Building Trust in Innovation Practices
Accepting larger risks will run counter to many in the defense industry. Indeed, it will likely run counter to management in many industries. The goal is not to run from or run to risk, nor is it to ignore it or pretend it does not exist. Instead, these risks must be viewed as vital, necessary parts of the innovation process.
A successful innovation framework can address risk by beginning with the standard practice of recording known risks. These known risks will be monitored through the innovation effort. Additionally, new risks may surface during the project, and the risk register is updated as these unknowns become known. However, there may be a significant difference in the acceptable level, and categorization, of risk for innovation efforts. This difference is defined within the innovation framework.
Within the framework risks can be ranked in terms of consequence, from critical, to important, to minor. Critical risks are those which, if realized, will mean the project simply cannot proceed. Important are those risks for which alternatives exist, whether they be another technology or approach. These alternatives may not be as optimal or desirable but will permit the project to continue. Minor risks might affect performance, cost, size, and weight, where realizing the risk would not shutdown the effort.
As mentioned earlier, the framework may explicitly define a criterion like: if a project realizes a critical risk, then it should be paused, or shelved, until such a time that there exists an alternative. Again, this would not be the end of the project but a way to pause a project with currently insurmountable challenges. However, the right future opportunity, be it technology, use cases, contracts, etc., might provide relief or resolution to the challenge, and the project could then resume.
In addition to the basic risk categories, additional dimensions can be considered for more informed risk management. Further prioritizing the risks by probability, degree of impact, associated cost, or other variables can be performed for more granular analysis and control. However, caution should be taken to not add too many variables to avoid being trapped in analysis paralysis.
A successful innovation framework will encourage a mindset that views risk as an inherent and necessary part of the innovation process. It defines methods for performing measured risk management containing the risk equation for the investigation of new concepts and technologies. Understanding and explanation of this feature of the framework will allow for more trust to be placed in the innovation processes.
6 CULTURE OF INNOVATION
To have a culture of innovation, it is important to align teams and individuals around shared goals and for leaders of people, of teams, and of the company, to lead by example. Leaders must be as
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