In many companies there is no obvious strategy for selecting or even evaluating ideas. According to author Robert B. Tucker, a clear set of criteria for screening ideas and having properly-trained people on the selection team is critical to systematic innovation.
Years of cost-cutting and focus on process excellence have created in many firms a culture that is focused on operational excellence and risk avoidance. For innovation to succeed as a corporate objective, the culture must change to accommodate the risk and uncertainty that accompanies an innovation focus. Luckily, several important levers can help you change the culture, as Jeffrey Phillips explains.
One of the most powerful innovation tools available to every member of a group - be it a team, a company division or an organization - is a tool that those individuals are often reluctant to use. The tool I am talking about, of course, is: questioning.
Why is it that, in industry after industry, it's almost always the outsider that develops the breakthrough innovations? Paul Graham, in a ChangeThis essay entitled The Power of the Marginal, tackles this issue and comes up with some really intriguing insights. He deconstructs the power of the outsider, and offers some helpful strategies for thinking like one.
Often, organizations have a tendency to turn innovation into a highly complex system involving numerous processes, approaches and models. Here's a little secret: It doesn't need to be complex to be effective.
Innovation may be the watchword of the executive team, but desire does not necessarily lead to the right level of real, sustained commitment. Now, a recent study by Imaginatik Research, building on previous work on the financial impact of innovation, has uncovered a simple, compelling connection between corporate objectives, and the generation and management of ideas and business opportunities.
Can quality and creativity cohabit in the same house or are they natural enemies? Can a quality process be applied to innovation? Paul Sloane shares the answer in this insightful article.
All too often, hastily planned brainstorming sessions bring up a lot of good ideas that somehow never get used, while the boring kinds of ideas you are trying to get away from seem to be used again and again. One reason for this is the lack of an innovation plan, according to Jeffrey Baumgartner.
There are several ways to incorporate brainstorming into a new product development session. Here are two of the most productive techniques.
Creating a sustainable innovative environment is a leadership task. In order to succeed at this task, leaders must develop innovative abilities and develop them in their constituents. Here's how.
Imagine what you could accomplish in your organization if you were able to learn and understand the foundational principles of innovation. Andrew Papageorge has formulated three such guiding principles that can help you to innovate more swiftly and effectively.
By cultivating the habit of innovation, you can use your unique abilities to make a difference. This article by change management expert Jim Canterucci explains how.
Instead of conducting wide-ranging brainstorming sessions so generate hundreds of ideas in search of the one "big one," author Jack Hipple recommends a TRIZ-based approach that focuses instead on clear problem definition and looking at past patterns of invention for potential solutions.
Imagination is not a word you hear much about in business. Few companies, outside electronic game producers, would describe themselves as imaginative. That is a shame and a mistake. Imagination is the number one tool for creativity and innovation.
The organization that implements lots of ideas will most likely have many failures but the chances are, it will reap some mighty successes too. By trying numerous initiatives we improve our chances that one of them will be a star, according to author Paul Sloane.
