How to unleash innovation as a leader

We've all heard the phrase 'evolve or die.'

In today's world innovation is key to our success, we need to adapt at pace!

We need to create a culture where everyone comes up with great ideas to improve performance and add value. We need to innovate in every aspect of business. We must ensure we are relentless discoverers and exploit technology and platforms.

Innovation rarely fails due to a lack of ideas or creativity. It is usually down to a lack of nurturing ideas along a hazardous journey where they can be killed in an instant.

Great innovators know how to focus on the right ideas, engage the business and markets behind the ideas and know how to implement the ideas effectively. They are comfortable with experimentation and failure.

Great innovators also use many types of innovation. Doblin, the innovation group, has developed a really practical framework focussing on 10 types of innovation. 

Doblin's research shows how many organisations focus their innovation effort solely on their offering in terms of product performance and complementary services. The challenge with putting all your effort there is that the real value in today’s world is to innovate around the profit model, networks, structure, core processes, channel, brand and customer engagement. 

We need to build partnerships and networks inside and outside our organisations to drive insights and ideas. We need to compete and collaborate with our competitors. 

We as leaders in this digital age must unleash innovation in all that we do, create a culture where everyone owns innovation and then and only then will breakthroughs really happen. 

The challenge we have is to explore how we do that!

Leadership questions to think about: 

• Do I sell the importance of innovation?
• Do I have a clear and communicated innovation process in place for innovation to happen?
• Do I use a variety of tools and techniques to generate new ideas?
• Do I have a clear selection process in place to select the ideas to focus on? 
• Do I ensure buy in from the business for new ideas?
• Do I manage stakeholders effectively?
• Do I kill risk early and create effective change plans? 
• Do I regularly attend networking events and workshops outside my sector?
• Do I create compelling visions for new ideas? 
• Do I prioritise action effectively? 
• Do I lead projects effectively to ensure ideas are implemented?

I've discovered that the secret of unleashing innovation as a leader is to build innovation into your ways of working, your rituals and routines. It needs to become a habit.

As part of your 90 planning process you can integrate an innovation work cycle of generating ideas, selecting the right ideas, decision making, planning, engaging and implementation.

Building this 4 stage way of thinking into your workcycle will ensure you unleash innovation and make progress.

Here's the full framework we teach on our innovation programmes.

I hope you found this useful and has got you thinking about how you can integrate innovation into your way of working.

Feel free to share and get in contact if you want to learn more and take your leadership team on an innovation journey.

Every success,

Graham

About the author

Graham is on a mission to change the way organisations are being led. His sole purpose is to awaken possibility in leaders to deliver extraordinary results. Called a Leadership Wizard by his clients, he is the founder of the award winning Successfactory, author of Leadership Laid Bare! and The New Leadership Manifesto. He is trusted by many of the best leaders and organisations around the world to develop their leaders.

To work with Graham you can contact him at graham.wilson@thesuccessfactory.co.uk

For more information click here >> www.thesuccessfactory.co.uk 

Leadership Laid Bare! and The New Leadership Manifesto are available from amazon.co.uk