7 Insights from Facilitating Innovation Training

Building an innovation culture has never felt so important as it does right now. In this new paradigm of constant, accelerating change, it’s not enough to batten down the hatches and park the riskier elements of your business strategy. In fact, this is exactly the moment when creative problem solving and an openness to experiment present the greatest opportunities.

Recent research has highlighted that 43% of leaders said their business is not set up to navigate change confidently. Unsurprisingly, this is why innovation and upskilling staff are the top two priorities for 37% and 32% of c-suite leaders respectively. They recognise that innovative mindsets and capabilities will be essential to guide businesses through the many disruptive forces on the horizon.

Over the past year I’ve had the pleasure of being part of the team that developed our Innovation Academy within Magnetic. Our mission is to give people and businesses the skills, knowledge and practical tools they need to make innovation happen, navigate uncertainty and thrive through change.?

In that time I’ve had the chance to train over 200 alumni across a range of industries and upskill them in our ways and methods of working. Here’s seven insights on what I’ve learnt along the way.

Change is testing but necessary. All businesses and their people have had their fair share of challenges over the past few years. Most people who we speak to have gone through some really testing times. At the same time they have come to the understanding that it is more important than ever to look into new problem solving methods, not just to stay competitive and innovative, but to break away from the tried-and-often-failed status quo.

“The ability to manage change as a constant is an imperative for our business. There’s not a start and finish - it requires constant innovation.” - Simon Woolf, PATRIZIA

Train the muscle memory. Design thinking is an iterative and creative problem-solving approach that helps to identify problems, imagine potential solutions and test, learn and iterate. Most people who take our Academy courses have heard about its value and how it can help in solving problems. However, few have taken the time and steps required to apply it to a business challenge and see for themselves. Our training is designed to be as practical as possible to give everyone the opportunity to repeatedly apply what they have learned. The result is a learning experience that is far more engaging and leads to better behavioural change.?

“The variety of activities and the interactive exercises have helped me build the muscle memory for bringing the techniques back to my day job.” -? Iqbal Marikkar, OFCOM

Make it real. We’re practitioners (not trainers) so with every cohort we're aiming to share our own insights alongside the tools and principles. We’ve found that what our participants really love is hearing stories about how we have solved similar, real problems with real clients. As a practitioner bringing in our experience and examples when asked ‘how does it work in the real world?’ embeds all the tools and learnings in reality. Not sure your idea will work? Don’t worry, let me share a story of a time a Fortune 500 company did something equally abstract and turned it into success.

Create the space to debate. Even though we’ve run these courses multiple times each cohort brings such a different dynamic thanks to diversity of sectors, roles and specialisms in attendance. The debates and knowledge sharing from the cross-industry, cross-functional mix of people is always a huge highlight for me but it also enriches the learning of others in the room. Some know a great deal about design thinking and are looking for a refresh, others are very new to the topic altogether. Regardless, we intentionally make a safe space and build in the time for people to share their opinions and even challenges to the process itself. The result is a vibrant and engaging discussion that brings in tonnes more perspective and insight.

Break the routine. As much as I'd love to believe it’s purely our content and facilitation driving the magic in the room, the other key ingredient is place. Getting people out of the confines of their everyday workplace, together with embracing a Day One mindset, leads to some very energised individuals buzzing to challenge the way things are done. Key to this is ensuring their leaders have given them permission to think freely in the session and are sponsoring the drive for change.?

Trust the process. In innovation it is our job to navigate through uncertainty and design thinking helps us to turn uncertainty into confidence through evidence. Along the way there are plenty of times where things might not seem clear and progress can feel pretty tedious. However, leaning on our well established tools and methods and sticking to the plan has repeatedly come through with the goods. I’m often parroting the mantra: trust the process and it’s an awesome feeling as a facilitator when it all comes together and participants go ‘A-ha, now I get it!’?

The learning doesn’t start and end in the room. We know that for training to truly land there’s a vital process before and after. It starts upfront by engaging our clients to really understand why they are looking to develop their capabilities and assessing where they are at. The experience continues through the course delivery to afterwards where we are checking-in to evaluate the learner development, hear stories of application and provide coaching where required. From speaking to our clients it’s this macro perspective which distinguishes us from other training partners.

“I just reviewed the content after 4 months, and believe it or not, most of the materials remained fresh which is a testament to your approach!” - Sundar Ramaswamy, Fresenius

If you’d like to see what I’m talking about in action, check out our latest Innovation Academy video here.