@paul4innovating - Smart Agility Intelligence

The Outcomes Expected from this Work

All I can share are the result outcomes I would like to achieve from this work with you:

Expected results I am seeking out of this work for you will lead too:

A framework that moves towards a company-wide development program that gains identification and the target of company-wide improvement of routines and different skills required for innovation to succeed/ improve and be distinctive.
Pursuing limited or ‘selective’ development will not have the desired effect, it is not just a human resource department exercise or individual division or team level exercise, but provide a framework that offers the real answer to innovation and why it does require a ‘holistic’ view of innovation development to manage.
Be in a position to challenges long-established organizational capabilities and routines that are taking place by knowing where (and why) they reside and are often more ‘static’ in reality than understood. Often many of these ‘static’ capabilities are simply not valuable to further invest in, the waste of precious funds just for the sake of it, as other areas identified offer a more dynamic aspect closer to achieving the strategic results set within the corporate strategy for innovation return.
Importance of linking capability to become dynamic with the strategy gives greater alignment and potential and can offer a clear capability portfolio where resource needs to be applied to bring new value and alignment to the organizations goals.
The internal dialogue generates a self-reflection process for identification of true and ‘false’ dynamic capabilities and identifies the more static ones that often just need reinforcement. The solutions draw out internal discussions for a recognition and reality of the present and future needs in this area of innovation resource allocation.
It provides the means to achieve additional resource allocation and raising the importance of these to support the strategic intent of the company and it intensifies and solidifies the studies and importance of innovation within the framework of the organization as an area of specialised knowledge.
Results achieved from this raises the need to understand dynamic innovation capability. Knowing the importance and effect of dynamism for the growing need of greater flexibility and agility in changing, challenging times becomes a clear focus. Then through seeking routines and knowing the diversity within these choices, one can identify the basis of sound differentiation to meet different innovation challenges.

We simply do need to know

We do need to understand Dynamics Capabilities and the organizations fitness to innovate.

Firm resources are scarce; we still don’t understand the ‘dynamics’ of innovation, the interdependency of the parts, this framework I’m presently working upon sets out to achieve this. Which parts have greater impact, which are not so important? Innovation is still not treated company-wide in a holistic way as recognition of the dependencies is poorly understood.

This is what I want to change. What and where do you place your resources to gain greater impact? What is important to recognize as needing additional ‘weight and focus’, what capability and competencies need to have a stronger emphasis and why? How can we identify these, make the innovation process more dynamic yet these embed constantly as routines? What would happen if we ignore certain innovation aspects, what would give greater impact to our business?

Why each company needs to know its Fitness Landscapes

The pressing need for a firm is to integrate, build and reconfigure internal and external competencies and capabilities to address rapidly changing environments and it is the ability to achieve new, more innovative forms in rapid changing market conditions that will emerge as the winners of the innovation race.

This calls for more ‘dynamic capability” to be achieved. The basic question that needs to be addressed is “what are our dynamic capabilities?” More importantly “which critical ones should we focus upon to improve our capabilities and competences to innovate?” Fitness landscapes provide the understanding of the existing position and then point to where to place your resource so as to improve your innovative capacity through understanding the dynamics of ALL the parts and selecting the ones that are the critically important ones for the organization to achieve their goals.

Identifying your critical innovation capabilities

My work on dynamic capabilities for innovation

Over a period of the last thirty months or so, I have been studying and researching this whole area. I have some hypotheses that need testing but the outcome of this effort to date has got me closer to believing we can achieve greater identification with those distinct capabilities to support EACH unique position.

Firstly you have to keep in mind the big four issues to think around 1) the Environment Complexity, 2) The Existing Asset Base, 3) the Value Creation Mechanisms established, and lastly 4) the Organizing Context of what innovation needs to achieve for the organization. Context for me is really important and often lacking.

The objectives behind this work are to show present and future impact of innovation.

Simply put it is to provide a robust model that understands the critical aspects that impact innovation, that can show the critical dependencies to focus upon and understand there need, so these can lead to which ones are more likely to deliver ‘greater’ growth through a more focused approach and provide longer‐term sustainability in innovation activity.

Knowing your innovation fitness is critical

Each organization needs to know its Innovation Fitness Landscape- why?

There is a pressing need for a firm is to consistently build and reconfigure internal and external competencies and capabilities to address rapidly changing environments. It is the mastering of this ability to achieve new, more innovative forms in rapid changing market conditions that will enable certain organizations to emerge as the winners of the innovation race.

This view requires a more ‘dynamic’ set of capabilities. Often the question becomes one of “which are the critical ones to focus upon to improve the chance of greater success?

Knowing your fitness landscape does provide a good understanding of your existing position and set of capabilities and can ‘point’ you towards the ones that you need to have to move towards to have in place to improve your innovation capacity and achieve closer to your goals.

Survival of the fittest dominates

Each organization has limited resources, it is to know where to focus your limited resources to maximise your abilities to deliver better innovation. The key is to map out those current innovation capabilities to the tasks (and aspirations) at hand and identify the opportunity spaces and gaps that need to be filled to match aspiration with abilities, so as to deliver against the stated strategic need. It does seem Darwin seemingly raises his head in much of what we do to simply keep up and adapt. So we do need to understand innovation in more of its entirety not only to survive but to thrive.

So what are Innovation Fitness Landscapes?

“The greater the fitness to innovate will equate to more value creation potential.”

I believe we do need to provide a solution to this understanding the innovation challenge by constructing a more comprehensive framework. Part of my present work is to find a working model to achieve this, I’m getting close.

It is this critical need of any business organization or country for wealth creation through (new) growth and successful innovation lies in understanding the path to achieving this. But what are the factors, the enablers to support this? It is by identifying the more dynamic capabilities and then plotting these to understand your existing ‘fitness’. There is still today far too much of a ‘piecemeal’ approach in evaluating the inter-related dynamics needed for innovation still going on, both at Government and Organizational level. We need to see this differently, to tackle it in a more comprehensive manner.

Innovation Fitness Dynamics 3 — Innovation fitness terrian to travel

If you can imagine that you are looking out over a range of mountains and valleys and you need to determine your journey to get from one point to another as your goal. You need to understand your fitness and in this case your innovation fitness of what is needed to achieve your goals with the resources you have available or understanding what will bridge those gaps and transverse the challenges you face.

I will explain this some more in later blogs.

Act effectively amid uncertainty

There is a consistent need to keep looking around us; on what is going on, what has happened in the past, what is alongside us, what might be ahead and the people and resources we have available. This is taught to anyone who wants to be well equipped in any mountainous area. We need to be prepared as best we can in business and be ready to anticipate different scenarios and predictions- to be ready to be more adaptive and agile. Innovation requires that.

It is knowing this so called innovation terrain, understanding the opportunities or possibilities around us along with appreciating the time pressures, positions both internally and externally in the market that provide us much of the context of why we need to innovate in a certain way. Knowing the intensity of your innovation challenge gives you a better appreciation of what is needed to resolve these challenges- your innovation fitness.

In our understanding of the often ‘diverse’ set of challenges you have to overcome and knowing what is available to you and what you need to find to bridge any gaps becomes essential. The obtaining of insights for innovation enables you to relocate or locate the resources that are capable to be combined to traverse the landscape (or challenge) and innovate better.

Continue reading “Act effectively amid uncertainty”

An opening CSF for innovation

A brief overview of critical success factors for innovation to check against.

The organization: structure of innovation processes to be explicit by treating innovation as a systematic process and continued ongoing process
Keep innovation separate from daily work routine, remove barriers, give accoutability
Set ambitious goals and a vision and combine these with small attainable steps
Focus on results, doing things for clear results, satisfying evaluation criteria
Learn from the innovation process for courage, acknowledge mistakes, continuous
Create a climate for creativity- trust, openness
Foster values that enhance innovation- core ideology, values, diversity
Break patterns, abandon accepeted truths and historical myths, contrarian thinking
Motivate personnel- good ideas, risks and achievements rewarded and recognised
Make people central to it all- the real power of innovation
Communicate about innovation- positive signals, setting example, commitment, faith.
Involve the top directly- word and deed, setting the example, protective shield
Search for and make use of opportunities- systematic inside and outside
Be customer-orientated- use as a source, the ‘burning platform’
The use and involvement of multiple stakeholders- open and flowing
Define the context, the clarity and prespective of the problem faced
Search to obtain the experience with the subject on hand
Pursue a range of paths and solutions
Evaluate problems, trigger ideas and access success
Commit sufficient resources, time and space.

All organizations talk about innovation, but so what?

All organizations talk about innovation and its growing importance but few succeed in actually doing it on a repeatable scale. So what does inhibit innovation? What would drive innovation success? What aspects of innovation are critical to have so innovative growth can be achieved?

Where should a company place its emphasis to gain both an improving impact on its performance and strengthen its innovation capabilities? There are countless questions that need asking but more importantly answering.

Innovation is complex and demanding

The difficulty for many is that innovation is a complex process that has many intangibles within the total mix to manage. Management today is far happier managing the ‘harder’ aspects of business, the more established, the more traditional ones that can be managed in efficient and effective ways to reduce complexity.

Continue reading “All organizations talk about innovation, but so what?”

The Vital Attributes for an Innovation Organization

Understanding what is needed for innovation- unlocking the mysteries

* Innovation organizations tend to be more decentralized, more informal, minimally stratified or layered and more generalist than specialized.

* They have cultures that value independent thinking, risk taking and ongoing learning.

* They are tolerant of failure and they value diversity.

* Open communication is reinforced and there is a high degree of trust and respect between individuals that collaborate.

These attributes should include, but not limited too:

Organizations have a clear vision
Innovative organizations change because they see a better way and not because they have to change
Innovation organizations are always on the lookout for new products, new markets and new ways of doing things
Innovation organizations value substance over form- putting the ideas to work
They build creatively and innovation into the fabric of the company
They have organizational structures that are more often team-based than hierarchical
Innovation organizations tend to operate through open communications rather than through formal processes
Innovation organisations do not personalize conflict
Innovation organizations focus on who you know as well as on what you know
Innovation organizations appreciate individuality and diversity
Innovation organizations encourage fun at work- engaged, enlivened, fully participative and empowered
They reward curiosity and working smarter
Innovation organizations do not believe in the answer and allows space for wondering, thinking and reflection and numerous ways to get to a solution
Innovation organizations encourage people to bend the rules, being different and having pride if they emerge with adding new value to the organization.
Innovation organizations tolerate errors and avoid punishment where creativity is appreciated
Innovation organizations finally encourage behaviours that allow for thought, time for incubation, openness to wonder and sometimes irreverence that can elicit different, creative reasoning that wants to be measured on creativity and innovativeness.

Adapting fitness landscapes with your innovation objectives

There are a number of aspects we can look at initially.

This is helping us to shape the journey, to place it in context. It lays out the theory to the journey we are about to undertake.

Continue reading “Adapting fitness landscapes with your innovation objectives”