Creating an Innovation Capability in the Workplace by Ian Littlejohn

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About Creating an Innovation Capability in the Workplace Guide An increasingly volatile, uncertain and competitive business environment requires all organisations to become more innovative at all levels of the business. An important aspect of creating innovation within the organisation is to have innovation occurring at all levels of the organisation in a systematic manner. This requires managers of departments to implement innovation within their workplaces. However this often proves to be a significant challenge for management as they face numerous hurdles and inhibitors to the ability to innovate. The purpose of the Creating an Innovation Capability in the Workplace Guide is to provide managers with the necessary know-how and knowledge to create the platform and infrastructure for innovation to occur. The Guide is primarily aimed at managers in medium to large sized companies, although managers of all sized companies will gain benefit from the step by step guide. The benefits of the Guide are: 

Provides an easy to follow step by step Guide that can be easily implemented



Understand what Innovation is and how it occurs



Create the platform, infrastructure and environment for innovation to occur at the divisional, departmental and organisational level

Creating an Innovation Capability in the Workplace

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Implement Innovation activities to create new ideas, knowledge and insight

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Create an Innovation Programme to co-ordinate and implement the creation of the innovation capability

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Introduction Innovation is an important topic in this day and age. The importance of being able to innovate and to adapt to the challenges of the local and global business environment are well documented. Despite these well documented requirements for organisations to be able to innovate, most managers find it difficult to create and implement the necessary platform and infrastructure for innovation to happen in the workplace. Many inhibiters to innovation exist in the modern company of today and it is only through the creation of a platform and infrastructure that a foundation for innovation can be created.

Purpose of the Workbook The purpose of this workbook is to provide a step by step guide for you the manager to create and implement the necessary platform and infrastructure for innovation to occur within your workplace. The workbook has been designed primarily for managers in medium to large sized organisations who want to create an innovation capability in their departments or teams. This guide also includes the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Steps to Complete on Mondayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; approach which allows the incremental implementation of the necessary activities and actions to allow the platform and infrastructure to be created (Steps do not really need to be completed on a Monday, but we do advise that you implement them in a systematic way).

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Table of Contents Understanding Innovation and the Reasons for Innovation...............7 So, why is this thing called innovation so important?...................................................8 Take 5 Minutes............................................................................................................ 8 Understanding Innovation.......................................................................................... 10 Innovation versus Improvement.................................................................................12 Why is innovation so difficult in my company?...........................................................13 Considering these factors, how do we go about creating an innovation capability?...15

Creating the Platform and Infrastructure for Innovation...................17 Articulating the Vision................................................................................................ 18 Creating a Vision........................................................................................................ 18 Creating the Platform................................................................................................. 20 Create the Mandate................................................................................................... 23 Understand the Current Situation...............................................................................27 Budget and Resources.............................................................................................. 30 Take 5 Minutes.......................................................................................................... 30 Review of the Exercise.............................................................................................. 32 But, what about innovation?.......................................................................................34 Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Time to Consider a new Approach.......................................................................34 Define the Roles & Responsibilities of the Innovation Team......................................37 Roles & Responsibilities............................................................................................ 37 Provide Communication and Feedback.....................................................................40 Collaboration.............................................................................................................. 42 Online Collaboration Systems....................................................................................44

Innovation Activities..............................................................................47 Creating Innovation Activities.....................................................................................48 Define focus areas..................................................................................................... 50 Create a Challenge.................................................................................................... 52 Problem Solving and Idea Generation.......................................................................56 Idea Generation & Problem Solving Techniques.......................................................57

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Reframing Matrix........................................................................................................ 59 Create Training Modules............................................................................................ 66 Cross department Collaboration................................................................................67

Creating the Programme.......................................................................69 Create the Programme of Initiatives...........................................................................70

Review.....................................................................................................71 Review....................................................................................................................... 72

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Section 1 Understanding Innovation and the Reasons for Innovation

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So, why is this thing called innovation so important? The way that business is conducted has changed rapidly in a short period of time. New communication technologies allow people to interact, collaborate and work together in ways that were not conceived 20 years ago. The global business environment has changed with the introduction of China, India and other emerging economies. Climate and environmental issues are also playing an ever more important role in how an organisation functions and operates. The ability for an organisation to adapt to the changing playing field becomes increasingly more difficult as the pace of change keeps accelerating.

Innovation provides the opportunity for managers to be able to keep up with the accelerating pace of change and to be able to change threats into new opportunities.

Take 5 Minutes Capture some of the changes that have happened in your industry over the last 5 years?

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Understanding Innovation It has been widely recognised that innovation is required for companies to be able to compete and be successful into the future. The process of innovation allows experimentation which leads to new learning, which results in something new being created. As experimentation occurs - new understanding, knowledge and insight emerges from the process. The process of innovation therefore provides a variety of new options and opportunities that previously did not exist.

Innovation Innovationisisaaprocess processofofexperimentation experimentationand andlearning learningthat that creates something new or allows something existing to be done creates something new or allows something existing to be done ininan anentirely entirelynew newway way

As specified in the definition innovation is a process. Often innovation can be more than just a process it is also a journey. To say that we have been innovative, means that we have experimented with new approaches, tried new ways of doing things and gained new insight and learning from the activities that have been performed.

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Innovation versus Improvement The real trick to innovation is to turn the new learning and insight into something that is useful and generates value. Innovation can result in new technologies, products, services, processes, procedures, methods, techniques and tools. Unfortunately not all innovation is equal; the vast majority of what is called innovation today is in reality improvement. Confusion arises as to the difference between innovation and improvement because innovation processes are also very effective at creating improvement. For the purpose of this workbook we are going to consider innovation to be a process that results in something new that did not exist before or results in the evolution of something that did exist before to a new level of sophistication or capability. Improvement we are going to consider as the enhancing or improving of existing processes, systems, products, services, methods, techniques or tools. As a final definition we define invention as the output or result from the innovation process.

Innovation is not Research and Development (R&D). Many studies have Innovation is not Research and Development (R&D). Many studies have mistakenly linked the innovative capability of companies to their investment in mistakenly linked the innovative capability of companies to their investment in R&D. R&D. The innovation process may incorporate elements of R&D, but traditionally R&D The innovation process may incorporate elements of R&D, but traditionally R&D has its own predefined processes and approaches which often do not allow has its own predefined processes and approaches which often do not allow experimentation or other elements associated with innovation experimentation or other elements associated with innovation

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Why is innovation so difficult in my company? Companies have developed, grown and been built around processes, policies and systems that have been designed to ensure stability and predictability. Hierarchical structures, reporting relationships, policies, procedures and processes ensure that the company functions in an efficient and profitable manner. In this type of environment managers require certainty in outcome before making decisions and resources are only allocated towards investments that can prove benefits at the time of conception. This approach to running organisations has been extremely successful during times of stability and predictability. The problem for innovation is that organisations do not easily allow experimentation and the ability to try different things. The concepts and paradigms of innovation run counter to the organisations requirement for certainty in outcome and resource allocation efficiency. As a result of this; it is extremely difficult for innovation to happen as a natural occurrence within the organisation.

Take 5 Minutes Consider how easily innovation occurs in your organisations.

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Considering these factors, how do we go about creating an innovation capability? Innovation is a journey; it is not something that is going to happen overnight. As a manager you will need to create the vision, platform and infrastructure that will allow new and different ways of thinking to emerge within your workplace. This involves creating an environment that supports experimentation, new knowledge creation and provides learning opportunities.

Most importantly you will need to provide the support, guidance, direction and vision that will allow the necessary innovation initiatives and activities to occur.

Take 5 Minutes Capture the reasons why your department and organisation need to be able to innovate and to be innovative?

What do you want the innovation capability to achieve in your department or organisation?

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Section 2 Creating the Platform and Infrastructure for Innovation

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Articulating the Vision A vision is very powerful. Visions inspire staff to greater achievements and push them past previously defined limits. A vision provides a guiding light that gives direction to the innovation imperative.

What is your vision for innovation in the workplace? We have already captured the reasons why you need to innovate; the next step is turning this information into what you envision innovation can do for your workplace.

Creating a Vision â&#x20AC;˘

Visualise that the innovation activities are successful: o What type of working environment would you like to create? o How would you like the staff to work o How would you like the staff to tackle challenges and problems o What would you like the working relationships to be like within the department and with other departments o What will the new environment and ways of working do for the staff?

Things To Do on Monday Articulate and capture your vision of what the workplace would be like if innovation was a natural part of the working environment\

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Creating the Platform Now that the reasons why innovation is important and the vision has been articulated, its time to start creating a platform from which the innovation capability can be built.

Forming the Innovation Team The reality is that you are not going to do this on your own. Innovation is a team sport and you are going to require some assistance. Within your workplace there are key individuals whose support you are An going to require to make this successful. Anideal idealsize sizefor for the Innovation the Innovation Request a meeting with the identified individuals and explain Team Teamisis44toto66 to them the reasons why you believe innovation is important in people people the workplace and your vision for what vision can achieve. After the session, approach each of the individuals and confirm whether they would be willing to serve as part of the Innovation Team. Once the Innovation Team has been confirmed, hold a second meeting and perform the following tasks: â&#x20AC;˘

As a team articulate the reasons for innovation in the workplace

â&#x20AC;˘

As a team articulate the teams vision for what innovation can achieve in the workplace

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Things To Do on Monday

1. Identify 4 to 6 key individuals within the workplace to form an Innovation Team 2. Share your reasons why innovation is so important to the team 3. Confirm the team members participation and commitment 4. Support the Innovation Team to articulate reasons why innovation is important and the vision of what innovation can achieve in the workplace (as an option include staff in the session and receive their input and perspective) 5. Document the reasons and the vision

Innovation Team â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Reasons for Innovation

Innovation Team â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Vision

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Create the Mandate Every team needs direction and a means to measure whether they are making progress. As the Sponsor for the Innovation Team you need to provide the Innovation Team with direction and guidance as to the expected output of the innovation capability. An Innovation Mandate provides the Innovation Team with the authority and the responsibility for achieving specific outcomes and outputs. When drafting the initial mandate for the team remember that new things will be learnt during the course of the Innovation journey. You do not want to create a mandate that is too restrictive or specifies targets too early in the process. When drafting the mandate, review the reasons why you are creating the innovation capability and vision for what innovation can achieve.

Examples of items to include in a Mandate •

Educate and increase awareness on the topic of innovation within the workplace

•

Plan, schedule and initiate innovation and learning activities

•

Create opportunities for experimentation and interaction around specified focus areas

•

Create opportunities for knowledge creation and learning

•

Develop methodologies, techniques and tools for Innovation

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Things To Do on Monday

1. The Innovation Team reviews the reasons of why innovation is important in the workplace 2. Review the vision for innovation and what you want innovation to achieve in your workplace 3. Develop four to six key items that you want to achieve by creating an innovation capability within your workbook 4. Present the Innovation Mandate to the Sponsor

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Understand the Current Situation It is important for the Innovation Team to have an understanding of what the staff views as the current situation regarding innovation in the department. One of the most powerful methods of measurement and evaluation of the progress to implement an innovation capability is to show a progression over time of improved productivity, quality and staff morale. By capturing the current situation from the perspective of the staff within the workplace captures valuable information about how the staff views innovation within the workplace at the start of the project. This will provide an important benchmark to allow evaluation in three to six months time of the progress and show how innovation is or is not making a difference to the staff within the workplace. In addition this exercise provides an opportunity for the staff to engage in the process at an early stage and for the reasons, vision and mandate of the Innovation Team to be communicated to them.

Process for Capturing the Current Situation Organise 6- 8 of your staff to attend a two hour meeting (If you have more people that you would like to include in the exercise â&#x20AC;&#x201C; organise more sessions) The staff sit at a round table and face each other Nominate a scribe Ask the staff to discuss the current situation in regards to innovation in the department Capture the information on to a flipchart From the data identify relevant themes Document the result of the session and communicate to the staff

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The information captured during the session will provide an important source of data for forthcoming initiatives. The data will identify areas that the Innovation Team need to address in order to be able to progress with the innovation programme.

Things To Do on Monday

1. The Innovation Team organises a session with the staff to discuss the current situation in regards to innovation in the workplace 2. Allow 2 hours for the session 3. Break up staff into groups of 6 to 8 people 4. Nominate a scribe 5. Ask the groups to discuss the current situation in regards to innovation within the workplace a. What is working well b. What is not working well 6. Capture the information on to the flipcharts 7. At the conclusion of the session collect and document the information 8. Distribute the captured information to the delegates who attended the session 9. A further option is to have the documented information captured on to A1 posters and display them in a prominent area. This will provide an incentive and motive for the staff to improve the current situation.

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Budget and Resources Here comes the difficult part. No initiative is going to be successful without resources. Traditionally one of the main reasons why innovation fails to get the required support in organisations is that resources, time and effort are not allocated to the project, or as soon as things get tough then the budget is cut. At the same time please do not think that throwing lots of budget and money at innovation will make it successful. Innovation will be successful due to the efforts and support from the staff and management, not from the amount of money that is invested.

Take 5 Minutes To consider how you budget

1. What percentage of your budget is allocated to maintaining the existing infrastructure within your workplace?

2. What percentage of your budget is allocated towards growing the business?

3. What percentage of your budget is allocated towards innovation and learning activities?

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Review of the Exercise If you are like just about every other department in every other company, the results of this exercise will show you having just about all your budget allocated towards maintaining the existing infrastructure. Very little budget is available for growing the business and almost no budget will have been allocated towards innovation. At this point we need to make mention of the business case Many organisations have implemented the Business Case methodology. The Business Case methodology provides a means for comparing different investment opportunities, so that a decision can be made as to where resources should be best allocated. The Business Case methodology is particularly powerful when the future and future options are known and can be accurately predicted. To be successful the Business Case methodology is dependant on the benefits of the investment being understood at the time of preparing the Business Case, this then allows a calculation of the Return on Investment (ROI) to be calculated. The ROI of the different investment opportunities are compared and management is able to select the opportunity with the highest ROI to invest in.

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But, what about innovation? The problem is with innovation we are not able to define the expected benefits at a level that can be used for an ROI calculation. By definition innovation is a process of experimentation and learning that means the future expected benefits can not be accurately predicted at the time of starting the project. Investment may need to be made just to learn something new â&#x20AC;&#x201C; without creating an immediate return from the funding.

InInmany manyorganisations organisationsinnovation innovationinitiatives initiativesare areforced forcedto togo go through throughBusiness BusinessCase Caseprocesses, processes,which whichresults resultsininno no investment or funding being made into true innovation investment or funding being made into true innovation initiatives. initiatives.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Time to Consider a new Approach

Budget

Innovation & Learning

Growing the Business

Maintaining the Business

Consider a pyramid. The bottom of the pyramid with the large base is the investment in maintaining the business. Maintaining the business will often take the majority of the budget. The maintenance budget is normally calculated from previous budgets with a percentage adjustment.

The second segment of the pyramid is for growing the business. This is traditionally a smaller proportion than the base. It is quite acceptable to use the Business Case methodology for investments in this segment. Opportunities are defined well enough that ROI can be calculated and the benefits of the investment are well understood. The third segment is allocated to innovation and learning activities. The budget will be managed by the Innovation Team. This portion although smaller than the base and second segment will ensure that investment will occur towards innovation.

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Things To Do on Monday

Consider how much of your budget and funding should be made available to the following: •

Maintenance of the existing infrastructure

•

Growing the business

•

Innovation and learning activities

Maintenance

Growing %

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Innovation & Learning %

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Define the Roles & Responsibilities of the Innovation Team You now have an Innovation Team; understand why innovation is so important; have an articulated vision of what the workplace would be like if innovation was happening; an understanding of the current situation in regards to innovation from the perspective of the staff and a budget. Definition of the roles and responsibilities are important to provide guidance and direction to the Innovation Team. Roles and Remember that while creating the Remember that while creating the Innovation Capability, we are going to responsibilities provide an Innovation Capability, we are going to experiment and see what works and what understanding of the expectations experiment and see what works and what does not. associated with being in the team does not. and the functions that will need to be Therefore we do not want to create too Therefore we do not want to create too many rules and constraints too early in performed. many rules and constraints too early in Roles and responsibilities should be defined as a group to make sure everybody has their input and say.

the process, at the same time we do the process, at the same time we do need to supply enough information to need to supply enough information to provide guidance and direction. provide guidance and direction.

Roles & Responsibilities The following are roles and responsibilities that can be used as a guide to assist your team. •

Manage and co-ordinate the Innovation Programme

•

Define, plan and schedule innovation activities

•

Plan and organize adequate resources for Innovation activities

•

Plan and schedule regular feedback and communication to staff and stakeholders

•

Evaluate the benefits gained from Innovation activities

•

Create training material for Innovation

•

Create and maintain methodologies, techniques and tools for Innovation

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Things To Do on Monday

•

Define the roles and responsibilities for the members of the Innovation Team

•

Document the defined roles and responsibilities

•

Distribute the roles and responsibilities to stakeholders

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Provide Communication and Feedback Communication about the development and progress of innovation activities is extremely important to ensure ongoing support and commitment from staff and management. Not providing adequate feedback is one of the main reasons why people stop contributing and participating in innovation activities. Staff will stop participating and engaging in activities if adequate feedback is not provided that shows their ideas and input are not being considered and actioned.

There are numerous methods to improve communication that can be implemented:

Put up posters with the reasons for Innovation, the vision and the mandate Put up posters with the schedule of Innovation activities Provide update and feedback e-mails on a regular basis i.e. every two weeks Setup an e-mail address where staff can communicate with the Innovation Team. Please make sure that the e-mail address is monitored and feedback is provided to queries, ideas and suggestions Organise a briefing to management at least once every two months to communicate progress, learningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, requirements and to receive guidance on future initiatives Organise an Innovation Breakfast once a quarter. At the breakfast get different speakers who have been involved in the innovation activities to talk about their experiences. Involve external speakers who can also contribute new perspectives

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Things To Do on Monday

•

Identify information about your innovation programme that needs to be communicated to different stakeholders

•

Identify the different groups of people who will require information, updates and communication about the Innovation activities i.e. staff, management, senior management etc.

•

Select the best method to communicate the information

•

Create a Communications Plan

Example of a Communications Plan Information to be communicated

Groups to be communicated to

Method

Who is the Innovation Team Vision for Innovation

Staff, Management

Posters e-mail

Innovation Mandate

Timing

At the beginning of the project

Schedule of Activities e-mail

Feedback from innovation sessions

Staff, Management

Feedback sessions

Progress, Strategy and Budget requirements

Management

Briefing

Learning’s from activities

Staff, Management and People from other departments

Innovation Breakfast

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After each session Every two weeks As events are concluded

Creating an Innovation Capability in the Workplace

Collaboration An important part of enabling communication and the sharing of information is to create an environment that is conducive to collaboration. Collaboration provides an opportunity for effective two way communication, information sharing, knowledge creation and the development of new relationships. Collaboration systems provide an environment where people can work together on activities, discuss problems and issues, develop new ideas and collect and collate information and data about around important focus areas. Traditionally these types of systems were extremely expensive in the past and required a substantial investment in IT and software.

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Online Collaboration Systems A number of these systems are now available online and only require a monthly subscription. These systems provide a number of functions that support collaboration in the workplace: •

The ability for users to create news and announcements. This is a great capability for publishing new information about factors that affect your workplace for example new technology that has been developed. The Innovation Team can also use the announcements and news to update the staff on innovation activities and progress

•

Discussion forums that allow users to discuss issues, problems and to create new ideas and suggestions

•

Wiki pages. Wiki pages are a relatively new technology that allows a group of users to create, update and edit information in a collaborative manner. For example the Innovation Team may select 5 new technologies that are important to the department. All the users in the department are then able to update the information in the wiki. This provides a powerful approach to capturing and creating new information and knowledge from a group perspective. Probably the best known wiki is the wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com)

•

Shared calendars. The Innovation Team are able to place events, activities and milestones on the Shared Calendars

•

Blogs. Blogs have become more an important way for individual staff members to discuss what is happening in the workplace and to air their views about important topics.

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Things To Do on Monday

•

Research different online collaboration system

•

Take out a trial membership and experiment to see if it will bring benefit to your workplace

•

Update innovation news on the site

•

List challenges on the discussion forum

•

Create wiki pages for important topics

•

Schedule innovation activities on the shared calendar

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Section 4 Innovation Activities

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Creating Innovation Activities The Innovation Team is now ready to plan the first set of Innovation activities. Remember that innovation is about experimentation and trying different approaches, so it is recommended that you try a number of different activities. The first step is to define focus areas for your efforts. It is important to identify areas that are meaningful to the staff in the workplace. In addition by focussing on important areas will ensure that innovation activities generate meaningful value. Here are some examples of different types of activities can be planned and implemented.

•

Run challenges

•

Create opportunity for problem solving and idea generation

•

Develop new training modules

•

Create opportunity for interdepartmental collaboration

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Define focus areas It is important to define focus areas where the Innovation activities and efforts can be focussed on: Making a difference in a focus area will have a significant impact on the staff and the department. Focus areas highlight areas that are important to the organisation and the staff. Staff will therefore be motivated by successes and achievements in these areas.

Examples of Focus Areas Strategic Challenges

1. Strategically Important Areas Operational Challenges

2. Operational Challenges

Staff Issues

3. Staff Issues Inhibitors to Innovation

4. Inhibitors to Innovation

New Technologies

5. New Technologies / Processes

Strategically Important Areas Consider areas that are strategically important that your department and the organisation. Operational challenges What are the operational challenges that the department is facing? Staff Issues What are staff problems and issues that require addressing? What would make work less frustrating? Inhibitors to Innovation What are inhibitors to Innovation in your department and organisation? New Technologies / Processes What new technologies / processes can make a difference to your workplace?

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Things To Do on Monday

1. Organise a meeting with your staff 2. In the meeting discuss the following and capture on the flipchart: a. Strategic Challenges b. Operational Challenges c. Staff Issues d. Inhibitors to innovation e. New technologies 3. Review other relevant documentation such as strategy documents and surveys 4. The Innovation Team reviews all the captured data and finalises a list of focus areas Strategic StrategicChallenges Challenges

Operational OperationalChallenges Challenges

Inhibitors InhibitorstotoInnovation Innovation

Staff StaffIssues Issues

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New NewTechnologies Technologies

Creating an Innovation Capability in the Workplace

Create a Challenge Challenges are a powerful way of focussing effort and generating ideas around specific topics. 1. The Innovation Team selects one of the identified focus areas from the previous exercise. 2. Pose a challenge to the staff. For example if procurement has been identified as a bottleneck and an issue, then ask staff for ideas on how procurement could be improved. 3. If possible ask staff to form into small teams. This will create new collaboration, ideas and relationships within the workplace

Consider Considercarefully carefullythe thetypes typesofofrewards rewardsthat thatare areissued. issued. Where Where possible use recognition and token awards i.e. dinner for two, possible use recognition and token awards i.e. dinner for two,tickets tickets totoaasport event. sport event. Often Oftenhigher highervalue valuerewards rewardscause causesignificant significantissues. issues. Rather Rather incorporate the innovation activities, the individualsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; involvement incorporate the innovation activities, the individualsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; involvementand and achievements in to the company performance reviews and bonus achievements in to the company performance reviews and bonus process. process.

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4. The Innovation Team should take all the ideas, evaluate and prioritise the best ideas. 5. Another option is for the Innovation Team to make all the ideas available to everybody in the department. Everybody in the department can vote on the ideas that they like the best. 6. Implement, experiment and pilot with the best ideas.

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Points to Consider: Remember to provide feedback to the people who submit ideas Communicate the progress of the challenge Communicate and share ideas that have been generated Make sure resources are available to implement, experiment and pilot ideas Transparency of the process is important. Big rewards are not required to ensure involvement, but a commitment to trying ideas that are submitted is

Things To Do on Monday

1. Review the focus areas identified in the previous exercise 2. Select one of the focus areas 3. Create a challenge for the focus area. For example if an operational challenge is how to cut operational costs then pose a challenge asking staff for ideas on how to cut costs in their work areas. 4. Ask staff to form into small teams

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5. Identify methods and channels for staff to submit ideas 6. Create a communiquĂŠ to communicate the challenge for the staff 7. Identify a timeframe for the challenge, for example two weeks 8. Assess and evaluate the best ideas

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Problem Solving and Idea Generation It is important to try out new techniques and tools to stimulate new ideas and to solve problems. Techniques and tools are particularly powerful when applied in group situations. The Innovation Team need to plan and schedule sessions where the tools and techniques can be tried and tested. Specific focus areas for the sessions should be identified before the session (use the focus areas identified from the focus area activity) By creating a systematic approach to idea generation and problem solving will create an important capability to address issues and create required change in the workplace in a systematic manner.

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Idea Generation & Problem Solving Techniques Brainstorming Brainstorming is a popular technique that can provide a large number of ideas and suggestions in a short period of time.

Process for Brainstorming

Select an issue, problem or area of focus Break up the issue, problem or focus area into manageable sub components Collect ideas and suggestions of actions that can be performed from people and capture them on the flipchart Do not debate an idea or suggestion at this point, just capture the idea and move on The facilitator must make sure that everybody in the group is contributing suggestions and ideas

A simple method to prioritise 1. Say to the group that everybody has 5 votes to select the ideas that they like the most 2. Each person walks up to the flipchart and ticks the 5 ideas they like the most After everybody has placed their ticks, tally up the ticks and see which ideas have the most votes.

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Reframing Matrix The Reframing Matrix is a powerful tool to understand a problem or issue many different perspectives. Ideas and suggestions are then generated from the different perspectives.

Process for the Reframing Matrix

On a flipchart piece of paper draw a block with the problem or issue in the middle of the paper Draw four quadrants around the problem or issue Select four different perspectives that you are going to analyse the problem or issue from. For example Finance, Engineering, Sales and Operations In turn, go through each perspective and capture ideas to resolve the problem or issue

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Perspective 1

Perspective 2

Problem / Issue Perspective 3

Perspective 4

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The Idea Game The Idea Game can be run at meetings or specifically planned sessions. 1. Form staff into groups of 3 2. Select a specific problem or issue that you are battling with 3. The first person needs to come up with the most outrageous idea that they can think of and which would not be practical to implement 4. The second person uses the first persons idea as a base and generates a second idea which is more practical 5. The third person considers the first two ideas and creates an idea that is actionable 6. Each team reads out the ideas that they have generated, starting with the most extreme idea 7. Select ideas that can be implemented and create an Action Plan

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Creating a new Workplace If a new competitor entered the market, how would they perform the function that your department currently performs? Freed of your current constraints how would you design the department. Capture the ideas and select the best ideas for implementation. This is a fun exercise and generates a lot of ideas that can be used to improve the running of the department.

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Things To Do on Monday

1. Plan and schedule a session to experiment the different problem solving and idea generation techniques 2. Before the session identify at least four different issues and problems 3. Invite between 6 to 8 people to the session 4. Run the following activities a. Brainstorming b. Reframing Matrix c. The Idea Game d. Creating a new workplace 5. Capture the results and distribute to the participants 6. Create an Action Plan to implement the best ideas

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Create Training Modules Training modules are an important way to share information and knowledge in the workplace. Creating a training module on work that is performed in the workplace is a good way to capture and share information about the functions that the staff perform. Building up a set of training modules allows an organisational knowledge base to develop. Therefore when a person leaves the organisation the knowledge and information about there job stays behind.

Creating the Training Module 1. Create a challenge to your staff to develop a short 15 to 20 minute training module about what they do 2. The training module should provide an understanding of the purpose of the job and the steps to perform the job 3. Encourage staff to use different mediums to capture how the job is done i.e. photography, video and step by guides 4. Encourage staff to research best practice for ideas on how they can better perform their job 5. Get staff to present on a regular basis their training modules 6. Provide recognition and rewards to staff which are appropriate

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Cross department Collaboration Creating cross departmental communication and collaboration often provides an important source of new ideas and innovation. Traditionally departments within companies work on a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;siloâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; basis with very little information being shared between the different entities.

Identify which departments you most often work with

For each of the departments identify what are the most important topics that you work on together

Set up joint session with 8 people from each department Use the topics identified as a base for the session Use the Idea Generation and Problem Solving techniques to generate new ideas Prioritise ideas and identify actions Form an action plan

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Section 5 Creating the Programme

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Create the Programme of Initiatives A programme is a good method for managing the initiatives and activities that are required for the Innovation journey. The Innovation Team will use the programme to schedule,organise and plan the required activities. The programme will also allow the Innovation Team to organise the strategy, resources, logistics and budget.

1. Make a list of all the Innovation Activities that you plan to run in the next six months 2. Sequence the activities into the order that you will run them 3. Consider the resources that will be required for each activity 4. Create a rough budget for each of the activities 5. Create a schedule for the activities with dates, times, venues, required resources and the purpose 6. Communicate the programme to management and staff

Time

Plan activities and timing

The programme provides a basis for measuring and evaluating the progress of the implementation of innovation within the workplace. Activities are co-ordinated and managed from the programme providing a centralised authority, which provides appropriate governance for the programme.

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Section 6 Review

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Review The Innovation journey is an exciting learning experience. Once experimentation and interaction starts taking place and new learning occurs, the workplace will transition into a stimulating place to work offering many opportunities and create the ability to address challenges. New skills and competencies will be created and developed, with new knowledge and information flowing freely. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take some time to review the steps that have been implemented by the Innovation Team.

Creating the Innovation Platform 1. Form the Innovation Team 2. Understand the reasons why innovation is important to your workplace 3. Document the vision of what innovation can achieve in the workplace 4. Create the Mandate for innovation 5. Understand the current situation in regards to innovation in the workplace. Identify initiatives that will need to be implemented to allow a more favourable New Situation to emerge 6. Review the methods of budgeting and allocating resources in the department 7. Define the roles and responsibilities for the Innovation Team 8. Create the Communication and Collaboration framework

Running Innovation Activities 1. Pose a Challenge to the staff 2. Create opportunities for Problem Solving and Idea Generation 3. Create short training modules 4. Create an opportunity for Cross Department Collaboration 5. Create the Programme of Initiatives

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