Lessons Learned From Creating Innovation Teams

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Segment 1: Lessons Learned From Creating Innovation Teams

  1. Changing the organizations culture
    • People will resist
    • Be prepared for corporate anti-bodies
    • Secure deep management support
    • Win by example
    • Find/train/support innovation evangelists
  2. Define the metrics
    • Management needs proof of impact and success
    • Secure broad agreement on the right metrics (management, finance, operations, etc)
    • Metrics that have worked for me (not exhaustive):
      • Gross Margin impact from R&D
      • Ideas in pipeline
      • % of projects killed
      • ROI on pipeline (needs years to prove out)
      • Average time from idea to impact
      • Value of the innovation funnel
  3. Find Innovation Champions
    • Its not just the idea …
    • You need the passion of the innovation champion
    • Passion is a key success factor for any given innovation program
    • You can build a team around a champion.
    • Its very hard to create the champion.
    • Champion does not necessarily mean leader
  4. Reward Failures & Successes
    • Define reward structure
    • Don’t penalize failure
    • For success and failure, make the reward public
    • For failures, success if you learn from them.
    • Be transparent on all projects
  5. Adapt To Your Organization
    • Innovation approaches is NOT a one size fits all
    • Listen to experts (blogs, podcasts, books, etc)
    • Learn from those who have developed their innovation organizations
    • Try it yourself
    • Adapt to your organization/culture