Closing the Gap between Innovation Thought and Action

  

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To compete in today’s tumultuous economy, companies need to consistently and more efficiently drive product and service development through innovation. Executives get this, but as with most things, when it comes to innovation there are those who ‘talk’ and those who ‘do’. Only those that back a verbal commitment to innovation with budget, resources, and sound innovation practices will fully reap innovation’s rewards.

Unfortunately, for many organizations the gulf between words and action is as wide as ever. Whether you are in management or are an engineer, designer, scientist or researcher tasked with innovating new and improving existing products/processes, you need to focus on innovation execution. 

Innovation Practitioners, consider how you can:

• Leverage innovation tools and methods to speed ideation and inventive problem solving
• Integrate innovation best practices into your daily routine
• Use technology to harness and leverage internal and external knowledge
• Tap subject matter experts inside your organization to their fullest
• Better collaborate with all constituencies in your innovation environment
• Effectively communicate the return on innovation to management

Management, be sure you are:

• Actively engaged in supporting and promoting innovation 
• Willing to take some risk
• Making the needed investments in people, programs and tools to build innovation competence
• Giving innovation workers access to the internal and external knowledge they need to more rapidly solve problems and generate ideas
• Building an innovation center of excellence
• Ensuring the alignment of corporate objectives and innovation strategy
• Recognizing and rewarding innovation contributors
• Encouraging your innovation workers  to regularly practice innovation techniques

Innovation is for ‘doers’. Close the gap between innovation thought and action and you’ll be on your way to making repeatable, high-value innovation a reality for your company.