The One Thing it Takes to Innovate

I spent the past week partnering with a team from another company. Our project is centered around Design Thinking based improvement and innovation.

The entire building where we worked is specifically designed around supporting innovation as were the majority of companies housed there. The building and particularly this company had all the ‘stuff’ you would expect. Cool furniture, neon signs, art and the various games that have for some come to symbolize creative thinking environments. Even the buses bringing in the commuting workers was bright orange and labeled as an Innovation Bus.

All of the stuff is in fact pretty cool and the atmosphere does lend itself to creative thinking. In the end, innovation really happens, as it is happening for us, as the result of hard work. We spent hours listening to actual customers and learning from them. Diving deeper with them, showing them prototypes, exploring ideas and gathering insights.

Some parts of it were frankly tedious but oh so important to understanding the actual human need. And this came only after months of additional listening and prep. Other projects going on around us spent hours making and remaking prototypes. Also testing and remaking, testing and remaking.

Most of what makes up innovation and improvement is plain old fashioned, hard work. Like an athlete training in the gym, hours on end for months, all for a brief moment of competition. Innovation is long hours of hard work for the one breakthrough. Not just hard work of course, it also has to be the right kind of work, focused on the right kinds of things.

In the midst of all the images, atmosphere and excitement of innovation, it was a good reminder to me this week. Whether you are focused on Continuous Improvement or Design Thinking, improvement and innovation will always require one thing, hard work.