Do you have innovation initiatives where you work? There are seven critical factors you need in place in order for innovation to start, thrive, and stick. Here’s a short video on the seven factors:
The seven factors are:
1. OK to iterate — The culture has to be tolerant and accepting of trying something out, then adjusting it or withdrawing it and trying something else.
2. The A-Ha! moment — You can’t just teach people an innovation process. They have to have an a-ha moment where they “get it”. You’ve got to engineer training and situations so people have that a-ha moment.
3. Autonomy — People need to have some control over what they innovate and how they do it. You can’t micromanage innovation.
4. Constraints — Although people need some autonomy, they also need some constraints. Research shows that people are MORE creative if they have some constraints they are working within.
5. Top-Down and Bottom-Up — You need both the top and the “in the trenches” people to buy in to innovation. If the push to innovate is coming from top management only, it won’t thrive and stick; likewise if innovation comes from the trenches, but doesn’t have support from above.
6. Trust — Being innovative is being vulnerable. If your corporate culture is one of mis-trust it will be hard to get innovation going.
7. Use innovation to plan the innovation — If you are charged with getting innovation going, start by using innovation techniques and processes to figure out your implementation plan.
What do you think? Have you found these factors to be important in your innovation plans?
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