Getting the Room Temperature Right for Innovation
The Innovation of Excellence blog led us this week to a presentation titled Re-Thinking Creativity & Innovation (& Play), by Ben Rennie, the director of 6.2, an agency and innovation lab in Melbourne, Australia. (They have a very interesting website. Why do we all look so much better with good black-and-white photography?)
As a writer and editor, I particularly like this paragraph from their website: “Plain English is King: At 6.2, we don’t like buzzwords or sensationalised sales and marketing speak. If something is wrong, we will say, something is wrong, if it is good, we will say it is good, if it is broken, we will say it’s broken. We communicate clearly and honestly; if we can’t help, you will be the first to know.”
Rennie delivered his presentation at the Livewire 2011 ReShaping Governments Conference in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. “What is innovation?” he asks. “It’s about looking at people and seeing things from their viewpoint. Not your own.” Here are Rennie’s “9 lessons about innovation worth sharing” plus two to more to make it fit our category:
1. “Innovation starts at the top. Leaders need to create the vision and live the values.”
2. ”Innovation can happen anywhere. Anyone can do it, but not everyone is good at it.”
3. “Innovation is a team sport. Operating inside silos is deadly. Collaborate.” There is always a tendency to sit in our office and try to work something out. But having people to bounce ideas off gets juices flowing and loosens the process. I remember an ad I wrote for International Newspaper Carrier Day. I was stuck until a colleague and I started joking around with it and came up with a Top 10 list of things you’d miss without your newspaper carrier. (Okay, this was a few years ago.) The ad won an award.
4. “Innovation is never easy. But it is always possible. Step by step. Project by project.”
5. “Innovation relies on trust. Listen to ideas. Reward bravery. Embrace risk. Learn from failure.” Eat your vegetables. Look both ways before crossing the street. Okay, this one’s a little too simplistic but listening is always an underrated activity.
6. “Define your measures of success. Small ideas need room and time to grow.” Metrics should always be an important part of any idea or project. What are you trying to accomplish?
7. “Just because it works for Google does not mean it will work for you. Create an innovation culture that fits. Don’t let your environment define your strategy. Create a strategy that defines your environment.” If the barbecues for our bicycle club are our most popular activity and make lots of money, should we stop having them because the volunteers running them are burnt out? Or should we figure out a different way to stage them?
8. “The customer is not always right, but they do sit at the heart of all innovation.” How can you make their lives better?
9. “Finally: speed is mission critical. Fail early. Fail fast. Fail inexpensively.”
And two more from the blogosphere:
10. Establish a willingness to help employees build their knowledge and understanding of how an idea or technology becomes a profitable business. Yes, that is the idea.
11. Establish a willingness to be a risk taker rather than being risk averse.
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Speaking of innovation…
American Business Media’s Mobile Drill Down Day
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