Practical ideas for innovation

Practical Ideas for
Innovation

Stan Garfield
May 2011

© 2011 Deloitte Global Services Limited

Innovation and knowledge management

1. Innovation is easy to talk about

2. All organizations are in favor of increasing innovation

3. Innovation is hard to actually do

4. Knowledge management should enable and support innovation

5. But how?

2 Practical Ideas for Innovation © 2011 Deloitte Global Services Limited

Recommended practices
1. Use internal and external collaboration for leaders to request ideas
a. Blog regularly to ask for suggestions
b. Reply to comments to let people know what will actually be done
2. Engage communities of practice
a. Solicit ideas on the top issues facing the organization
b. Make members believe that their voices are being heard
3. Acknowledge skepticism about idea collection
a. Admit that suggestions may be perceived as a waste of time, since in the
past, no changes were made
b. Counter this perception by implementing new and meaningful changes to
show that things are different now
4. Try out new ways of doing things
a. Demonstrate tangible manifestations of concepts
b. Apply successive iterations for continuous improvement
5. Use successful approaches
a. Positive Deviance
b. Appreciative Inquiry


1. Engage communities of practice

• Ask communities of practice for ideas
• Engage with both internal and external communities
• Challenge members to collaborate to improve
‒ culture
‒ processes
‒ tools


2. Borrow shamelessly

• Netflix prize
• P&G Connect & Develop
• IBM Jams
• InnoCentive


3. Experiment
• Conduct experiments to test new methods
• Use analytics to analyze the results
• Pick the ones that are most effective


4. Implement, improve, iterate

• Ask for suggested improvements
‒ use rapid prototyping to try them out
‒ then iterate and improve
• Don't
‒ overanalyze
‒ plan endlessly
‒ wait for consensus.
• Risk failure
‒ encourage safe-fail
‒ avoid fail-safe
• Quickly learn from failure
‒ then move on
• Try three experiments
‒ then pick the best solution
• Implement new approaches quickly
‒ will generate more new ideas


5. Enable innovation

• Support integration of diverse tools
• Don’t require a single platform
• Integrate tools using
‒ APIs
‒ RSS
‒ search
‒ web parts
• Encourage skunk works projects
‒ use these techniques
‒ create new features
‒ build on and connect with existing platforms


6. Read, discuss, brainstorm
• Encourage
‒ book clubs
‒ discussion groups
‒ brainstorming sessions
• Get people thinking about new
and better ways of doing things
• Take the best ideas and
implement them


7. Collaborate

• Ask people to use collaboration tools to discuss
‒ ideas for improvements
‒ new approaches
‒ breakthroughs
• Tools include
‒ threaded discussion boards
‒ blogs
‒ wikis
‒ microblogs
‒ idea submission tools
• These tools can be
‒ inside
‒ outside
‒ across organizations


8. Look outside

• Invite people outside your organization to
‒ speak on calls
‒ present at meetings
‒ participate in workshops
• Adapt their methods for use in your organization
• Test new ideas by presenting them to other organizations


9. Deviate positively and inquire appreciatively
• Use Positive Deviance
‒ look for successful outliers
‒ help increase adoption of these exceptional approaches
• Use Appreciative Inquiry
‒ identify existing successful processes
‒ replicate, extend, and build on these
Discovery
“Appreciate
Affirmative
what is”
Topic Choice

Destiny Positive Dream
“Create what “Imagine
will be” Core
what might be”

Design
“Determine
what should be”

10. Crowdsource

• Set up prediction markets
• Use the wisdom of crowds
• Choose between alternatives


Recommended books


Recommended books (authors)
1. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
2. The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way
You Do Business by Clayton M. Christensen
3. The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by
Michael E. Raynor and Clayton M. Christensen
4. The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's
Toughest Problems by Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin
5. The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global
Networks by C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan
6. Leading for Innovation: And Organizing For Results edited by Frances
Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, and Iain Somerville
7. Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results by Thomas H.
Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris, and Robert Morison
8. Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning by Thomas H.
Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris
9. What’s the Big Idea: Creating and Capitalizing on the Best Management
Thinking by Thomas H. Davenport, Laurence Prusak, and H. James Wilson
10. The Leader's Guide to Radical Management by Steve Denning


Steve Denning’s 7 principles of continuous innovation

1. Focusing the entire organization on delighting clients
2. Working in self-organizing teams
3. Operating in client-driven iterations
4. Delivering value to clients with each iteration
5. Fostering radical transparency
6. Nurturing continuous self-improvement
7. Communicating interactively


Links

1. Practical Ideas for Innovation
http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddj598qm_41787g97dk
2. Implement, Improve, and Iterate
http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddj598qm_21wpp22xz
3. Appreciative Inquiry http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/
4. Positive Deviance http://www.positivedeviance.org/
5. Prediction Markets
http://andrewmcafee.org/2008/04/a_case_for_prediction_markets/
6. Netflix Prize http://www.netflixprize.com/
7. P&G Connect & Develop http://www.pgconnectdevelop.com/
8. IBM Jams https://www.collaborationjam.com/
9. InnoCentive http://www.innocentive.com/
10. Intuit Brainstorm http://www.intuitbrainstorm.com/


Questions to stimulate discussion

1. What other ideas do you suggest for stimulating innovation?
2. What are some examples of successful innovation?
3. How can we get past idea submission to actual implementation?
4. What would motivate you to participate in an innovation
challenge?
5. What is the difference between innovation and invention?


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© 2011 Deloitte Global Services Limited

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