Kathy Harris

I frequently have conversations with great companies hoping to improve their innovation capabilities. They will usually describe what they’re doing with quite a long list of innovation activities such as idea generation, crowdsourcing or brainstorming. Then, they’ll admit that no real progress has been made and the program needs a shot in the arm.

The missing element and one reason for low success is that these efforts are not focused on a specific business domain or objective. Instead, the idea generation is open-ended and often continuous. And, although many of the suggestions may be good (by some measure), the probability of implementing them is quite low. Without a business connection, no one is willing to fund and implement the idea. 

So, connecting innovation to business needs – especially at the outset of a program — is critical. There are two techniques that can raise the relevance of ideas to the business, increase program success rates and improve the quality of ideas. These practices are Events and Challenges. 

Let’s look first at Events. I almost always advise our clients to use events rather than a suggestion box (continuous) approach to generate ideas. Events can be scheduled to occur a few times a year – maybe once a quarter. You can generate a lot of ideas and select the winners during a relatively short event - maybe two weeks from start to finish. Events are also easier to administer than the suggestion process (which requires constant monitoring) and a good pace is 2-4 events in your first year and step up the pace once you’re experienced. And, if you’re concerned that focusing innovation on a specific business domain may stifle out-of-the-box ideas, then make every 4^th event open to any and all topics. 

The second practice is defining Challenges. To focus innovation ideas, ask an influential business leader to define and publish a challenge for each event. The challenge can be as narrow or broad as your innovation team can manage. The challenge should include the business domain and any other desirable criteria (for example, ideas should be implementable within 12 months and should use our current in-house skills). The better the definition of the criteria for a “good” idea, then the more fruitful and relevant your idea generation processes will be. So, define challenges aimed at resolving key business issues, fulfilling organizational objectives or supporting strategic direction.