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Idea Management Encouraging, Capturing, Developing, Prioritizing, Funding, and Implementing |
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By Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder, Ten3 BUSINESS e-COACH Innovation Unlimited, 1000ventures.com
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"Beyond a seldom-used suggestion system for cost-saving ideas, most companies have no way to stimulate or harvest the good ideas of their people." Robert B. Tucker |
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11 Practice Tips
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How To Break Down Barriers To Communication Within larger organizations one of the biggest obstacles to innovation is poor internal communication. A silo mentality develops so that departments guard information and ideas rather than share them. People work hard but in isolated groups... More
Brief History: "The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm." Thomas J. Watson... MoreBalanced Organization: 5 Basic Elements Corporate Capabilities (Water):
Why Idea Management? All businesses are created first by ideas. Then once you're in business you need ideas for design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, advertising, creative problem solving, customer retention, etc. The difference between success or failure in business could be just one idea. Idea management systems and process can help your company make innovation a discipline. They can help make the hunt for new possibilities each and every department's business, as well as involve broader and more enthusiastic participation among managers and employees. Disciplined and well managed creativity breeds successful idea generation. Corporations have limited resources, funds, and time to give creative dreamers free reign to magically produce new ideas, however. "Most companies are not short on new ideas, but they are short on ways to assess, screen, prioritize, and execute those new ideas."6 10 Brainstorming Rules
29 Obstacles To Innovation
Company Director to Board Chairman: If any new ideas come up while I am out of the meeting for a brief phone call, my vote is 'No.' The Jazz of Innovation
The improvisation-driven model for
innovation
project management doesnt discard structure, just as there is a clear
structure to good jazz. In innovation, this structure is created through
roadmaps, guiding principles,
business processes, systems and organizational
charts.
Innovation Process: Diversion and Conversion of Ideas "The process of innovation is a rhythm of search and selection, exploration and synthesis, cycles of divergent thinking followed by convergence."9 Divergence, or creative synthesis, is the interlocking of previously unrelated skills, or matrices of thought. The creation of such intellectual ferment is important to innovation - the more options offered, the more likely that an out-of-the-box perspective will be available for selection. Just hearing a very different perspective challenges the mindset of others sufficiently that they will search beyond what initially appears to be an obvious solution. This is a reason that intellectually heterogeneous cross-functional teams are more innovative than homogenous functional ones. As soon as a sufficient choice of innovative ideas has been generated, a solution convergence upon acceptable action needs to be defined and agreed upon. In addition to explicit knowledge, three types of tacit knowledge overlapping specific, collective, and guiding - need also to be taken into consideration and managed.
Targeted Market: "An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." Oscar Wilde... MoreThe Seven Dimensions of Strategic Innovation The Strategic Innovation framework weaves together seven dimensions to produce a range of outcomes that drive growth. A company's Organizational Readiness may drive or inhibit its ability to act upon and implement new ideas and strategies, and to successfully manage operational, political, cultural and financial demands that will follow... More
One key to successful business evolution and growth in today's rapidly changing economy driven by knowledge and innovation is to let go of centralized control. People who stay closer to customers know better the market needs and can respond faster to rapidly changing customer requirements. In flat organizations, decisions are made faster, entrepreneurial creativity of employees is released, and ideas are managed better... More
Case Study GE "Discover where the best ideas are, and implement them," is one of the Jack Welch's trademark messages to managers. Creating, nourishing and building a learning culture at GE is, in his view, the best way to eradicate one of the least attractive features of the old GE the "not invented here" syndrome. Any idea, if it's good one, says Welch, is worth pursuing and adopting no matter where it comes from inside GE, or at Wall Mart, Motorola, Mitsubishi, wherever. Welch has a neat phrase for adopting an idea. He calls is "legitimate plagiarism."12 It is Welch's ability to get others excited about those good ideas explains his phenomenal results. He is an excellent communicator. Of all his management secrets, his extraordinary ability to communicate, to engender an enthusiasm in employees, may well be his greatest. He knows that it is not enough to simply raise an idea with employees. You have to keep repeating an idea until it finally sinks with every employee at the company. Communicate, then communicate it again! With Work-Out as part of its DNA, General Electric (GE) has become one of the most innovative, profitable, and admired companies on earth. At its core, Work-Out is a very simple concept based on the premise that those closest to the work know it best. When the ideas of those people, irrespective of their functions and job titles, are solicited and turned immediately into action, an unstoppable wave of creativity, energy, and productivity is unleashed throughout the organization. At GE, Work-Out "Town Meetings" gave the corporation access to an unlimited resource of imagination and energy of its talented employees.
Quick and Easy Kaizen
Quick and easy
Kaizen is aimed at
increasing
productivity,
quality, and worker
satisfaction, all from a very grassroots level.
Every company employee is encouraged to come up with ideas however
small that could improve his/her particular job activity, job environment
or any company process for that matter.
Three Stages of the Suggestion System 1. Encouragement. In the first stage, management should make every effort to help the workers provide suggestions, no matter how primitive, for the betterment of the worker's job and the workshop. This will help the workers look at the way they are doing their jobs... More
Recommendations for Stimulating Radical Idea Generation... 25 Lessons from Jack Welch: Get Good Ideas from Anywhere... Creativity Management in Your Business Environment... Inspiring Creative Ideas: Three Factors... Motivate Radical Idea Generation... Establish Guiding Principles... Ask Searching Questions... Systemic Thinking... Prototyping... Rapid Experimentation... Freedom To Fail... Learning From Feedback... Sell Your Ideas to Other Stakeholders... How To Present Your New Project Idea to Decision Makers... A Tool for Evaluating Innovative Ideas... Letting the Best Idea Win... Mutual Creativity in Business Partnerships... Creative Problem Solving (CPS)... 10 Steps to Turning Your Ideas / Inventions into Big Cash Wealth... Case in Point BMW Soliciting Ideas from External Innovators... Case in Point Citigroup... Case in Point Siemens... Case in Point Wall-Mart... Case in Point Georgia Pacific...
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