Tue, 9 July 2019
Innovation is all about translating ideas into real products, real services and real solutions. Ideas without execution are a hobby. Is your organization in the business of innovation? This week’s show boils it down to a simple equation. Ideas + Innovation Culture = Innovation Success. The process starts with ideas and the management of them. But ideas won’t develop and thrive without the right culture. Core Attributes are about setting the basis for Innovation Culture. When you set up a good system of gathering ideas and lay a foundation for innovation culture, innovation success ensues. Creating Order from the Brainstorm of IdeasThe process starts with ideas coming from many sources. Then comes the question of how to manage your ideas. How do you log, track and rank them? Where are your ideas today in the innovation lifecycle? What about from all the brainstorming sessions over the last few years… and could you easily put your hand on the list of those ideas? Ideas have value over time. The Idea Management System, Step By StepIf you believe ideas are the currency of the economy, you need to manage ideas as a valued asset for innovation success. Treat ideas as a valuable asset. What’s needed in an idea management system?
My Experience With These Tools
Core AttributesLast June, I took over a new role as CEO where I set out a hundred day plan looking at the organization and figuring out what made it tick. I spent a significant amount of time doing one on one interviews with all the key stakeholders. I asked them four questions:
Ninety-five percent of employees were afraid that the new CEO would not change anything. They understood that in order for the company to flourish, some things needed to be changed. I realized that I had to build the core attributes from scratch. So, how do you do that? The key is to help everyone understand why core attributes are so important. What is it the team wants the organization to become? Core attributes articulate what you stand for. The ones we came up with are:
Once you have captured this, you are ready to start the process. Having the list is the beginning of the process. The senior executives must own this; this must always be controlled by the senior executives. We need to manage the process to get everyone on board with the innovation culture. It is communicating the process and communicating the core attributes. Instead of telling people these are the core attributes, we published them and invited people to come in as part of group sessions. We collected a list of core attributes employees liked and helped brainstorm recommendations to the executive team about how we could live it. We have included core attributes into our performance management. At the end of the year, employees are getting assessed on those core attributes. The impact on the organization was beyond anything I expected. It is not static and it is a never ending process, but it develops an effective framework for an innovation culture that drives success.
Direct download: Ideas__Innovation_Culture__Innovation_Leadership.mp3
Category:Past Shows -- posted at: 12:00am PDT |