Fostering Innovation Stumps Executives

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  joesmum

  04/07/08 | Report as spam

  Don't let enthusiasm for innovation lead you astray

  The organisation I work for is committed to innovation - as a guiding principle in a fast-changing environment, where you have to stay fresh to survive. However, innovation for its own sake can lead to over-commitment to technology solutions, that only overload already stretched people with yet more stuff to learn. As a researcher, I see that best practive in relation to innovation involves looking and listening first; throwing new technology at a problem is not innovative at all! Positive management is an innovative approach that looks at situations in terms of what does work, and why, before seeing faults, weaknesses and gaps. It's important to analyse and understand what people do well, and apply these qualities and principles in other areas...combined this with a leadership focus that encourages genuine creative input at all levels (from the bottom up) and devolves decision-making to those who are most able to respond quickly (as Kevin Robertrs says: try, succeeed or fail, evaluate, move on...) Innovation will only succeed if it's part of a process of open communication and reflective practice.

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  jvaneeden@...

  04/10/08 | Report as spam

  Absolutely brilliant

  I think your comment is very perceptive and accurate.
  
  The fascination with technological solutions often fails to bear in mind the demotivating impact of cognitive overload.
  
  Google the term "appreciative inquiry" -- it fits in very neatly with what you suggest about a more positive approach, i.e. finding what's right and building on it, as opposed to trying to identify and eliminate shortcomings. Appreciative inquiry is a far better approach to brainstorming and innovation than the conventional fault-finding approach.

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  robertsj@...

  04/11/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Fostering Innovation Stumps Executives

  And I think that what most people believe to be true about innovation and creativity is not true. Most of us think that it needs to be blindingly brilliant flashes of genius when in fact you can nurture creativity just by creating opportunities for people to think differently about a problem, challenge or opportunity. Having people read non-business related articles, books etc, going to movies and asking them to look for connections in out of the way places can spark creativity. So, doesn't have to be dancing. But can be simple conversations with people where you stretch your thinking.

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  Innovation Speaker

  04/12/08 | Report as spam

  Point People Towards the Goal

  Organizations can say "We have to innovate and think outside of the box." all they want, but if they don't provide employees an easy-to-understand framework of how to innovate in ways that will benefit the company and its customers, they will end up with either inaction or a pile of inventions with no innovation at the end.
  
  If you intentionally or unintentionally encourage invention you will end up with some new ideas that are useful, but none that are truly valuable (this is where innovation and new profits actually lie). The distinction may seem subtle, but it is actually worlds apart when you know where and how to look for the difference.
  
  Read more here.
  
  For maximum success people should be provided with an innovation framework (or a map to the goal) and training on how to be most effective in getting there. Innovation can't just be a goal or objective, it has to be a fully-planned and CEO-supported strategy to be successful.
  
  All the best,
  
  Braden Kelley
  BloggingInnovation.com

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  yinyoung

  04/17/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Fostering Innovation Stumps Executives

  One way of fostering innovation is to enhance the office's decoration such as hanging and placing more artistic objects. Company can also organize a weekend activities such as sketching competition and games such as business games, bricks building, and etc, among groups. This not only boost employees' creativity, but also teamwork, leadership, brainstorming, and build and improve relationships among employers and subordinates.

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  mryder@...

  04/19/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Fostering Innovation Stumps Executives

  The simplest way to assure that innovation is "fostered" is to provide (1.) a clear statement of why the company will consider something to be "innovative" and (2.) a clear statement about what circumstances would cause the innovation to be rewarded in a way that directly benefits the individual(s) involved.
  
  Generally, if company leadership can't get that much communication together and abide by it, then most other efforts are essentially arbitrary.
  
  This should not be confused at all with management's concern about how to measure the innovation's impact on the company's performance. This performance impact issue is not something that should be special to innovation. Any management team that rewards "performance impacts" with bonuses should simply add innovations to the mix of things that can be clearly accounted for as contributors to better performance. This is where managers have to get real: if they will not reward innovators *for being innovative*, as opposed to making the reward conditional upon performance increases, then people will learn that innovation is not worth the effort *at this company*. So in step (2.) above, the "circumstances" to be declared must start with something other than performance metrics. Innovation is about doing things differently to create opportunity. Execution is about doing things a certain way to hit performancetargets.