Kathy Harris

Most organizations start up innovation programs with good people and good processes. Still, a high percentage of these efforts languish or fail. And even when two companies follow exactly the same processes or focus on the same business objectives, one may succeed where the other cannot.  I went looking for reasons why some organizations succeed in spite of their obstacles and found a lot of great insight.

 First, successful innovators know and accept their own political and cultural boundaries and obstacles – in fact, they identify these barriers up front. These companies know their own limits and most importantly, how to get past them. They compensate for shortcomings by designing key mechanisms to overcome them. I’ve labeled these mechanisms “accelerators” and I’ve found innovation accelerators in many forms.

 To understand the concept of accelerators, start with a simple process model for innovation – most organizations follow this simple four stage process:

• generate ideas
• evaluate and select the winning ideas
• develop and implement ideas into innovations
• socialize and diffuse innovations throughout the organization

And with a process model, you know what you need to do. But, what if you’re not great at generating ideas? There are many accelerators to get you past this obstacle: Try crowdsourcing – first, design a compelling challenge describing your focus for innovation; create an idea generation space on the web; invite participation and you’re likely to attract some great ideas. Other approaches are to consult an idea marketplace to determine if another company or individual has already solved the problem. Or use competitive intelligence to see what other organizations have done and replicate their ideas.

And, what if you’ve identified a few good ideas and just don’t have the capabilities to implement them?  You could create an incubator – use the skills you have and hire the talent you need to fill out an incubation team. If you need IT software or graphical design talent, you might acquire it from Top Coder; if you need product design, you might consider using a company like IDEO to help you create what you need. Or develop a standing innovation team with a network comprised of your organization and five top suppliers.

 Accelerators can be applied at every stage to spot great ideas, pluck them out of the sequential process and speed them to implementation. What’s important is to identify and customize the accelerators to your organization — this ensures they smooth the way through your unique politics, nay-sayers, complexity, technical or operational barriers.

 Finally, if you’re unaware of your company’s barriers to innovation, invest some time up front to understand them before you attack innovation. Use scenario planning to spot key obstables or anticipate the barriers you may encounter with a new project or an innovation. Then, ensure that appropriate accelerators can be defined, available and ready to be invoked when great ideas require them.