Six Steps For Newbies

Learn As You Go, Get Formal Training Later

It’s easy to understand why many small and mid-sized businesses are intimidated by innovation. Scroll through LinkedIn and you’ll see posts on Agile, Lean, Design Thinking, TRIZ, or Osborn-Parnes CPS. It’s not a bad thing, these are useful methods — but if you don’t know those methods one could believe you are hopelessly behind in innovation.

You might indeed be hopelessly behind in innovation.

Or, you may simply be disorganized, and, actually doing innovation, albeit organically.

Start With Your Big Problems and Concerns

Consider the case of a recent client I served in financial services. Not a large firm, less than 10 people. But a smart group. The CEO looked to the future and started worrying they weren’t doing enough to prepare for a turbulent future. She had a sense of urgency about innovation; she thought about it more in terms of survival and growth.

Survival and Growth Require Innovation

I assisted them with a simple process and didn’t stop to teach them a method first. They picked a focus, jammed 350 ideas, refined a few, and got busy. All in one month. They now have innovation projects in the works with a few lined up behind those. They don’t know Agile, Lean, et al, but, they’re doing innovation. They’re looking at training as a way to do it all better, good on them.

The “Good Enough” Simple Six Step Innovation Process

If you feel like that CEO, the baby steps into innovation are to simply organize your thinking, and then, get into projects. How?

1. Start with a list of your concerns and wishes for the future.
2. Pick one you want to focus on.
3. Ask yourself how you might address the wish or challenge.
4. Jam lots of ideas on how you might. Do some research as you go.
5. Pick a good idea from your long list and make it more specific; refine it, test it if you can.
6. Make a project out of implementing the idea. See if it works. If it does great, if it doesn’t try again. Rinse and repeat.

Does that seem complicated? That’s innovation.

Sure, there are plenty of ways to be more sophisticated. Wow that’s putting it mildly. But at its essence, innovation is problem solving. Find a problem and solve it. Make it a project. If you want to learn more about Innovation Methods, get GFi training — you’ll get better at problem solving if you do.

So, get after it already.