Editor’s note: Gregg Fraley is an innovation consultant and facilitator based in Three Oaks, Mich.
Success is found when you do the basics well. For results in innovation, leaders need to foster the fundamentals in their teams, integrating the basics into the organization’s culture. When it comes to creating a thriving innovation culture, more structure is needed as fundamentals take hold and that usually includes an innovation process framework.
Who hasn’t seen an article or heard a talk about design thinking, lean or agile? As interesting and helpful as frameworks can be, there are cultural basics that underlie all innovation. With fundamentals in place you’ve got a chance to innovate even without a formal process. Without fundamentals the best framework in the world will be frustrating and difficult to implement.
Review the seven questions below on the fundamentals of innovation to kick-start an internal assessment.
- Are you consistently applying creative thinking to problems? There is no innovation without creativity. Individuals and teams need to be creative in order to solve focused innovation challenges. Curiosity, freedom of expression, playful experimentation and focused creative thinking should be the bedrock of your company culture.
- Is there an authentic desire to improve or invent? Do people in your organization understand why you must innovate? Leadership needs to communicate why, stoke a fire of urgency and focus the nascent desire. Make people aware of the stakes of the innovation game. Give them specific ways to participate. Without this desire in place your innovation garden won’t grow.
- Have you provided or asked for a mandate to innovate? Teams need a mandate to innovate. A mandate is authorization coupled with direction and focus. Leadership must be clear that there is approval – an expectation even – to innovate. The mandate should include a skeleton process of project check-ins and pitches. If you’re not in charge, request a mandate from your leadership and keep asking. Working without a mandate means at any moment projects can be squashed, people can be fired, teams disbanded and plans orphaned. If you’re a leader you need to create the mandate, communicate it and organize a diverse team to carry it out.
- Do you have the talent? Working hard and smart makes a difference. So does persistence and domain knowledge. Sadly, you can still fail if you don’t have talent. A spark of superior inventive talent is necessary. Quality ideas and solutions do not grow on trees. If you know in your heart that you don’t have that thinker on your team, find them, hire them and grown them. Talented people are hiding in your midst and they are often disguised as introverts. Get that talent and make sure they have domain knowledge.
- Do you have domain knowledge? Do you have a deep understanding of your industry? Knowing your business area, the technology and the marketplace are prerequisites for innovation. How else do you identify a missing need? How do you develop a solution if you don’t know the problems? When customers inform you, by all means listen carefully and invest in consumer research. Leaders, it’s imperative that you grow your knowledge base. Find ways to promote observation, reading, experimentation and all kinds of research. Remember, your actions are the best example for your team.
- Do you have positive morale? The best one-question culture survey would simply be: Are you having fun? There are few better indicators of overall morale. Are people excited about their work? A negative, cynical culture is a red flag for innovation. If people aren’t having any fun you’re not doing it right. Leaders need to get involved, set an example, provide a mandate and support a continuous cycle of innovation efforts. Encourage pitches, ask for ideas, take action and provide resources. Don’t forget to communicate success and failure. And for goodness sake, create some fun.
- Are you working on any innovation projects? Projects are the most essential fundamental of all because they transform culture. If you’re doing innovation projects, you’ve got a chance. Even if a project fails it can teach you and your team something. Low-risk projects can be used to develop prototypes and ideas are usually not costly until implementation. The process of actively working on new projects can change your company culture. If you don’t have a cycle of on-going projects you’re not learning and you are not innovating. If you’re completing innovation projects now, you already have an organic framework in place. If you adopt a more formal framework, you are setting yourself up for success as your team is already comfortable with the fundamentals of a project.
If any of these questions raise red flags, consider basic innovation training as a starting point. Training will raise awareness, clear up misconceptions and build process knowledge.