BUSINESS ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. NEWS
TECHNOLOGY
3
Th Thee
n n o o ti ti a a v v o o n n In In l l fu fu ss ss e e c c c c Su Su to to ts ts n n ie ie redd In Inggre
Innovation by its very nature is dealing with new untested ideas. Due to the unruly and unpredictable nature of innovation it would be wrong to set ground rules, however there are three core ingredients your organisation needs to tap into when innovating: shed creativity 1. Unto beleaabl e to think of new
ways of tackling old problems, or coming up with solutions to problems people didn’t realise they had.
ility to be able to test 2. Ag the ideas quickly to see if they are viable and, if they are, get them straight to market.
3. A healthy acceptausane let’ces of failure bec
face it, if the idea is new and untested then there is no way you will know whether it will be a success or not.
6
CIO Magazine Winter Issue
2. 1.
creativity. First let’s look at onnect Search out and c es in your with the creativ d if you can’t organisation, an them! find them ... hire you’ve either got
cept ativity you have to ac When it comes to cre n be just be taught ca t tha not something it or you haven’t. It’s on a training course. out what defines le generally think ab In society when peop and ‘drama’ come e’ tur as ‘art’, ‘litera creativity, words such deem ‘right brain t some people would to mind, attributes tha eed help with ind do s of these attribute thinking’. Whilst all ativity, in terms of en we think about cre creative thinking, wh allenge the norm, Ch . think challenge we ay, yw an n tio ova inn ional thinking. quo, challenge tradit challenge the status d to challenge the isation is best place And who in the organ al people you dit tion? Not the tra ion n ion norm and drive innova strategic directio ure fut r you ing en shap the ate cre d normally listen to wh lpe he s d executive that ha le-dle dl … not the experience e’ … not the midd and ‘seen it all befor ay tod in g gin en all ch norm you are by n tio want to risk promo manager that doesn’t ve come before r executives that ha nio se the the thinking of w breed, the young, ts, the geeks, the ne them ... it’s the misfi challenge and to d ce t are best pla the inexperienced tha prove and little t have something to d nd innovate. The ones tha grammed an pro ely rat t are not corpo k as t tha to lose. The one’s tha one’s eing it all before’, the r jaded by years of ‘se nsider ‘why not’. If you co n’t do y ntl rta po to ed ne bly ‘why’ and more im proba have them, then you organisation doesn’t strategy and let some iew erv int d an t en look at your recruitm of these misfits in. g,, mmunity of young d engage with this co of e siz the How you connect an on s nd pe s people really de tech savvy, ambitiou you must give t whatever your size bu n, tio d nd your organisa be creative an to and environment e ac sp st, ow low tru oll fol l the wil le d peop ideas, an that you are open to to d de en int s clearly demonstrate wa at ones. If you don’t, wh through on the good ably be a turn off. vit ine l be a turn on wil
Once you have the ideas, it’s all about agility Having the ideas is only the first step of the equation, ideas are no good to anyone if they just stay in our heads. In today’s fast moving business landscape innovative ideas are also no good if they take you years to realise and get to market. It’s too little too late! This is where agility comes into the equation, and we’re not just talking about Agil e with a capital ‘A’ (although this is becoming incr easing important). We’re also talking about the agil ity to change your organisational structure, your agility to break down organisational silos and pull together multidisciplinary teams, your agility to make decisions fast and not procrastinate, you r agility to change your business model, and you r agility to take risks. To truly harness innovation you need to make innovation agility part of the fabr ic of your organisation. Although you may create ‘innovation’ functions within your organisa tion to run the mechanics of innovation (idea generation, idea management, Agile teams, prot otyping, etc), innovations will only graduate out of the innovation factory if the rest of the organisa tion is ready to embrace the new products. It needs to accept and ada apt pt to new ew bus b iness models or new ways of working that the he inno inn nnovations o bring.
3. Accept cept an ce and nd d embrace failure (at least in the short-term) As we mentioned, innovation by its very nature is dealing with new untested ideas, therefore to truly innovate you have to put failure to one side. How can you guarantee that something new and untested will be a success? You just can’t. More crucially your people will be reluctant to push the boundaries, to disrupt, if they fear they will be judged if they fail. However what you can do is embrace failure and learn from it, not push it under the table, make failure a positive thing and come out the other side stronger. Central to embracing failure is taking finance off the innovation table, think of it like a casino. You assess how much you can afford to lose and balance that against the odds of the game and the potential return. You make a few calculated moves to try and increase your odds, but when it comes down to it, you win some you lose some, that’s the game, how much you win or lose depends on your risk appetite but just make sure you don’t go all in without good reason, and remember sometime it’s all about the long game!
So when setting out on your unpredictable innovation journey, be sure that you include the three core ingredients of creativity, agility and a healthy acceptance of failure. This way your journey is more likely to take you in the right direction! Graeme Curwen
CIO Magazine Winter Issue
7