5 WAYS TO

SPARK
INNOVATION
AT YOUR ORGANIZATION

Photo by Daniel Dionne / CC BY 2.0

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TAKE IT
UPON YOURSELF

Were at a turning point for large organizations. In 1958, the average lifespan of an S&P 500
company was 58 years, now, the average is under 18. Every way we look, disruptive
innovation is destroying entire industries. Taxi drivers are quitting to join Uber. Blockbuster
was killed by Netflix. Amazon destroyed Borders.
It doesnt have to be this way. Organizations like yours have the power, resources and talent
needed to continually innovate. Yet time and time again, we see organizations too busy
doing what they already do, instead of exploring and capitalizing upon the uncharted waters
that could very well lead to their demise. Even when it comes to competing in their existing
markets, big businesses need to move faster to stay on top!
You can either see this as a scary reality, or massive opportunity Or both. Entrepreneurs
and corporate innovators (intrapreneurs) are actually not that different from each other.
Instead being playing catch up to competitors, and changes in markets and technology,
they see urgent opportunities and take it upon themselves to make things happen. They
know that if they dont disrupt, someone else will.
Whereas some people are motivated by security, and see work solely as a means to clock in,
clock out, get promoted, then retire; others light up in the face of grand opportunity, and
take it upon themselves to actualize something great. It requires going against the grain.
Doing something because you believe it needs to be done, not because its what someone
told you to do.

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IT DOESNT
REQUIRE
PERMISSION,
IT REQUIRES
ACTION, AND
ITS UP TO
YOU TO MAKE
IT HAPPEN.

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2
EMBRACE LEARNING
OVER EXECUTION

As the volatile economy continues its transformation, business management methods need
to adapt to keep up. What many consider effective management, as we see in MBA
curricula and corporate hierarchies, is really just the spillover of the industrial revolution.
Culture and structure emerged from the assembly line. The product moved, whereas the
workers were just one small cog within a massive machine.
This made sense when innovation meant creating supply at scale to satiate the demand, but
as technology becomes easier and less costly to scale, its time for a new management
paradigm. Not one that measures success based upon execution and adherence to a plan,
rather one that prioritizes learning. One that realizes creating supply is much less important
than uncovering new demand.
This doesnt mean planning is bad, and that creating supply is a cakewalk, but its vital to
understand that there are two types of innovation, and each requires a very different form of
management.

* Innovation Continuum from The Lean Entrepreneur

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On one end is sustaining - doing what youre already doing, but better. Making things more
operationally effective, forecasting sales, executing upon pre-meditated marketing plans.
On the other is disruptive - going into unknown territory where customer needs are not
clear. This is the side where we see organizations setting themselves up for failure by trying
to apply the same processes from the sustaining side, to disruptive innovations.
We see it when an organization has a new product idea, then spends 6-12 months building a
new product (focused on developing supply), and then launching the product to the masses
only to see how much time, money and talent was wasted. Executing upon a plan simply
doesnt make sense, if the plan is built on a pyramid of assumptions.
Instead of learning why a product failed after accounting for the supply side, what if we
optimized for learning from the get go? Sure, wed expose ourselves to realizing various
assumptions are false, but the sooner we learn that the better. Embracing learning isnt only
good for breakthrough innovations, but its becoming the new paradigm for operating
within existing markets too.
When you optimize for learning, you find out what works, what doesnt, and are left with
opportunities to innovate on a grand scale. At the end of the day, an organization's ability to
learn, and translate insight into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

AN ORGANIZATION'S
ABILITY TO LEARN, AND
TRANSLATE INSIGHT
INTO ACTION RAPIDLY,
IS THE ULTIMATE
COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE.
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3
FOCUS ON THE 3 Es
OF INNOVATION
EMPATHY
Understanding your customer deeply is what exposes opportunities to innovate. Innovation
doesnt start with ideas, it starts with empathy. The greater distance you are away from the
customer, the less able you are to put yourself in their shoes, and see where problems lie.
Developing strong empathy is the first step of ensuring youre creating value for your
customer, and not just your boss.

EXPERIMENTS
When people have ideas for new products, they are filled with assumptions. These are the
same assumptions that will either make or break the success of your new product. The great
thing is that you dont need to spend 6 months in product development before learning the
assumptions were false. By experimenting, you embrace learning before execution. You
externalize what you think is true, and see if thats actually the case by in a matter of days or
even hours, not months.

EVIDENCE
When you begin experimenting, youll be able to make decisions based on evidence, not
opinion. Instead of going to meetings where your colleagues go back and forth about whos
right, youre able to come to the table with data plus insights, that make a clear case,and
exposes which direction to go towards next.

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THE GREATER
DISTANCE YOU
ARE AWAY FROM
THE CUSTOMER,
THE LESS ABLE
YOU ARE TO PUT
YOURSELF IN
THEIR SHOES.

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CREATE A CONDUCIVE

ENVIRONMENT
If the fish is sick, maybe its time to think about changing the water. Innovation is not building
an innovation center and hand picking which ideas certain people think are best. Its the
result of creating an environment where behavior that leads to innovation is normal, not
deviant.
In a typical corporate setting, failure is shunned upon. Careers are made through tip-toeing
away from situations where theres a chance blame can fall on them. The thought of failing
leads to thoughts of unemployment. If someone does something they werent told to do, or
something that doesnt relate to their score card or bonus, then its clearly a waste of time.
For massive divisions where the purpose is sustaining innovation, or execution, this may
makes sense. When it comes to sparking innovation, this is toxic.
If you want people to innovate, they need to work in a different way. If you want them to
work in a different way, you need to create an environment where they feel comfortable and
motivated to do so. An environment that heavily embraces learning over execution, and
functions upon the 3 Es of Innovation.

IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO

INNOVATE, THEY NEED TO
WORK IN A DIFFERENT WAY.
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Creating that environment is a result of a couple key factors:

INSTILL PROCESS
In order to channel talent into creating successful new products, there needs to be a process
that people can rally around. The process revolves around the 3 Es of Innovation and is what
we take teams through in our Lean Innovation Bootcamps and Lean Enterprise Accelerator
Programs.

REWARD PROGRESS
Whereas typical rewards center around sales or accomplishing tasks on time, in ventures
facing uncertainty, learning equals progress. Whether a team validated, or invalidated an
assumption, the learning is king, and when people get rewarded for learning, they will strive
to learn more.

WALK THE WALK

If you expect others in your organization to start exhibiting these behaviors, its up to you to
be the role model. Instead of trying to tell people why this needs to happen, show them the
evidence you gathered from experiments that you ran.

TIME
Employees need to have dedicated time to pursue innovation projects. In our 90 day
accelerator program, we learned that having employees dedicated solely to this new way of
work is one of the biggest factors to a teams success. If you want this to be a part-time
initiative, expect partial results.

PHYSICAL SPACE
As human beings, we associate different spaces with different mindsets (think about being
on a beach; now think about being in a warzone; and now think about being inside a startup
coworking space.) If theres a physical space in your office dedicated to this new way of
work, where progress is shared with others using tools like our Rapid Experiment Map and
stickies, the values and processes youre trying to instill will become the norm, not the
exception.

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START SMALL AND

LET IT SNOWBALL
Building empathy, running experiments and using evidence to drive decisions shouldnt
only be a practice for building innovative products It should be used to foster internal
adoption of the innovation initiative itself.
Youll want to think big, but start small. Network internally and ask yourself, who are the
other people within your organization excited about innovation that will easily embody the
values weve spoken about? Theres no need to build a massive team and rollout a massive
top down approach just yet.
You can start this tomorrow simply by talking to internal stakeholders about their thoughts
on the state of innovation within your organization. Ask them whats going well, whats not.
As trends emerge, youll be able to make a case grounded in evidence to the right people
and get the support to try a small scale initiative. If youre further along, maybe its about
instilling a deeper process, or getting more teams on board. You dont have to start
experimenting on new products. One of the best places to start experimenting is on the
internal business process that you think are getting in the way.
No matter where you are, driving innovation within your organization should be its own
ongoing experiment. Youll learn what works, what doesnt, and over time generate massive
momentum and big wins. Train leaders with evidence, and continue to learn and share.
No matter what stage youre at, theres always room to get ahead. The opportunity is there,
and the choice is yours. The market is moving Are you?

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NO MATTER
WHAT STAGE
YOURE AT,
THERES ALWAYS
ROOM TO GET
AHEAD.

READY TO GET MOVING?

LETS CHAT
booking@movestheneedle.com
http://MovesTheNeedle.com