How to speed up the innovation process
Read why innovations from the top of the organization is a bad idea - and how you involve the employees in finding the solutions.
If you have worked with strategic change initiatives, you may have experienced that the implementation can be heavy and that it can take a long time before the gains are realized.
One of the reasons may be that the practical part of the innovation process has started too high up in the organization. It is of course the management that must set the goals and the direction. However, it is not always purposeful that the management defines the solutions. The higher up we are in the organization, the greater the tendency we will have to look for perfect, general and all-encompassing solutions.
This means that you risk overlooking the simple and delimited solutions, which with a much smaller effort will have just as great an effect.
Let me give an example.
If a company has set a goal of increasing customer retention, management's solution will often be in the nature of a comprehensive customer retention program that covers all kinds of customers, all the company's products, and all departments. And that includes everything from big customer discounts, loyalty programs and customer clubs to Formula 1 trips for the biggest customers. If all goes well, that is of course fine.
However, there are 3 disadvantages to such an all-inclusive solution.
First, it is difficult to execute - as there are many parts
Secondly, it is unclear how large the real gains will be for each part
Finally, it is uncertain when the gains will come - as most large projects end up being either delayed or amputated
If you want to find the simple solutions that with the least possible effort will give the biggest gains - you need to turn the practical part of the process upside down.
This means that you have to involve the employees in finding the solutions. They are the ones who know what today is stopping you from doing things even better - and how little it sometimes takes to create a great improvement. And they are also the ones who know why some of the solutions that look right on paper will not work in practice.
At Benelizer® Ideation Workshop, we have a proven process that ensures that employees translate their knowledge into simple and feasible solutions that will have a significant effect on the goal set by management. This means that you advance the gains and significantly increase the probability that you will reach your target.