March 2001
Innovation Tips
Éideas to help you foster collaborative
innovation
===================================================
We
live in an age of unprecedented change. Many of us are hoping that it will
settle out soon, that all of this disruptive change will slow down so that life
can get back to normal. It wonÕt. The rapidity of change will accelerate,
causing emotional, social and economic disruption across all levels of society.
As Dorothy noted, we are simply not in Kansas any more.
Some have referred to this period of rampant change as the age of
ÒdiscontinuityÓÑthe abrupt passing of one way and the sudden commencement of
another. Every industry, every business, every institution, every way of life
will be affected by these unsettling discontinuities. We will no longer be able to rely on the
past to help us anticipate the future; rather, we must now use new ways of
understanding what is ahead of us, and we must also develop new ways to
respond.
Purposeful innovation in this
new age will be essential for the well being of every business, organization
and institution. Knowing how and when to effectively innovate will be essential
to managing the change occurring all around us.
Where
do we begin to understand how and where to innovate? Knowing what questions to
ask is essential, and the questions are different depending on the type of
innovation being sought.
Continuous
Improvement
The
simplest, most conventional form of innovation is what the Japanese call KaizenÑcontinuous improvement. It is the
easiest to understand and the easiest to access. Continuous improvement simply
means adding value to existing products and services. Those improvements often
occur in response to some basic questions: Where have we had an unexpected
success or failure? What seems amiss or in need of fixing? Where are the weak points in the flow
of our work?
New
Concept Innovation
More
difficult to manage, though rich with opportunity, are Ònew conceptÓ
innovations: fiber optic cable in lieu of copper wire, disposable diapers in
lieu of cloth, aluminum cans in lieu of glass bottles, cash management accounts
in lieu of savings accounts, credit cards in lieu of cash or check and solid
state electronics in lieu of vacuum tubes.
New
concept innovation can plague every organization at the top of its game, every
organization that is enjoying market dominance, every organization that thinks
it understands its customers. Powerful blue-chip companies have been brought to
their knees by such innovations, not the least of which have been IBM, Xerox,
Sears, and NCR.
To address
new concept innovation, we must ask questions that require more complex
answers. Where are the changes in market structure? What are the key changes in
demographics? What new knowledge or technology is emerging?
Learning to
live with the seeming chaos of accelerating change will try our patience,
challenge our core values and stress the very fabric of our civilization. Yet
in the chaos of such change, there is also possibility. With every advance in
technology, every change in the workplace, every alteration of every process,
there is abundant opportunity. Understanding which questions to ask to seize
that opportunity will be essential in this Age of Discontinuity.
__________________________________________
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