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There
are precursors to Innovation - what is the first
step?
by
Ray Earl MEI
What is
innovation?
Innovation is growth, inside and outside the company; it is a
competitive advantage. We innovate to succeed and without
innovation the company will simply exist, it will not grow. In fact
as I say to my clients and students, “If you are not growing you
are certainly dying.”
Innovation is turning an intangible into a
tangible. It is transforming a thought process to an idea, then
screening and developing that concept into a true commercial
opportunity. It is something that will provide a reward for the
company, the customers and possibly other stakeholders.
Innovation has been with us since the dawn of time,
unfortunately some company’s and individuals struggle with the
concept as they do not have a clear developed understanding of what
it is and how to implement into their organisations and personal
lives.
Innovation does not require a revolution within the organisation
but it does require a spirit of creative evolution. There certainly
is the need for management to develop a strategy with linked goals
and objectives, to have a budget for allocated resources linked to
metrics to provide clarity in what they do (innovation activities)
and to have a culture of ‘thinking outside the box’, using a range
of creative tools.
Investigate
the type of culture within the organisation
And so, when we say creative culture we can’t just turn around and
move into a company and say, “Okay, we are now going to be
innovative and creative.” Certainly that’s not going to work; many
have tried and failed. The first stage of bringing innovation into
the company is to get back to basics, take a look at the company
structure, and investigate the type of culture within the
company.
What is the culture of your organisation? For
example: a cooperative culture is one based on trust and effective
communication. This type of culture is flexible and welcoming to
change and would be the perfect receptacle for the creation of an
innovative culture.
On the flip side of the coin we have the inflexible culture. This
type of culture is built on mistrust, where employees worry only
about themselves and what they can get out of the organisation, and
they are neither company nor customer focussed. This form of
culture will require an arduous process to change.
One of the precursors to innovation is that the
business must be in control; as I say, “Your backyard must be in
order.” A company that is in the middle of a takeover bid or has
industrial relations problems would not benefit from innovation. A
work environment filled with negatives will certainly undermine and
demotivate any attempt to innovate.
And so, we need to start with the screening
analysis of the organisation to ascertain the culture and from the
outcome of our analysis we will build the innovation framework
which is in fact, a blueprint of our strategy moving forward.
You need to look behind the curtains to find the
culture; this is not a process to be taken lightly. In some cases
it may take several months to unveil the real culture of the
organisation, to see exactly what is happening with these staff
members and to look at the organisations history.
This research may include:
- discussions with staff in all departments from management all
the way down to shop floor level
- focus groups unveiling the stories of time
- talking to key innovators within the company
- completing a training needs analysis
Once you have an idea of the type of culture the
next step is developing the innovation framework.
“The Queen Mary 2 cannot be turned around in 30
minutes due to its size, complexity and other factors, and in
comparison, a cultural shift has many hidden factors behind its
organisational veils. As such the benefits of such an
implementation may take several months or even a year to become
apparent.”
It is essential that the majority of staff accept
the new innovation culture, if even one manager refuses to ‘come on
board’ and support change then the expected outcomes may not be
realised. Any negatives are certainly toxic to the needs of the
organisation and as such must be either re-trained to accept change
or removed.
Innovation
Framework
The innovation framework is a planned, structured process for
disseminating innovation throughout the organisation, based upon
the outcomes of the research and may include:
• The business strategy
• Identified goals objectives of the company
• Analysis of where we are and gaps to where we want to be
• Boundaries for innovation
• Training schedule for development of staff
• Development of an innovation team (innovation hub)
• Measurement metrics
• Motivational rewards
• Marketing of framework
• Website development
• Innovation award nights
• Diffusion throughout organisation
The above structure looks at innovation enablers
from a macro perspective and will then drive down into specific
tasks and elements. A framework is necessary to provide direction
and goals, "without a plan you are planning to fail."
The analogy is simple: “If we plan the development
of a building, the outcome will be a stable structure for many
years to come. But if you have not developed plans, specifications,
completed structural computations, tested the soil to ascertain the
excavation requirements and correct slab size, you simply will not
know what is necessary to build a stable structure and as such the
outcome will be that the building will not last the test of time,
or in fact might not even get past framing stage.”
And so, once we know the culture we are able to
design the correct framework on which to build innovation.
The first phase of innovation therefore is to investigate the
culture of the organisation - there’s that word again, ‘culture’.
If you don’t have the ‘right’ culture the rest of your efforts will
be in vain. It doesn’t matter what training or support you have,
what you are trying to achieve simply will not work.
Next Blog
talks about
The Process on How to Innovate by Ray Earl
MEI
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