Innovation

An innovation process. An oxymoron.

On one axis you have innovation, the other side process. They are their own complete opposites. There is no innovation in a process.

We follow its steps, and any attempt to bypass, go outside the box or follow another path makes the process stop. Doesn't compute.

There is no place whatsoever for wiggle room, suggestions, changes, other approaches or innovation. The process goes forward in its established way.

Of course you can change the process, and believe it or not but most business projects are about making a process easier/ more efficient. So there can indeed be innovation in the change of processes.

Innovation

If I may interpret it as “they way to think freely without borders and create ideas or concepts that were not necessarily done before or grounded in reality”. To have an innovative process we need a creative environment.

Sure, some people just get an idea when they have seen a certain system long enough or identified a problem — and, if they are heard and listened to, some great things can indeed happen. Life found its way through multiple random events, it’s believed.

For a long time I thought that you can't do this. You can't put people in a room and ask them to create. But it is possible, and really not that hard. What’s hard is, again, the prerequisites.

Create the right environment for innovation

Take people out of their normal comfort zone. Put them in an environment where they don't have to impress their boss or despise their colleagues. Present a group with a challenge. Ask them to work together. Ask them to create solutions.

They will do it. The ideas will be crazy. And as the newly founded team is still forming, they may not work “efficiently” or even involve everyone in the team.

Some “natural" leaders will take over and force others to build their idea. But given time, they will find their way.

After that, put some other teams on a different challenge. They should now review the ideas from team 1 and come with improvements. Then present them to the other team.

This is a way of gathering feedback. It's not what innovators want to hear and feedback is a beast, that's for sure. But it’s valuable.

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