Some notes from a recent presentation:
Innovation can be thought of on 4 levels (see Hamel – The Future of Management - a good book which I'll talk about more next week):
- Management innovation
- Strategic innovation
- Operational innovation
- Product/service innovation
These notes focus on product innovation, the principles all apply to the other kinds, you just have to juggle the category definitions around a bit.
From the point of view of communication, it makes sense (as will become clear) to break the process down into two parts:
1) Creativity – Finding the innovative idea.
2) Assessment/Implementation – turning the idea into a product.
Creation:
Where do ideas come from? Some ideas come out of the head of a talented designer, but most innovations come from people who have a direct experience of the product:
a) Users of the product and those who interact with them – so directly from customers, but also from those who get some sight of the buyer’s experiences: sales people and maintenance engineers (for example.)
b) People connected to the production of the item – designers, production workers – esp. the tinkerers who may be the people you least expect.
These are all people who might have ideas, or germs of ideas for changes to an existing product, or a new product that fits into the things the company does now.
Aspects of communication in creativity:
Who needs to hear the idea?
- e.g. Designer, Marketing Director, R&D Dept.
- Does someone have a responsibility to collate ideas and then take action?
- Are there open communication channels for people to bring these ideas to them?
How will they get to hear about it?
- Direct survey, either mediated (paper/email/etc.) or face to face.
- Chain of communication; e.g. Customer tells sales rep, who then tells...
- What are the incentives in place for this to happen?
- Do people know who is next in the chain to tell?
Of course, if someone has the germ of an idea it might need some developing or extra information from someone else in the chain. The key process here is the same as in the next stage, so let’s move on:
Assessment/Implementation
Once there’s a steady stream of ideas coming in, they need sorting and assessing.
There can be all sorts of formal criteria and prototyping stages involved, but the key aspect from a communication point of view is that it’s at this point you need to start getting multi-disciplinary co-operation.
At a minimum, any innovation will have to satisfy three constituencies:
1) Production – is it practical to make this new product, is it within the company’s capabilities?
2) Sales – will the product actually solve customer problems well enough to persuade them to buy it?
3) Finance – Can the above occur in a way that makes enough money to be worth investing in?
Of course, all of those questions are actually interlinked; e.g. you can make anything if the money is available, etc.
So, you have to get everyone together to discuss it, which typically occurs in a meeting.
Now there’s hundreds of resources about “how to run a better meeting” so I won’t bang on about that too much.
What I would draw attention to is that assessing an idea is a delicate thing. Just about anyone in the room can kill it off, by declaring that their part in it just isn’t practical. So it’s an area where misunderstandings can jinx the whole process.
People from different parts of the business tend to communicate in different ways. There’s lots of stereotypes about aggressive salesmen, detail-obsessed engineers and tight financiers. Added to that, the more complex a product is, the more information will have to flow outside (before and after) the meetings. Some people respond better to verbal communication, others like things on paper.
Points to consider:
- Is there a central point for information about the project?
- Can the information be provided in different formats for different constituents?
- Do some people dominate the process (esp. at meetings) by virtue of their communication skills/tactics?
- If projects are never getting approved, or the wrong projects keep getting the go ahead, are various parties around the room really understanding all the information provided to them? If not, can ways be found to improve that communication?
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