Managing Innovation

Innovation has become increasingly important to many organizations in recent years. Innovation by employees at all levels is important in developing new products, improving existing products and services, differentiating the organization from its competitors, enhancing revenue, and preparing for the future. 

Many people, without thinking about it very much, assume that creativity is a stable attribute of particular workers, and that the problem of innovation is best approached by hiring more highly innovative people.  Thus many organizations have not paid attention to the boost in creativity and innovation that can come from managing the “climate” of the small working group and the larger organization.  Much innovative thinking, for example, comes from successful collaboration between people and groups; in many cases, two or more heads turn out to be substantially better than one.

At the same time, many organizations are unaware of factors that can become major barriers to creativity and innovative thinking.  For organizations that deliver services to other organizations, for example, the customer organization can create constraints on innovation, because its members may be uneasy about doing things in new ways, or about adopting unfamiliar solutions for their normal problems.  In some organizations, a corporate “immune system” or a “not invented here” response is often stimulated by novel ideas—and the new ideas can be squelched.

GLS can help identify barriers to creative problem solving and innovative thinking, and can help measure, improve, and track the “innovation climate” of its client organizations. Since the goal is to increase the number, value, and impact of innovative solutions, these must also be measured and tracked—and GLS Consulting can help.

Defining innovation

We think of the term “innovation” quite broadly.  Innovations include, but are not limited to: 

·        minor or moderate improvements to an existing system or process, such as a normal periodic release of existing software;

·        more fundamental improvements that use methods not previously considered;

·        new ideas, principles, or approaches that change for the better the way the customer is able to work, or able to prevent failures or problems;

·        creation of new or simplified products, or new approaches to a common problem;

·        creation of new ways of thinking about or organizing the organization’s internal work, or the customer’s work;

·        creation of solutions that integrate and/or simplify a variety of processes.

Tracking innovation

Many innovations that workers introduce can remain “under the radar screen,” to management, because the people that create them don’t inform others about what they have done.  If the organization is to enhance the extent to which workers at all levels contribute new approaches and new ideas, the organization must be able to measure, track, and recognize the innovative contributions of members. GLS’s approach to this problem begins with a simple self-report form in which workers periodically identify their involvement in new ideas and products, and assess their usefulness and potential impact.  The innovations reported by members are easily categorized and evaluated, and this forms a basis for tracking the rate and quality of innovations.

Innovation climate

GLS believes that the frequency of creative solutions and innovative approaches to problems is, in all organizations, strongly influenced by certain characteristics of the small work group as well as the organization’s broader management methods.  People are more likely to innovate if they:

·        feel safe with their peers and managers;

·        feel encouraged to find new approaches and new answers;

·        are recognized for their innovative work;

·        feel able to take appropriate risks without penalty;

·        have enough time and flexibility to consider problems;

·        can collaborate effectively with peers, which includes the comfort required to explore disagreements about problems and approaches to them;

·        are connected with people doing similar work or encountering similar problems in other parts of the organization, or in the customer community (link here to the Connected Company paper);

·        feel free to ask others for help, and willing to help others if asked.

GLS has devised a simple, generic survey measure of innovation climate that includes an assessment of the characteristics of the work group, and the aspects of the organization that most affect the ability of the work group and its members to innovate.  GLS recommends tailoring the measure for the individual organization, and using additional items designed to assess barriers to innovation that are particular to the organization, such as the characteristics of the customer community, the organization’s own “immune system,” and so on.

The Innovation Tracking and the Innovation Climate measures should be used to obtain a baseline prior to making improvements, and used to identify the most important areas for improvement.  GLS Consulting will suggest methods for improving the elements of the climate that seem most important in maximizing useful innovations.  Once changes are made, the success of the changes can be gauged by subsequent periodic administrations of the Innovation Climate and Innovation Tracking measures.