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Frequently
Asked Questions
In a corporate context, there is often some risk in sharing an untested, perhaps inaccurate idea with your colleagues (even more so with your superiors). The more "creative" the idea, the more it is apt to have such flaws, and the higher the risk. Yet these are where breakthrough innovations are often born. A climate in which such ideas are not only acceptable, but actively encouraged and built upon, is one that supports high performance teamwork. In order to be truly innovative, a team has to collaborate well. Therefore, we see innovation and teamwork as two sides of the same coin. What's the difference between creativity and innovation? Creativity is original thinking, often involving the ability to make new or unusual associations in order to come up with something novel or unexpected. It is something all of us are capable of doing, and often do without realizing it. Innovation is applying that creativity to the real world to produce something of practical value. This usually requires a development process to build in feasibility. An innovation can be incremental in nature; i.e., a small, but significant step beyond current state of the art, or breakthrough, resulting in a whole new genre or way of doing things. How can you help us if you're not an expert in our field? Process consulting does not require expertise in the area of content. In fact, such expertise might actually hamper our efforts by setting up preconceived notions about what would or would not work. Certainly, we take steps in planning a project to familiarize ourselves with the subject matter and learn the "language" our clients will be using. Mainly, though, we rely on the knowledge of the employees we are working with, who know their business best. This separation between process and content enables us to design programs that draw out both our clients' expertise and creativity, a potent combination for achieving innovative results! You refer to your employee development programs as being "customized, right off the shelf." What does that mean? Each of our programs has a definite framework and sequence of activities. However, the specific content differs with each program, depending on what the participants bring in to work on. In effect, our participants customize it themselves! This "real life" approach is very effective for learning and integrating the skills quickly, because learners have a genuine stake in the outcome. The main objective is to acquire new behaviors and techniques, but if they can walk away with some fresh solutions to long-standing problems, all the better! How do you measure the effects of increased innovation? This is tricky, because the usual measures we rely upon - sales performance, market share, number of patent disclosures, shareholder value and so on - may not be easily attributable to innovation processes (although we think so!). There are always other variables to consider. One good measure is a fairly subjective one: employee satisfaction. Why? Simply put, people enjoy their work more when they are encouraged to exercise their innate creativity. And satisfied employees do better work, deliver better service, and certainly lower your turnover rate! I think of creativity as being applied mainly to tangibles, like new products or technologies. How does it apply to less tangible efforts, such as strategy or organizational change? The earliest work in business creativity was, in fact, applied to new products and technologies, and this remains a major focus. But the same kinds of group behaviors that are conducive to producing breakthrough inventions - e.g., searching for ideas from non-related sources, listening to build on the thinking of others, willingness to "play" with imperfect ideas - can be applied just as well to initiatives such as strategic planning or re-inventing the organization. The results may be less "visible," but no less important! Any more questions? Contact us! The
Innovative Edge, Inc. |
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