Phases of Innovation
Excerpt Sentence:
Innovation doesn’t happen by chance. It takes place in distinct phases, with
contributions from people at all levels of the organization, and often external sources as
well.
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When I ask business leaders to identify which part of the innovation process their
organizations struggle with the most, I typically get one of three answers:
We have a lot of ideas but most of them get judged as impossible or too hard to
implement based on changing the way things currently are
We have a hard time deciding which idea or opportunity to pursue
We come up with a lot of good ideas but can’t seem to execute on them
Interestingly, these align exactly with the phases of innovation: discovery, evaluation,
and execution.
In business, innovation is the act of applying knowledge to the creation of new
processes, products, and services that have value for at least one of your stakeholder
groups. Obviously, this requires more than just generating a slew of creative ideas.
In order to produce true innovation, you have to actually do something different that
has value. In other words, follow through on the good ideas. This requires a very
different set of skills and resources than idea generation. If you’re not getting any
traction with your innovation efforts, it may be that your organization lacks the skills and
competencies to complete one or more of the following phases.
Phase I - Discovery
Phase I has two basic objectives: developing core innovation competencies and
generating new and creative ideas, which often includes gathering customer insights
and translating them into workable ideas.
Everyone has the ability to think creatively, but most people need some training and
coaching in order to bring out those latent abilities. Key activities during this phase
include providing learning sessions, workshops, collaboration fairs, ideation boot camps,
and other tools that teach people how to think differently.
Innovation enablers during this phase include:
Encouraging and rewarding idea generation
Awareness of the brain’s processing and potential hurdles
Defining winning/excellence
Balancing big picture and details
Challenging assumptions
“What if?” thinking
Changing perspectives
Considering the right answer
Influencing others effectively
Key players during this phase: individual contributors and managers who encourage and
support them.
Phase II - Evaluation
This phase separates the wheat from the chaff, as potential ideas and opportunities
undergo a rigorous screening process. New ideas are discussed, tested, evaluated, and
compared for their potential to add value to customers, generate new revenue streams,
or accomplish a specific innovation goal. The primary objective is to identify the highest-
value opportunities and determine the feasibility of turning them into reality.
Innovation enablers during this phase include:
Creating and supporting an idea evaluation framework
Taking risks
Balancing day-to-day versus longer term
Accepting ideas (remain open)
Looking for “and” versus “but” solutions
Encouraging some failure (within boundaries)
Thinking cross-functionally/organizationally
Key players during this phase: managers and leaders who have set clear strategic
direction and guidance.
Phase III - Execution
This phase involves making sure that the high-value opportunities identified during the
evaluation phase align with your organizational capabilities. Then senior management
has to commit the time, money, and resources to make the innovation happen. This is
followed by close tracking of the business performance of the new product or service, as
well as measuring the process used to develop the innovation and looking for ways to
improve it.
Innovation enablers during this phase include:
Continually communicating the need for innovation as a business focus/strategic
mandate
Linking innovation to key strategies
Sponsoring innovation projects
Incorporating innovation reports into the business review processes
Funding innovation
Developing risk management strategies and approaches
Capturing and sharing innovation learnings
Learning from failures
Key players during this phase: senior management/leaders.
The added benefits of innovation
When innovation becomes a way of life in your organization, you get a lot more than
just new products and services.
The organizational mindset shifts to one of relentless improvement, with an increased
awareness of opportunities and possibilities for products and efficiencies. There is more
listening, less knee-jerk defending of old ideas, and a greater understanding of, and
interest in, unmet customer needs.
As individuals begin to understand their roles in the innovation process, you get more
clarity on what success looks like and how to achieve it. Standards of performance
increase, along with an increased willingness and ability to hold each other accountable
for meeting them.
Most important, as you begin to develop a sustainable innovation approach, the
emphasis tends to shift from maintaining old successes to considering new opportunities
and products – a key element in staying ahead of changing customer needs rather than
always trying to catch up.
If you struggle to get new products to market, ask yourself, “Where are we getting
stuck? What skills and competencies do we need to develop to move forward?” When
you have all the pieces in place to successfully complete all stages, innovation becomes
your way of working, not a project or initiative that goes away when the next business
buzzword gains prominence!
TAGS: innovation, ideas, success, business, stakeholders, organization, products,
services, leaders, managers