As the Fuzzy Front-end of innovation points out, innovation in its early steps cannot be developed into a serialised process. Instead we do find a situation where process parts iterate in loops, e.g. idea bouncing, introducing at some serendipious moment pieces of external information, e.g. a guy from distribution tells the marketing gal some valuable customer feedback at a beer after the evening workout, or some other form of hard to formulise order.
We find that what we need is a structure that allows for a fuzzy front end to self-organise. The diversity of employees, their set of skills, cultural backgrounds, different way of thinking and approaches to problems can be a highly valuable source to find requisite variety to combat the complexity of the markets our organisations conduct their business in.
The innovation topology looks at this self-organising process. At its core (1) sources of innovation, we find items supporting a cultural playing field with which employees, the organisation and the market can identify us with. This set declares creativity to be a valuable part, which just like a flower needs to be looked after and growth fostered by sound management (2) support of innovation. It is their job to identify ideas worth persuing. They do so by establishing a set of CSFs/KPIs an idea have to stand up against, e.g. will it bring ROI 35% within 1yr? Each idea will be giving certain ressources, such as a team of 3 or *k EUR funding for a certain time period. Period checks whether the idea is on track have to be made and once it has become clear that it is off-track, is has to be killed - BUT the team who made the effort has to be equally acknowledged for their work. Killing ideas has to be business as usual and is no indication of a poor performance on behalf of the team (3) development of innovation.
(4) distribution of innovation: There needs to be sufficient opportunities for ideas to spread, to focus and to collaborate on issues. Whether this is the introduction of Web 2.0 software tools to stay in more contact with your customers or informal seating arrangements where employees can come togther and have a chat. It is important to note what successful teams made to succeed. Yet it is equally important to spread their success by exchanging and rotating their members. This also aides avoiding insider realtionships to occur. Often you find that silo thinking and rivalry amongst departments occur due to a lack of understanding. Here communication is key to avoid the "not invented here syndrome".
Below you find the innovation topology chart.
Thursday 25 September 2008
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