Synopsis of an article from Entrepreneur.com by Tiffany Delmore, Published 15th April 2020
In this short article the author points out that most companies do not have an effective way to prioritise or select where to invest in innovation aligned with the corporate strategy.
Without a proper system in place, you end up chasing hundreds of goals and failing to achieve any of them.
Tiffany Delmore
To be effective at innovation it is important to build a system that can make the hard decisions – easy. Here are some ways to help you build the process for identifying, validating and priortising innovation opportunities and ensuring you spend more time facilitating aligned initiatives and avoiding the “pitfalls of time mismanagement”.
Translate purpose into action
Having clarity of purpose for your company provides a set of guide rails that helps weed out those that do not match your business vision.
Set aside a budget for experimentation
Having money that is clearly identified to evaluate and test your companies innovation opportunities is just good sense. It frames up the size of trial based on the available investment and it sets a key metric for decision making.
Reward smart risks not just positive results
Tiffany points out that “Innovation stands out because innovators do things others either weren’t willing to try or didn’t consider in the first place”. This requires a workplace culture that encourages measured risk taking doesn’t have a fear of failure mentality.
Having the innovation team and the innovation sponsor both clearly aware of the risk profile and chance of probability ensures better cultural alignment and greater opportunities for success and/or learning from failures.
“Avoiding decision-making traps doesn’t mean stifling worthy ideas. On the contrary, your goal should not be to limit volume, but to weed out low-ceiling opportunities quickly and easily.“
Tiffany Delmore
Read the full article here:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/349149