Ten Guidelines for Your Path to Becoming an Amazing Innovator

Innovation is damned difficult. And becoming an amazing innovator even more. You face endless challenges in a globally connected complex online world where the business of today keeps getting prioritised above being successful tomorrow. And especially when you want to innovate a 'big old elephant', like a bank, a chemical company, a university hospital or government insitution from within your challenge gets exponentially more difficult as these institutions are worlds on their own.

Many ambitious innovators are looking for "the holy grail'; an answer to their main challenge of how to become successful in innovation. Becoming a successful innovator you can't learn at university. They might inspire you and teach you the tools but innovation is a discipline you learn by experience only. I have been struggling with innovation myself, making 1000+ mistakes, for 35 years. That's why I like to share with you ten guidelines on how you can become a more effective and successful innovator.

These days it's very popular organisation in organisations to build a 'so-called' eco-system for innovation with systems, platforms, processes and templates to facilitate people to be more innovative. Of course facilitating people in this way will help. But will it make your organisation innovative?

Without innovative eggs, you will never get innovative chickens.

In essence it's very simple. Organisations consists of people. So when you have innovative people, you have an innovative organisation. You might think it's a of chicken and egg situation. You need innovative chickens to get innovative eggs. But I learned that without innovative eggs, you will never get innovative chickens.

That's why my guidelines focus on people, like you, and especially their mind- and skillset. Now you can point out to others in your organisation and say they are not innovative. But when you point at them take a look at your hand. Three of your five fingers point to yourself, reminding you that innovation starts with you.

Now innovation is not an 'on-off' button you can push. You will have to work hard for it is my personal experience. On your path to becoming an amazing innovator I like to support you with these ten guidelines:

1.????Be Courageous. Every large organisation is focussed on operational excellence to improve their profits or impact today. As business economist as understand that very well as operational excellence gives you the profits of today. But what will make your organisation profitable tomorrow? ... Or the day after tomorrow? You are right: innovation excellence! That's why real innovators must be courageous to challenge the status quo. Your role is to question the present best practices and challenge your co-workers to start looking for 'the next practices' which will differentiate you from your competitors. In trying to break the patterns in your organisation be sure to pick the right moment. Moments when people get nervous anyway like when profits drop, a big customer leaves or new government rules threaten your market. That's the moment to be courageous and stick out your neck, challenging the status quo.

2.????Focus. Simply put innovation is doing new things or doing things in a real new way. it creates a lot of freedom and uncertainty. Now your organisation has obviously a corporate strategy and a vision for the future (I hope). But is it clear in which direction your organisation wants to innovate? If you ask your colleagues what's our innovation focus is, do you get a straight clear answer? Mostly not. Innovation is a journey. But in which direction you travel? That's why you should make a North star to guide you. Create together with your top managers a clear short innovation assignment, with a bold goal, clear expectations and concrete criteria which the new innovation initiatives have to meet. This will motivate and gives inspiration.

3.???Get Buy-in. As you can see in the LinkedIn poll above, the biggest challenge for innovators is getting top management buy-in. When you pick the right moment to innovate be sure to connect them to your innovation process. Start to draft your innovation assignment with them, to make their expectations explicit and take them with you on their journey. The only way to get buy-in is when their DNA is in the new solutions generated. When they join your design thinking innovation process you let them create their own grandchildren, which they always will love

4.????Be Open minded. Being in the operational excellence mode is like wearing blinders. You will only see what fits into your present focus, because you will reject everything that does not fit. People in organisations working on innovation projects will have to learn in ideation phases to postpone their judgment. Instead of being in a "yes or no" modus you could ask the question: "what do we learn from this?". Essential for getting new ideas is to get new insights first. And you will get these insights only when you are in a learning mode.

5.????Be Customer-centered. Essential for your innovation success is the adoption of your new offerings by your customers. Adopting your new products or services means for them changing their behaviour. Now, why should they? When did you last changed your behaviour and why? Right, you only change your behaviour when something solves a real need or problem at that moment. That's why your innovation thinking and - process should be customer-centered. Discovering customer frictions (challenges or problems) at the start of innovation is essential. It will get you and your colleagues in the learning mode and customer frictions provide great platforms to build a relevant new solution with a high chance of adoption.

6.????Be Passionate – Innovation is frustrating. Yes, I know. Most of the time you feel like 'a lonely wolf' finding very little empathy and resonance from your colleagues. That's where your personal passion comes in. It’s your own passion which continuously recharges your battery and gives you the strength to continue your innovation journeys. So only work on issues and projects you’re really passionate for. If don’t love it at first sight. Leave it, as it's not worth draining your personal energy on something which does not moves you.

7.????Experiment – Another LinkedIn poll shows you that the main reason innovation polls get killed is the lack of management support. As innovation is doing things we never have done the uncertainty and risk is too big for them to say yes. They just don't dare, which is a completely understandable human character trait, by the way. So for you as innovator, reducing uncertainty is key, and doing experiments is the solution. From Eric Ries Lean Startup theory you know the concept of making a 'minimum viable product' (MVP). It's a version of your new offering your create early in your innovation process to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. By making MVPs you increase the certainty that customers will adopt your new solution. In business-to-business markets co-creating new solutions in the R&D process with potential customers is also a great way to reduce risk, as often a launching customer is already onboard.

Be resilient, as innovation does not stop at the first no. That's the moment it really starts.

8.???Be Resilient – The biggest obstacle for innovators is a two-letter word: 'No'! We all heard the following sentences:

• No, we can't make it.
• No, there is no market for it.
• No, it does not fit our strategy.
• No, nobody has ever done this before.
• No, our board won't like it.

As real innovator you must be ready and prepared to have to transform 100 no's into yesses to get your innovation project to the finish. Be resilient, as innovation does not stop at the first no. That's the moment it really starts.

9.???Be Fast – Our new online world is in a fast-forward mode, which is a complete mismatch with the slow and congested stage-gate innovation processes in big organisations. It takes organisations on average 18 months to develop and launch a new service and 3 years to to introduce a new product on the market. In some sectors, like chemicals or pharmaceuticals it might even be five - to ten years, or even longer. Now innovation is a marathon, but these days you have to be fast. So run your innovation marathon like a sprint.

10. Be disciplined – Innovation is transforming an idea into reality. It needs structure and requires discipline to bring all good initiatives to the end. Use a methodology as a structured framework for your journey. Do not invent the wheel, as there are so many great innovation methods available, like the Lightning Decision Jam, a Design Sprint or integrated methods combining design thinking with business thinking like the FORTH innovation methodology. The structure will help you and your innovation team mates being discilplined in doing the right things in the right order.

I wish you lots of success on your your path to becoming an amazing innovator, and I like to inspire you with the text from the iconic Think Different Apple commercial narrated by Steve Jobs;

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. — Steve Jobs, 1997

innovative regards, Gijs.

Ps. When you want to master an effective online innovation method to become a successful innovator, you might check out?this next?100% online training April 2022?in the FORTH innovation method.