Today is tomorrow's problem

Releasing innovation

Innovation: /?n??ve??(?)n/ (noun) The action or process of innovating. 'innovation is crucial to the continuing success of any organisation.' A new method, idea, product, etc. 'technical innovations designed to save energy.'

Oxford English Dictionary

The result of innovation is something most companies want. Whether that's a new method to streamlining a process; an idea that encourages more sales; or a product that gives new life to a stagnating portfolio. Yet few companies know how to seek out, respond to, or engage in innovation. Why is that?

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'Today' is part of the problem with most companies lack of innovation. This very moment to this looming month end, this quarter, the financial year end, appraisal time. The now, here and present. We design our business culture to be laser focused on today. Even the projects that we invest in are scrutinised to how they impact the now. This includes companies that heavily invest in developing strategies and planning for tomorrow. How do we drive innovation without today being the problem?

Let's first understand what innovation is and is not:

Innovation IS about the 'action or process' of innovating.

Innovation IS NOT the result of innovating.

Let that sink in for a moment. Innovation is about how you get to a result and not the result itself. An innovative method, idea or product is just that - innovative. It is an innovative method, idea or product. Innovation talks to the 'how' of that delivered item.

Today is tomorrow's problem. As a company is set to focus on today's problems; the act of innovation is often left to senior or select members of staff employed specifically to consider tomorrow. So why is this a problem? Surely a company investing in teams to focus on innovation will deliver innovative products?

Play along at the office: Try talking to someone with a looming deadline about something that may or may not happen tomorrow. Ask them for their input. Ask how they might want to be involved in the process of determining whether or not tomorrow might be better than what needs to be done today. Comment below when you've recovered from the backlash.

Today is the problem most people, responsible for innovation in a company, will encounter. It's not to belittle the importance of today, or to undermine a process that appears to be working 'just fine'. It is not about trying to challenge what someone is working so hard at delivering right now. No matter how much these perceptions are often quoted as the case. It is about the lack of time afforded to someone who will be able to contribute best to the process. The person who has most effect over today's process.

Innovation requires a culture that thrives on the process of thinking about tomorrow. The today people challenging themselves to refine, adjust, tweak, test and learn as they go along. Always pushing for tomorrow. A wanting for better.

To focus only on today expecting that tomorrow will bring innovation is a recipe for failure. To silo a team to only think about tomorrow whilst the rest of the company is dealing with today, is an ice cube in a warming ocean. Innovation cannot happen without the whole of the company directed towards achieving it.

Thousands of tiny improvements

When innovation is done properly, you will focus less on the end product and more on what improvements are made en route to exploring that product. Innovation is often about the thousands of tiny improvements that are made as an idea is explored. The act of looking at problems in different ways. The freedom to stop and challenge yourself. To not be threatened by the question to look at your own area of expertise as possibly benefiting from improvement. The ability to listen, think, to try, fail and learn. The idea itself might start out blue and end up red. It might start out as a marketing promotion and end up becoming your best selling product. Innovation is the process that the entire company needs to embrace.

What might you do to improve the adoption of innovation in your company?

• Reach out and listen - people love to complain when something doesn't work the way they want it too.
• Capture ideas from the smallest to the largest - use an ideas board and interact with those that take time to make suggestions.
• Invite staff to join the project - insist that your project includes time from the people you need. Invite them and second them for the duration of the project, backfilling their role.
• Make time - have time made available to every employee (from the MD down to the cleaning staff) to consider how they can improve not only their own area, but the whole company. 10% - Half a day per week, spent purely on considering what changes 'they' want to make.
• Set an objective - have an objective set around innovation for every employee. Ask that they demonstrate how they seek out and make improvements in their own work, and how they contribute to supporting innovation across the company.
• Invest in many, not a few - the process of innovation is fraught with unknowns, changing opportunities, challenges and more. Failure is most definitely an option. The result is not to deliver 10 different products, but to have engaged in the process of delivering 10 new ideas. If only one succeeds on the merit of becoming a product, regardless of the failure of the other nine, the company has succeeded in trialing 10 new ideas and have made untold improvements along the way. And hey, you have a new innovative method, idea or product to pay for it all.

If you identified with this article, it will be great to hear from you. Perhaps in conversation we can help one another out - make our own small improvements on our way to innovating a new method, idea or product.

? Copyright 2017 - Matt Jones - uservox

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