Latest Insights from the Innovation Front
Thoughts & Insights form this year’s Chief Innovation Officer Summit
29th & 30th April 2014, London, UK
Thoughts from the conference - entirely from my personal perspective and point of appreciation, therefore undoubtedly utterly biased in terms of what I picked up (or ignored), and hence am sharing here.
The essence of my take-aways & common themes:
If you want to create an innovative organisation focus on behaviours, psychology, neuroscience - yeah, finally !!!!!
It was amazing to note how many people emphasised the importance of culture (the famous Peter Drucker quote: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast any time.” What somewhat amuses me is that we have known this for a looooooong time. Should now be the time something is finally been done about it ? !
The art lies in the HOW, how to engage and involve people, internally as well as externally; it is all about relationships, and the appreciation and understanding of individuals; (as I always say, people don’t resist change, they resist being changed…);
If you want to create an (more) innovative organisation there is no other way: it has to be a systemic, holistic approach (by the way, that’s the topic of the next Innovators Anonymous (=ILF Networking Group) meeting 18th September 2014);
Create an innovation strategy - it defines where you play, and where not, how innovation is organised - processes, structures, people etc. (Innovators Anonymous ran a session on this topic back in 2006 - if you ask nicely I might make it available :-));
If you want innovation, seek diversity, collaborate across boundaries (internally and externally); the trickier the problem, the wider you should cast your net; the more radical an innovation opportunity you seek, the wider the circle of people to involve; how and where do you currently look for input / skills / competencies that you are likely to need for breakthrough / disruptive innovation?
Using visuals is hugely powerful, improves understanding and creates a shared language - one of the challenges when collaborating in diversity (see cards used by M&S or Promise Communispace referred to in these notes);
There is quite a bit of potential for innovation in Big Data; it can provide (almost) real time insights on emerging trends and developments ie identify and amplify you with ‘weak’ signals’, it can also be used to test and explore with relevant audiences; the tricky bit? Knowing how to ask the right question…
Perhaps one final observation: passionate and engaging presentations beat content any time. Of course, ideally you want an engaging, humorous presentation that is meaningful and relevant …
If you are interested in my complete notes (15 page) - just ping me an email :-).
