In the first part of our post on how you get leaders and colleagues to create and welcome new innovations we gave you five top tips. And as we are super generous - here are the next five!
6: ASSEMBLE RESOURCES - FRUGALLY
Jugaad, or frugal innovation, means making clever products from limited resources. Most leaders - schooled in longer term business plans - won't usually assemble resources this way. Use a minimum viable approach to test things out as cheaply as possible. Not only is this faster , it's a lot less risky. And scarcity is a driver of innovation in a way that abundance is not. Plus - they'll get lots of kudos for not wasting money.
7: GAIN EVIDENCE
Today – it’s the execution and impact of innovation and change that really matters. If there's no impact it's not innovation. It's important to question our assumptions when we look to innovate...and your job in working with leaders is to gain this evidence for them. This will usually be through smaller tests that you can build into an early stage business case.
8: SHARE THE SUCCESS (AND MAYBE EVEN THE FAILURE)
We are generalising but many leaders aren't that great at using digital tools to publicise their work. Make it easy for them by tweeting about it or ghosting a blog. Sharing the news about important breakthroughs or learning will create excitement and interest. This in turn creates innovation-envy - as other leaders want their piece of your lab-action.
9: Build the business case
One of the toughest aspects within Innovation is making the business case. Organisations tend to welcome the tried and trusted rather than the new and fuzzy. Many of your recommendations won't even fit within a conventional business plan template. You need to create something that gives the organisation assurance around governance and limiting cost - but prepares them for all the unknowns.
Rip up the template and start again!
Show the areas of clear discussion, but don't attempt to brush over the unknowns. Attempt to quantify and qualify them with the (often imperfect) information to hand. Saying you don't have all the answers (yet) is a crucial part of your role.
10: Do THE BORING BITS FOR THEM
Contrary to popular opinion - running a Lab approach is not all messing about with Post-It's and playing Mario Kart (OK - it is , a bit).
It's mainly a methodical process of trial and , often, error as you diagnose the problem, research opportunities, complete journey maps and update test plans. It's not as sexy and exciting as people think. We've found you get more traction but doing all the boring bits for people. That leaves them to feel creative , supported and empowered whilst you act as the support.
Our view is that if the innovation process feels like a process to the user - you're doing it wrong!