Innovation Principle #1: Communication
So you have established the innovation process, including ingenious evaluation criteria to sort out the valuable concepts from those which are not. Yet still, your staff does not perform as well as you had hoped for. You may want to think about what can make life easier for the great people in your organization. Perhaps a cultural change towards a more curious and learning organization is what you really need. One way to initiate that change is to start communicating the principles you would like your co-workers live by to make the change you want to see. As always, start by changing your own behaviour. In this series I will give some examples of innovation principles. Whether you should use them in your organisation or not I can not tell, without knowing more about your specific situation.
Innovation Principle #2: Courage
Many great inventions of our time would not have become innovations if someone hadn’t had the courage to make it happen. From time to time, the people you work with must have the courage to make the decision. For people to be courageous the corporate culture must allow failures as part of the process to success. Everyone must feel that taking a calculated risk is necessary to step ahead of the competition.What could you do tomorrow to induce courage in your organization?
Innovation Principle #3: Curiosity
We are born curious. Curiosity is one of, if not the, driver for learning and development. Trying different approaches and understanding what works is basically how a child develops into an adult. As we grow older we learn what to expect from our surroundings, get used to how things are done and before we know it the curiosity, and the ability to create anything new has diminished.
The same goes for organizations. Startups and small companies are agile, quick and creative. Large companies tend to be conservative, slow and analytical. If all is well, small companies become large companies and one of the challenges is not to loose the curiosity, creativity and speed. What then, you may ask, is the solution? At Googol we realize it would be presumptuous to say there is a silver bullet. One key element we have found working with our clients is the corporate culture. If top management encourage, or even better demonstrate, curiosity and creativity you are beyond one of the hurdles towards becoming a leading company.
Innovation Principle #4: Creativity
Would you agree that creativity means the capacity to create and produce something novel? A product such as the automobile can be considered creative as well as a person, such as Leonardo da Vinci. Your company probably launched a creative product at some point in time. In your organization you probably have a few people who are considered to be creative, perhaps not like the artist who painted MonaLisa, but still. Perhaps you are one of them, perhaps not. Could everyone in your organization be creative? Well, at Googol we believe that everyone can and should contribute.
If you give the people in your organization a relevant challenge and the right setting they will surely come up with some suggestions and solutions. For extrovert people that setting may be a workshop, for introverts it may be some time spent at the desk experimenting with the challenge. As a business leader it is important to understand how you need to cater to peoples different needs and provide proper support and encouragement.
As you most likely have figured out by now, creativity is key for innovation.
Innovation Principle #5: Speed
A wise woman said to me “There is no difference between a good time to do things and now.” This is true whether it comes to mowing the lawn, writing a business case or speaking to your customers about the quality of your service. However, you should not let speed and quality become enemies. My point is that once you made a decision, every minute between that decision and executing it is time wasted. Time that your competitors are spending doing what you are supposed to do. Hence the lack of speed means a competitive disadvantage. “Big will not beat small anymore. It will be fast beating slow.” as Rupert Murdoch supposedly said. Many industries could probably learn a thing or two from the swedish brand H&M if you consider how fast they act on fashion insights to be able to ship the clothes their customers will want to wear this summer. Speed, not haste, is key for all successful businesses even if product life cycle times differ a lot between industries. Do not let your competitors outbeat you, do it yourself.
– Jan Sandqvist