this, you have a base to build on. Then move on to gaining more knowledge about principles and models for systematic innovation.
Members of Amdocs senior leadership got together for an innovation camp that began with an impossible mission - to create the Creativity and Innovation Center in Sderot, in the south of Israel, all within less than 20 hours!
The center in Sderot is now part of the “Tachlit Center“, which serves over 70 youth at risk that have dropped out of conventional educational establishments, and through this work exerts positive influence on the entire community in various ways.
SIT was the prime facilitator for this innovation camp.
As specialists in creative processes and innovation, we have worked with many companies over the last ten years, giving us many years of real experience in creating innovations and actually implementing them on the market. And, after talking to thousands of managers, the situation is clear to us:
Most everyone strongly feels a need to continuously renew their commercial offering and working methods to keep competitive in the market. They follow the modern mantra of ‘differentiate and create value’ and to achieve this, everyone wants to be more innovative.
Indeed they all like to talk the creativity and innovation talk. Most managers agree that innovation is the last stronghold for competing in a global economy. Moreover, they are interested and fascinated by the thought of working systematically with innovation in order to gain a breakthrough to create growth and profitability for their organizations.
We all agree about all this… intellectually. But very few translate this talk into action.
A. How much time each month do you dedicate to innovation? 1. About 5 minutes
2. 1-3 hours
3. 5-10 hours
4. Should I also include sleeping and weekend time?
B. How many innovation books have you read over the last year?
1. They write books on this stuff?
2. 1-3
3. 2-6
4. I lose count
C. How many Innovation companies are you familiar with?
1. Ooh, an innovation company! What’s that?
2. 1
3. 5
4. All of them
D. How many innovation conferences did you attend over the last 2 years?
1. I’m sure I’ll visit one some time soon…
2. 1
3. 2
4. Attend… or speak at?
How do you know if the efforts that your organization is investing in innovation are delivering the expected results? And what results were you actually expecting? The question of indicators and metrics is, in my experience, the biggest barrier that companies face when deciding to engage in an innovation effort, as well as one of the major causes of failure in these attempts.
The trouble starts with a reasonable assumption, i.e. that if you want to control a process and assess its results, you need to measure some aspects of it. But in the case of innovation it is not totally obvious what exactly should be measured, nor how.
Opinions differ widely, but all of them can be roughly placed on a scale running between two extreme views that we can call “business-is-business” and “just do it“.
Apocalyptic newspaper headlines cause panic. Panic induces paralysis. The media is overloading us with evermore information and commentaries about “the situation”: poorer quality of life, higher unemployment, pay cuts, zero real growth, etc. Most companies in the market usually react alike. Companies start operating on ‘automatic pilot,’ or, in the worst-case scenario, they act on impulse, adopting clichés which are not necessarily rational, like laying off workers, cutting wages, putting trainings on halt and such.
Inventive thought and innovation are usually seen as a prerogative reserved for markets in times of growth, while, in fact, during slowdowns and recessions, there are plenty of good reasons to be creative, to invest in innovation, develop innovative strategies and even launch new products.
Watch a short talk between Amnon Levav, SIT’s managing director, and Alexander Haig.
The show was televised on CNBC, Fox Business News, and local stations nationwide.
A few weeks ago I spoke to a high level manager in a financial institution. We talked about his (truly) impressive activities in the field of innovation, and then he surprised me somewhat by saying: “In 2009 we plan to freeze innovation activities.”
Since the company is not a client of ours, I wasn’t directly affected by this decision, but still, I was curious to understand what stood behind it. Another victim of “the Situation”, I said to myself, but to my surprise he went on to explain: “We have so many good ideas now that we need to pause with innovation and focus on implementation.”
This approach is, in my eyes, a symptom of one of the biggest and most common misconceptions in the field; that innovation is all about coming up with ideas of what to do (products, services, whatever it is you do). The corollary is, obviously, that once you have these ideas you don’t need to be bothered with innovation any longer, all you need is to “just” implement.
