Communicate And Train To Foster Innovation

Commenting on “Think Innovation Is A Number Game? Think Again; Change The Rules.”, fellow blogger Katie Konrath wrote:

“Of course, the danger with this is that companies could come down too hard on their employees in insisting that only "good ideas" should be suggested.  Then the enthusiasm for creativity will quickly die and employees won't even want to submit quality ideas.  The innovation culture at 3M was almost ruined by management's insistence on strict Six Sigma evaluations for every idea.

“However, I do agree that thinking of thousands (or hundreds) of bad ideas will not result in a fantastically good idea.

“Perhaps the key is for companies to welcome ideas, while also training employees how to think of better ideas.”

These are legitimate concerns. So, let’s address them.

The innovation best practices that implement a directed innovation approach do not create an idea squelching environment.  Rather, the environment created is one that fosters creative thinking.  But in so doing, the directed innovation philosophy empowers innovation workers to be much more effective in their own efforts through communication and process.

The communication part of the equation is very important.  The world is not one size fits all.  The techniques and solutions that apply are very situational.  Consider a very simple example—training a dog.  Most people’s first thought might be “Where’s the bag of dog treats?”  But if your goal is to train the dog to find survivors in disaster situations, this approach will have very bad consequences as the dog seeks out every scrap of food in the rubble.  For this kind of training, human interaction must be used as the reward.

What are the goals of your organization and of your customers?  Understanding these goals is critical to formulating the right innovation problem statements and eventually to selecting the best solution approach.  But the need for communication doesn’t stop there.

Think how much more effective innovation workers could be if they knew what the organization knows.  Enterprises need to provide the mechanisms to allow employees to identify the internal knowledge of the organization that applies to the issues they are examining.  Additionally, innovation workers should be provided with efficient ways to leverage knowledge from outside the enterprise.  What is known by your industry?  What is known by those outside your industry?

Process is the other half of the equation.  Yes, that’s right.  Contrary to what some may think, “innovation process” is not an oxymoron.  Innovation best practices define a number of specific techniques that comprise the tool bag of the skilled innovation practitioner.  Katie is exactly right when she suggests that companies need to train their employees to think of better ideas.  Innovation is a trainable discipline

If companies invest in equipping their innovation workers with the right information and the proper innovation skills, they will see vastly improved predictability and return on investment in their innovation efforts.