INGENUITY
How to make innovation work for you
Ian Laverty , Managing Director , Ingenuity
M
y favourite definition of Innovation is that suggested by Roger LaSalle , Director of Matrix Thinking ; ‘ Change that adds value ’.
This definition highlights that innovation is not the generation of ideas as many people think of it . The generation of ideas is only the start of the process . Some people find this the most difficult part of innovation although with the correct culture and methodology in place you ’ d be surprised how many new ideas you can generate within your organisation in a very short space of time .
In fact , I ’ m sure you ’ ve probably got ideas in your head of things you ’ d like to change to improve your business , whether it ’ s an enhancement to a product or a service or a new process or procedure to improve efficiency ?
And if you ’ re honest you ’ ve probably had some of those ideas kicking around in your head for a while . So why don ’ t we do anything with them ?
If that ’ s you , that just makes you ‘ normal ’. It ’ s a very common scenario . There are likely to be plenty of reasons for not having done anything about it and most of them fall under the heading business as usual . Not enough time . Insufficient resource . Ideas weren ’ t cascaded up the organisation . Nobody listened . Lack of funding or cash . Unsure about the potential returns . Or whisper it quietly ….. procrastination ?
These are just some of the road blocks that prevent innovation from happening in most organisations .
In all the work we do with organisations to improve creativity and innovation there is one thing that is a constant . Ideas exist but little or nothing is done with them . When we go through our process of generating valueadding ideas , it is typical that of the dozens of ideas that are generated , at least half of them ( often more ) are not actually new .
Of course there are always brilliantly new ideas generated too – but those ideas that surface that have been mooted before , that have been in somebody ’ s head for a while or adorn a postit on a desktop somewhere reinforce the fact that innovation is as much about making good ideas happen as it is about generating the ideas in the first place . Taking the ideas from the idea factory through to change .
The most effective way of making this happen is through a process of project management . A project can be defined as a ‘ temporary vehicle for implementing change ’. If innovation is change that adds value , then what better way of breaking through the road blocks that prevent innovation from being implemented than driving straight through it ?
The first step is to make somebody responsible and accountable for the project . At least one individual has to take responsibility for taking the change from the idea stage to the implementation stage .
The next step in the innovation process is to evaluate the idea and ensure that 1 . the idea truly adds value to the organisation and 2 . is the best of the ideas available to us , before we consume resources making the change . The first step of any good project management process is , of course , the business case . At this step we present the following : 1 . Reasons for undertaking the project ; 2 . Options ; 3 . Costs ; 4 . Benefits ; 5 . Risks ; and 6 . Timescale If we consider the requirements in the process of making innovative change happen you can easily reword these as : 1 . Why are we innovating and what do we expect to get out of it ? 2 . What else can we consider ? Have we discovered all of the options available ? Other product development ideas , service improvements , new services or process improvements ? Why have we dismissed the others and selected this option instead ? 3 . What are the costs of implementing our innovative change ? 4 . What are the ( quantifiable ) benefits ? What and how big are the opportunities
that the innovation gives us ? What is the ( quantifiable ) consequence of not making the change ? Can we measure RoI ? 5 . What risks are associated with making the change and are they worth taking ? Is there a risk in not innovating ? 6 . How long will it take to implement the innovative changes and will the innovation still be relevant by the time we ’ ve completed the project . Once we ’ ve gone through this evaluation process and confirmed that the innovation both adds value and adds more value than alternative options then we can set about creating the project plan , allocating resources and delegating tasks and responsibilities . The process of making the considered change happen . Implementing innovation .
Ian Laverty is the Managing Director of Ingenuity – a shortlisted finalist at the 2016 UK National Training Awards for Innovation Programme design and delivery .
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