Collaborative Innovation

For many organisations, the economic downturn is proving to be the perfect time to focus on innovation. Big global challenges create big global markets and sticking to business as usual means missing out on these opportunities. Creating cost-saving, efficient processes has become vital for survival and adaptability is now the name of the game. The tendency for some organisations, when the pressure is on, is to hunker down and carry on as usual. The smart organisations are harnessing the available energy and drive of their people as a catalyst for positive change and development.

Sustainable enterprises are places where innovation thrives. They define new markets and break into them with their pioneering products and services. They identify better ways of working together to accelerate the development process. They see opportunities where others see insurmountable challenges and their practices often pre-empt government legislation as a way of getting ahead of the competition.

So, if innovation is critical to the sustainability of an organisation, then what are the key steps to take? How is it best encouraged? What structures and networks will help to support it? And what about the risks? Just as any organisational change can be met with opposition and fear, so too can a drive for innovation. Doing things differently always carries an element of uncertainty, and investing resources in the unknown can demand a huge leap of faith on the part of all stakeholders. The rewards, however, can be immense, and are certainly tempting when compared to the slower results of “safer” incremental improvements.

Here at Impact, we continually focus on collaborative innovation. Constantly reviewing our approach and generating new ideas for improvement, or running innovation laboratories to create totally new products and services. We have found though, that innovation is not purely about creativity, it is about implementing new ways of doing things or new things to do. That we believe is the essential difference between visioning a future and actually making it happen!

How to make the most of your Collective Creative

Discipline and Alignment

Innovation in business does not come whirling out of a spiral of creative chaos. It is borne instead from a smart-working, disciplined culture, where employees are well aligned and fully engaged. A culture of continuous improvement and constant review require a structured and measured approach. Creativity and inventiveness are encouraged, showcased and rewarded, but discipline must be maintained to ensure things get done and innovations are fully realised.

Leadership

A recent study by IBM* shows that creativity will be one of the most important leadership qualities over the next five years. The challenge however, is to carefully balance the often disruptive force of creativity with the need for operational efficiency. Those leaders who rise to this challenge stand to reap enormous benefits.

It is often a culture of fear and a tendency to avoid risks that most hinders the process of collaborative innovation. Whereas an organisation that is exploring new ways of working and creating new products and services will often experience multiple failures before discovering a real success.

A participative and inclusive approach to leadership lends itself to promoting innovation within the culture of your organisation. Involving everyone is vital – the best ideas often come from those working on the frontline. Leading by influence rather than power helps to uncover the creative capacity that already exists within your organisation and promotes a culture of innovation that actively promotes experimentation and discovery.

Trust

Innovation demands a culture that encourages creativity and ideas – one where employees trust their managers and feel empowered to challenge the status quo. The process of innovation involves not only organisational risk, but also risk on the part of the employees involved in the process. They will only step forward to share their ideas when they feel that they may be rewarded with recognition and responsibility rather than facing ridicule and reprimand. Shine a light on those individuals who have a tendency to see opportunity where others see challenge, on those who naturally “connect the dots” to make things work better.

Fun

I’m a strong believer that shared values and having fun contribute hugely to the generation of good ideas. Some of our best business ideas have resulted from off-sites in mountain huts, animated fireside chats, or thoughts shared whilst out on the lake. Create time and space for constructive play. Don’t try to balance “Work” and “Life” – aim instead to blur the boundaries between the two. Encourage people to imagine, to tell stories about what could be and to really listen to each other before building on their ideas.

Break down silos

Build cross-functional focus groups of those sharing common goals. Better still, tap into any existing networks and give them the space, time and permission to come up with bold ideas. I love to see people from different parts of our global business, working and laughing together as they dream up new possibilities. This is where the seeds of new ideas are planted and they germinate and grow as people are encouraged to play their own part in the process.

Take collaboration to the next level

Collaboration across the functions of your organisation generates rapid results. When this collaboration extends outside of the company, and looks to the wider society, the possibilities become even more exciting. Doing Well by Doing Good sees employees and shareholders working with wider society to create Shared Value and achieve win-win solutions. Work with your customers – existing and potential – to imagine the most amazing ways your products and services could improve their lives. Work with community partners to look at creative ways to reduce use of resources and re-purpose waste – not as a charitable contribution, but as a positive act that has the added benefit of improving your bottom line. Some of our greatest successes have come about when we ask school children to take a look at our business and make suggestions on what else we could be doing.

It is amazing how clearly people from outside your own organisation can see possibilities and opportunities within your business that are hidden from the view of you and your colleagues.

Communication

Improve communication and dialogue – enabling everyone’s ideas to be heard and easily shared company-wide. Informal and formal meetings that start with “How can we ……?” are great ways to bring people together and begin purposeful dialogue.

Opening lines of communication between different functions, different levels of hierarchy and with key stakeholders both inside and outside of the business, taps into a rich vein of content promoting engaged dialogue as a first step to purposeful, collaborative innovation.

And, if we ever do return to a world that is more predictable, less complex and slower moving (and I for one don’t think this will be happening), then again, the smart organsiations will be the ones who continue to innovate, despite the dog days being over!!!

* The IBM Institute of Business Value Study Cultivating organisational creativity in an age of complexity was published in August 2011.