The opposite of innovation isn’t stagnation. It’s slow, miserable defeat.
The future belongs to organisations that view innovation as an expression of who they are, not something they do.
A culture of innovation is “The Invisible Advantage,” according to Soren Kaplan.
Success is the result of hard work and innovation.
This might interest you: 10 Influencing Factors To Creating A Climate For Innovation
Here are Kaplan’s five tips for creating a culture of innovation:
1. Don’t assume innovation means creating the next big disruptor like the iPhone. Define “innovation” in a way that makes sense to you, your team, and your organisation – (new products, services, processes, customer experiences, or anything else that just improves something.)
2. Give people tools like the Adobe Kickbox, Intuit Catalysts Toolkit and more for them to perform.
3. Share success stories. Highlight the early wins to reinforce the value and importance of innovation.
4. Give “worthless rewards.” Don’t reward people with money. Give them symbolic awards like trophies, plaques, lunch with the CEO, and even wooden nickels!
5. Measure what you want to get. Choose specific metrics to track the number of ideas generated, number of prototypes tested, or revenue from new products introduced in the past two years. You get what you measure!
Innovation, like all meaningful success, is dedication to improve life for others.
Frame the way you want to change the world, and make it about the customer, Kaplan says.
You don’t need more money, time, or resources to innovate.
Scarcity accelerates innovation. You need an invisible advantage – a culture of innovation.
Dan Rockwell is a coach, speaker and is freakishly interested in leadership. He is an author of a world-renowned most socially shared leadership blog, Leadership Freak. To get in touch with Dan, write to us at editor@leaderonomics.com