Experimenting
Innovation is not a magic wand that we wave and then good things happen. Rather, innovation is something that happens through trial and error, failed experiments and, occasionally, inspired thinking and moments of brilliance. Innovation is also often born from a need to solve a problem; the expression “necessity is the mother of all invention” is as true today as it has ever been.
An innovative organization is willing to try things, fail at some and celebrate failed experiments as much as successful ones. It is tempting to think that innovation is like a factory where great ideas arrive on a predictable basis, but that simply is not the case. For every 100 good ideas, there is probably one tangible innovation that delivers meaningful change in the market.
Measuring Progress
This unpredictable nature of innovation makes it very difficult to measure progress. Pragmatically, most organizations rely on one or more proxy metrics to quantify the status quo. For example, if the business periodically runs hackathons, then the number of employees participating is a simple metric. On the same note, if there is a patent invention program in place, then the number of novel ideas submitted is an easy way to understand engagement.
Making Time
Since organizations need tools that support the business, one technique I focus on is automating as much as possible and therefore scaling the business using tools rather than people. This approach frees people up to engage in higher-value activities, or put another way, to innovate.
That is one way to carve out time, but there are others, as well. IBM was famous for its Think Friday approach, where staff could use Fridays to innovate. Remember, though, that Think Friday and how it worked was a lot less important than the critical message from the business: that they supported the need for employees to spend time innovating.
This kind of message is an important part of motivating your employees to participate in innovation-generating practices. Another powerful motivator is offering rewards. Rewards don’t necessarily have to be monetary; for example, many engineers gain great satisfaction from being listed as a co-inventor on a patent or having the opportunity to present their ideas to a peer group.
What Can Suppress Innovation?
There are also a host of factors that suppress innovation. A culture of blame is the most toxic kind and can negatively affect all business activities, not just innovation. Another issue for many organizations is how you measure our employees. For businesses like consultancies, which measure staff utilization and incentivize accordingly, it can be exceedingly difficult to find spaces where people can think freely and be given time to experiment.
Innovation does not always come from the top. A wonderful thing that happens in truly innovative organizations is that everyone gets involved. Super brains are not the only ones delivering innovation; everyone can contribute, and even though some ideas are grander in scale than others, that does not diminish the value of small-scale innovations that make a team or department more productive.
Every business battles commoditization, where the products and services offered become the norm and reduce in value. The value of innovation is differentiation and competitive advantage in business. High rates of innovation can keep smaller companies ahead of massive ones that innovate at a slower pace.
There is no magic wand to deliver innovation, but innovation is a solution to commoditization. That is why I believe innovation is not optional, but essential in the 21st-century business environment.
