Innovation is Making Things Better.
Why ‘making?’ Because innovation is a step-by-step process to turn thoughts into actions. What ‘things’? Anything that should be better. What do we mean by ‘better’? Whatever we want it to mean: faster, simpler, cleaner, greener, whatever.
Making Things Better isn’t just what we think innovation is. It’s why we think it matters.
It’s what we humans have always done.
Around 10,000 years ago we had just two technologies – rocks and sticks – until one day one of our distant ancestors thought of putting the rocks on the sticks. This was arguably our first big innovation and the start of the Neolithic Age. After about 2.5 million years of stagnation we suddenly had the makings of a technological revolution that would ultimately send us into space and stock the shelves of your local hardware superstore.
Innovation isn’t new. It’s what we’ve done since the very beginning.
It’s as big a deal as you want it to be.
These days it feels as if innovation is a game for maverick billionaires only; if you haven’t invented a cutting edge technology or launched your own space program you can’t be called an innovator.
We disagree. innovation is Making Things Better, not necessarily bigger, Or bolder. Or wilder. It doesn’t have to be high-tech, expensive, disruptive, paradigm-shifting, ground breaking, mind-boggling or unprecedented in all of human history. Of course, it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. It doesn’t even have to be new.
Just better.
Continuous improvement makes things a little better every day. Quality assurance makes sure they stay that way.
Six Sigma, LEAN manufacturing, Kaizen and whatever the next big management tool turns out to be – so long as you’re actually Making Things Better, you’re innovating as far as we’re concerned.
Great Minds Don't Think Alike
It requires the orchestration of different mindsets.
Like problem solving, innovation uses every kind it can get – idealists and cynics, optimisers and pragmatists, dreamers and doers. Get the right minds asking the right questions at the right time and you can bring just about any idea to life. Our approach to this orchestration can be summarised as Imagine, Develop, Evaluate, Act and the simple acronym: IDEA.
These are minds that cannot help questioning the orthodox while embracing the unorthodox – and we’ve never met a group that doesn’t have a handful of these minds hiding somewhere in the org chart. Give them a list of problems and they’ll give you a longer list of ideas – they won’t be able to help themselves.
It’s fun to think ‘outside the square’ but the real test of ideas is how well they’ll work inside it once developed into credible, quantifiable plans. Patient, meticulous and disciplined, they work within real-world limitations to figure out what new ideas they can – and can’t – get away with.
These are pedantic people who understand risk, cost, law and politics. Often demonised as enemies of innovation, they’re really its best friend; by ensuring only the brightest ideas survive to see the light of day, they transform big ideas into great outcomes.
Again, an easy mind to find; driven, energetic, impatient and probably hyper-caffeinated, all they want is a clear decision, an objective, a set of KPIs and a deadline.
One Final Thing...
This kind of orchestration rarely happens organically.
Left to their own devices, realists will lock horns with idealists, abstract minds will exasperate the more concrete thinkers, and pragmatists will probably find some excuse to skip the meeting altogether. But fire up those minds in the right sequence and they’ll turn your problems into ideas, ideas into plans, plans into decisions and ultimately – actions. And if you recognise and appreciate their contributions they’ll keep doing it.
Invite others to join in what will become a vibrant and nimble innovation culture.