Building Trust in Innovation Practices
Thought must be given to the mix of resources needed to support an innovation framework of technology, space, networks, and data. Compiling a master list of all resources and categorizing these into critical, important, and desirable is a beginning step. Then, in an order of importance, an analysis of priority, risks and mitigations, alternatives, and other factors can follow to generate a rank-ordered list. This data can also aid in the analysis of plans, policy, and protocols and how they promote or inhibit innovation. This planning and analysis should be captured and used in an innovation framework.
A working example of allocating spaces for innovation are Raytheon’ s Innovation Centers [ 12 ]. Sometimes referred to as internal Makerspaces, these spaces are designated for ideation, experimentation, and collaboration. For nearly two decades the Innovation Centers along with Innovation Advocates have provided a safe and welcoming environment for innovation where emplolyees can try new concepts and technologies, develop new skills, tinker, and brainstorm safely.
4 TIME, TIMING, AND PLANNING
Not all ideas make it to a pilot phase, and getting to that phase does not guarantee the idea will make it any further. Time, timing, and planning all play a factor in the completion, and success or failure of a pilot effort. A successful business innovation framework includes methods to measure the potential of a pilot program, how much time and effort a pilot is worth, and determine if it is a good time for a company to pursue it.
Critical to innovation is understanding it is okay to shelve an idea or pause execution on it. Stopping, or pausing, work on an idea is not declaring the idea bad, the effort a failure, or the team incapable. It often means that it was not a fit for the expected business or use case or is not the right time to try to use the idea. A shelved idea can always be resumed when the circumstances are better.
A pause is much better than allowing a pilot implementation to flounder, or take too long, or be perceived as a waste of time. As with startups, many exciting and promising new ideas in A & D get trapped in pilot purgatory where they languish and die. There are many reasons why this happens, from inadequate time and resources to realize results, lack of well-defined or wrong use cases, lack of value, missing or incorrect success metrics, and lack of fully invested stakeholders and champions.
With that in mind, a successful innovation framework has methods to ask and answer vital questions throughout the pilot process. Exact questions will vary from company to company. Some questions to consider are presented shortly, some of which are derived from the Heilmeier Catechism [ 7 ]. For many companies, implementing an innovation framework is explicitly defining how to reuse or reapply existing business practices regarding innovation efforts.
Questions to ask, before the pilot effort begins:
112 May 2025