The Three Key Features of High-Performing Innovators

Whenever I tell people I am an Innovation Consultant, I invariably get asked one question.

“What does that mean?”

The easiest way I answer this is with another question. 

“How does innovation happen within your workplace?”

If they work at an organisation with more than 60 employees, I can predict the answer. 

“I don’t know. It doesn’t really. I mean, we’ve got an ideas board - but I don’t know. That’s not really my area.”

The research tells a similar story. A McKinsey report highlighted that 84% of executives consider innovation as important to their growth strategy. Yet less than a third of organisations say they are innovating successfully. 

Even more concerning is a report from Deloitte, which pinpointed the area where board of directors’ understanding is the weakest. Can you guess?

Innovation strategy.

This results in an all-too-common situation - an organisation where people are being told how important it is to innovate, yet have no clear direction how to do that. 

As an Innovation Consultant - this is where I help. There’s three broad ways I assist bigger organisations to make significant gains in their innovation output - all with the goal of increasing profitability and competitiveness for the short-and-long term future.

1. Bringing Clarity to Strategy

   Most innovation attempts fail within organisations due to a lack of clear strategy. This is shown in a few common ways:
   
   - No understanding of why they are innovating;
   - No shared understanding of what innovation means;
   - An assumption that “Innovation” means “Digital;
   - A lot of rhetoric, but no budget for innovation;
   - An ever-changing focus to innovation efforts.
   
   This leads to frustration and a rolling of the eyes among employees whenever innovation is mentioned - and a lot of half-started innovation projects.
   
   A high-performing innovative organisation has a clear innovation strategy, that is defined by:
   
   - Creation from the senior level;
   - A relentless focus on the customer and job-to-be-done;
   - A recognition of what is in-scope, and what is out of scope;
   - Metrics to assess the success of the strategy;
   - A deep and shared understanding of what innovation means for their business and industry;
   - A portfolio approach to manage risk and return.
   
   Developing an innovation strategy is primarily driven through facilitated workshops of senior leaders of an organisation, with annual reviews to check best-fit for strategy.
   
   

2. Bringing Rigour to Process

   So you have an innovation strategy - and now you’re wanting to gain traction! You want a process that will capture opportunities and insights, take in ideas, assess them for fit, allocate funding, identify teams, manage potential risks…and do it all fast.
   
   Unfortunately, most organisations - 82%, according to Accenture - run an innovation process exactly the same as they run regular operations.
   
   72% of these same organisations say this means they miss crucial growth opportunities. Why?
   
   Because regular operations run slow.
   
   A high-performing innovation process is custom built for innovation. This means it must be:
   
   - Simple - because simple processes move fast;
   - Transparent - because transparency fosters open innovation;
   - Accessible - because the more participants in the process, the better results;
   - Rigorous - because it must be repeatable and reliable - not showing favouritism or bogging down in unnecessary road-blocks.
   
   Developing an innovation process is primarily driven through adapting best-practices in innovation, and providing organisational training for using and managing the process.
   
   

3. Bringing Training to All
   

   You’ve got your strategy, you’ve got your process - you’re ready to go, right?
   
   Not quite! Innovation lives and dies on people - and their ability to participate in the process.
   
   And as the change management principle clearly states - if you give people a vision, budget, resources and a plan - but don’t give them the requisite skills - it leads to anxiety and a lack of participation.
   
   People don’t want to do what they don’t know how to do. We’ll avoid participating in anything that may make us look like an idiot.
   
   So unleashing an innovation strategy and process on an untrained workforce is a surefire way to innovation failure.
   
   You need a robust training program that is:
   
   - Memorable - so it lives on longer than the workshop;
   - Culturally Bespoke - so it fits the New Zealand context (and isn’t just imported from Silicon Valley);
   - Hands-On - so people learn the skills and process working on a real business problem;
   - Simple - so it can be accessible to all.
   
   An innovation training program can be delivered onsite in a block-course setting, over a period of months, or through an online learning portal - with regular coaching.
   
   

These are the three critical ways I help organisations improve their innovation performance - and are three critical decisions all organisations need to make to thrive in the fast-changing future.

If you want to chat more about any of these ways for improving your organisation's innovation - please get in touch via jeremy@creativate.co.nz.