There is what the expensive textbook says, there is your understanding based upon experience, and there is what is considered realistic.
Innovation must haves:
This is what the book says, but Innovation requires so much more: Listen to the recording and read.
1. Create Value:
Creating value is a vague, but explainable requirement of innovation. It must create value, but it must be more than a profit. Value is created on multiple fronts: intrinsic value for employees of the organization, from an organizational psychology standpoint. Products and services must be of value to the customers and clients, including both intrinsic and extrinsic value, meaning it has to be valuable from both the human and consumer perspective. To sell or produce without human relationships or limited contact and human exchange is valuable, but humanless contact with little to no service elements.
2. Staff needs to be inspired and motivated to think up and develop innovative ideas:
Inspiration and motivation for innovation is required, as is time apart from the regular and routine activities. It is not that incentive is required, but psychological value in human worth, as well as an immediate or future payoff, not necessarily in monetary value, but morale or happiness and work satisfaction. Inspiration is often required because it is one of the things that motivate humans to do better and be better. Routine work for many becomes day to day living, the expectation of a daily, monthly, and quarterly life and for many, this works and is fine, but innovation changes the routine, therefore it must be inspiring and motivating, otherwise, it will be met with resistance. I disagree with the video, in that, budgets are not required to innovate and reward new ideas, although if available, it should be spent strategically where value is created for the business that produces long term results on multiple levels; viewed as part of the investment of innovation, where the payoff is longevity, reduced employee turnover, better work climates or dynamics, and better products and services, resulting in industry or world-wide change.
3. Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing is essential:
This topic is also debatable because not everyone is inspired by collaboration, especially if employees require monetary incentive to be innovative. Natural innovators don’t need immediate promise of payment because they already know their ideas are guaranteed to bring profits and improve life. Many innovators enjoy working with people that perform at the same or level above, and are sometimes willing to train others, or create training programs for knowledge sharing. Innovation is easily delayed or damaged by being forced to collaborate and knowledge share. Innovation happens faster with smaller groups and willing ears to invest.
4. Idea sharing:
The video suggests idea sharing. This is good to engage people and give them a sense of ownership in the direction of the company, as long as the company is willing to select the best ideas and implement them. It’s wasteful to talk about all the wonderful possibilities and never bring anything to reality.
5. Encouraging innovation, teamwork, and collaboration
These are basic management principles. If a company doesn’t take time out to challenge their business ideas, review and change their goals, and review ways of making things better, they stagnate and so the employees. Innovation and teamwork changes this.
6. Measurements
Innovation has to be measured and if you can’t measure it, then you can’t consider it innovation. People can talk all day about how great something is, can be, should be, or will be, but if there is no data and proof with visible results, it’s of little to no value.
Reference:
Innovation in Plain English, G. Fainberg, February 2014, accessed from YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-rzge5rFFQ