It was a pleasure to facilitate a really stimulating session at The Entrepreneurs Forum Exchange this morning on INNOVATION!
There were some great insights into real entrepreneurs making it happen and thanks to all those who attended and particularly those who contributed some really thought provoking stuff!
As promised, here are the slides from the session – feel free to Download, Distribute and Do something with them!
For those that weren’t there, here is a brief overview of the key issues raised:
Innovation is ‘the successful exploitation of new ideas’ and…
The 10 common barriers to maximising innovation are:
3. Fear!… people are scared of putting their head above the parapet and criticism of their ideas and suggestions
4. It’s just about new products and services… there is a view that innovation is solely about coming up with new products or services rather than improving what is done
10. It’s not on the agenda…. again, this is about a lack of ‘strategic thinking’ and consciously looking ahead at opportunities and threats, and encouraging others to do the same!
We identified that….
In forward thinking, innovative businesses… it’s all about…
– Leadership!
Winning organisations ensure that innovation is an integral part of the way they do business! They have a clear vision and this is driven by the leaders – they create time to think and work strategically, they get ‘innovation’ on the agenda and thy encourage and support their people to do the same!
– Systems and Processes!
They establish simple processes to generate ideas and suggestions from customers, their people and their support networks. They might not all create ‘20% time’ like Google who ensure that all their employees spend at least 20% of their time on non core activities, but they establish simple processes that ensure that ideas are generated, and suggestions for improvement are made. See here how Tim Cook of Apple does it!
– Creating The Climate!
This is about engaging people to get involved and contribute. It’s also about allowing, encouraging, even pushing people to ‘fish in different ponds’ – that means creating time to get out of the ‘day to day’, out of their own teams and departments and their ‘comfort zones’! It’s also about ‘championing their champions’ – rewarding and recognising those that get involved and contribute! Click here to see how winning leaders do this!
– Taking Action!
Winners take action, not notes! In innovation driven businesses, time, effort and resources are put into making things happen and that this is monitored and measured – it is certainly not left to chance!
So, how do you measure up?
You can download a very simple
ASSESSMENT TOOLKIT
here to find out!
Why not get your team to do the same, create a bit of time to discuss the findings, and then crucially…. DO SOMETHING!
And finally, if you want to keep in touch and get more of this stuff, please sign up to Andy’s 3D Thoughts – a short, sharp weekly audio with ideas to help you improve your competitiveness!
