If you manage projects, you deal with innovation all of the time. Idea and implementation are two sides of the same innovation coin. As project professionals, we are focused on perfecting and honing our implementation skills. We judge ourselves by how well we consistently deliver on time and within budget. But a better measure would be the total value we deliver to our company's bottom line.
You may be great at managing projects and delivering on time. But what are you delivering? Is the value going to make a difference? Are you going to get credit for delivering real bottom line results?
The idea is key. There is no innovation without implementation. But implementation has no value unless it begins with an idea with great potential. We can greatly increase our effectiveness if we can recognize and embrace the co-dependency of idea and implementation. We may be good at implementation; but we can also have a profound effect on the quality and value of the original idea.
In fact, we can even be the impetus for the idea. There is a great misunderstanding in the business world about ideas and innovation. Most of our current effort toward innovative ideas is focused in the wrong direction. The net result is that we try much too hard, take way too long, and end up with wasted efforts based on false assumptions about innovation such as the following.
- Innovation costs a lot of money. We believe that the more we spend on R&D, the better the result. However, innovation is actually almost free. It requires only a few people and a very short time.
- We just need one really great idea. If we could just come up with the one great product or service idea that would set us apart from our competition, we could be much more successful. However, the difference between being the best and just average is the accumulation of small incremental innovations that make the largest contribution to success over time.
- Innovation is science, technology and invention. We mistakenly think of innovation as a technical endeavor but innovation is purely an economic activity. It should not be the purview of scientists or engineers but the people who know our business and customer best.
- We can't plan these things; innovation takes time. Innovation takes very little time. What is required is the right environment for a spontaneous generation of good ideas. Necessity is the mother of invention but necessity is also the mother of innovation. Innovation is merely the solution to a defined need using what has already been discovered. Innovation has nothing to do with time consuming discoveries or waiting for the next invention.
But the key is achieving both. And in most businesses, there are huge obstacles on both sides. Success depends on removing these obstacles. We all have pre-conceived notions about what our job entails and how to go about doing that job. But we often make our task much more difficult by trying too hard. We try to do the "job right" when we should be doing the "right job." In many ways, the process has become the job instead of the way to get the job done.
But great ideas are easy. The trick is to create an environment where there is a free flow of ideas throughout our entire company, an environment that sparks the imagination of every employee, one triggered by a free flow of communication focused on business improvement and customer improvement. We need to capture the creative input of every employee and to distill that into innovative ideas for the future.
One approach that has worked fabulously for me in the past is the "Rubber Room" concept. It enables startling discoveries that would never have been possible otherwise. It is a way of "Taking the Blinders Off." We are frequently limited in our thinking by the actual problem we are trying to solve. If we transport ourselves to another place where we have to solve an even larger problem, the solution to our current problem is greatly simplified.
A few years ago, I was trying to understand how to automate the back office processes of a major insurance company. I talked to the business users and didn't get much help. Their suggestions were helpful, but mostly trivial, as far as making a bottom line difference. So, I had them imagine that their company was going to grow to three times its size. What's more, the company was not going to hire any new people at their position. That would mean that each would have three times the work. They would, however, have as much clerical help as they needed.
I then asked, "What would you have the clerical help do?" That precipitated a long list of tasks that they would want to offload, in order to keep up with the workload. That became a great list of software automation functions to implement. The company actually did double its business, without hiring any new employees. Those are significant bottom line results. What do you think that would do for your company's bottom line?
The "Rubber Room" concept can be applied to almost any problem. Just follow these steps:
- Gather a group of people who are very close to the problem, domain experts.
- Chose a quiet meeting place where they will not be disturbed.
- Get their thinking totally out of reality and into an imaginary world where anything is possible.
- Give them a problem, much like the current one, but wildly exaggerated.
- Tell them they have to solve it but their solution doesn't have to actually be doable; they can use magic, they have an unlimited budget and unlimited resources.
- Give them all the time they need, even several days, If needed.
This vision of "solutions without limits" will generate extraordinary possibilities. If you can see it, you can build it. This exercise makes the ideas crystal clear. This could be the start of something big, for both you and your company.
About the Author
With over four decades of experience, Art Pennington is president of the Profit Research Institute, founder of four successful software companies, author, keynote speaker, consultant, holder of multiple patents, and creator of the "Profit Method" of business success. Read Art's free eBook "PROFIT", available at profitmethod.com.
