Whether you call it innovation, creativity, problem solving, or change, it is the key to growth and is vital to all sectors of the economy. In enduring organisations, innovation is not a one-off, nor a series of events – it’s continual.
The time has come for innovation to sit alongside other aspects of mainstream management thinking such as engineering, strategy, human resources, financial management and operations as a determinant of sustainable relevance, effectiveness and growth.
THREE UNDERLYING CAPABILITIES FOR INNOVATION
What makes high performing innovators different is the ability to bring to fruition new and valuable change in all aspects of their organisation’s output – with innovation flowing fluently in process design and ways of working as well as in new service and product development.
There is of course no perfect recipe for innovation, but the research points to the need to attend to three underlying capabilities:
Innovation processes – broad, systematic generation and selection of knowledge and ideas for turning into value
Fostering a creative working environment (climate creation) – explicit attention to the environment to enable ideas and knowledge to flow freely through the organisation
Creative leadership – continually balancing both incremental and discontinuous projects; the top performers trust empowered individuals to communicate and implement change in order to turn strategic aims into reality.
We do not believe in a one size fits all approach and our bespoke innovation services typically involve a mix of consulting, coaching and training. Some examples are outlined below.
We are often surprised that so few organisations have invested systematically in developing the innovation capabilities of their people. Many senior people seem to think only a few need this capability, or only some are ‘gifted’ with creativity.
This foundational programme establishes a shared language and approach to innovation based on the well-researched latest version 6.1 of the Creative Problem Solving framework.
See our training programmes, coaching expertise and VIEW assessment.
Many managers have learned an approach to leadership that inadvertently stifles innovation. Coming up with the ideas and then getting buy-in and compliance is not enough today. Saying ‘Follow me, I know the way’ as a core approach to leading innovation has passed its sell by date.
This program starts from the mindset of collaborative problem solving to release the genius of everyone.
See our training programmes, coaching expertise, leadership and climate assessments.
Coaching for innovation can be used during the implementation of projects, or at the executive level to help develop and strengthen innovation literacy and innovation strategy.
Our approach to executive coaching is based on assessing, challenging and supporting the thinking, knowledge and behaviours that enable growth.
Executive coaching can help transform performance and unlock the secrets to innovation.
– Jeffrey Hyman, former Director of Innovation, RHM
We helped RHM’s New Product Development Director win the confidence of 15,000 employees and build capabilities for innovation and change across all divisions.
We helped Severn Valley Railway to solve problems that were threatening its viability and bring about profound and productive change.
We helped the global engineering company address a number of serious management and cultural challenges that risked leading to gradual decline.
We helped The Marketing ©ouncil bring to life the conditions in which innovation can flourish and we ran climate assessments for several of their member organisations.
Featured innovation insights from Perspectiv and our partners are below or see all innovation insights.
How can businesses of every size learn to embrace curiosity and creativity? Hear insights from Perspectiv’s Andy Wilkins on the Creative Tech podcast from the National Centre for Creativity enabled by AI.
Part 2 of two posts about common mistakes people make when using Brainstorming, listing some inconvenient truths about meetings and emphasising the importance of using a trained facilitator.
Part 1 of two posts about common mistakes people make when using Brainstorming, highlighting the importance of the Defer Judgement principle and Perspectiv’s lineage from Alex Osborn who first introduced Brainstorming.
We help clients develop these capabilities.
