Summary and Conclusion
As we have seen, running a successful, results driven innovation initiative is not very difficult. It simply requires effort, rethinking how you run the initiative and a little innovation on your part. Here again are the key steps.
1. Identify your iVision
The first step is to identify your organisation's innovation vision (iVision). Usually this is identical to, or very similar to, your strategic vision. If not, you will need to craft your own iVision.
Your iVision must be the focus of your innovation initiative.
2. The Four Idea Types
Once you have clarified your firm's iVision, you can categorise ideas into four types:
- iVision pushers. These ideas drive your business forward in a big way.
- iVision supporters. These ideas support and strengthen your business and keep you ahead of the competition.
- Useful, non-iVision ideas. These are useful ideas that help your operations, but they give you no competitive advantage.
- Useless ideas. These are ideas that are completely irrelevant to your organisation. They are a waste of time.
3. The Innovation Initiative Performance Indicator (IIPI)
By categorising ideas according to their relevance to your iVision, it is possible to assign a meaningful value to each and every idea not only when the idea is first formulated, but also as it is being developed and implemented. This, in turn, enables you to measure the value of the initiative at any time, monitor performance and demonstrate value to stakeholders in the initiative.
4. Plan your initiative backwards
In order to help people build ideas that are actually implemented, you should plan your innovation initiative backwards. Identify decision making managers who would need to approve iVision pushers and supporters. Discuss with them how change is implemented in their business units and use that information to design implementation-focused innovation processes.
5. Innovation Proposals
With an understanding of the innovation processes in your organisation, design activities, such as Innovation Proposal Competitions, Hackathons and Anticonventional Thinking sessions to build ideas into innovation proposals that meet the requirements of the innovation processes.
6. Suggestion Schemes and Such
If you use suggestion scheme or similar software, create a system in which ideas are quickly authorised or rejected. If they are authorised, the idea submitter is given a small budget and expected to implement the idea. Better still, dump the approval process and allow people to self-approve their own ideas.
Results
Once you put these steps into practice, you will have an innovation initiative that...
- Focuses on high value ideas.
- Facilitates the implementation of those ideas.
- Enables you to design activities that result in innovation proposals based on iVision ideas.
- Makes the process of submitting and implementing low value ideas fast and easy.
- Enables you measure the value and performance of your innovation initiative.
Worksheet Question
- Do you have any questions about the innovation management process described here? If so, what are they?
Feedback Questions
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