How do you innovate without losing focus?

Get rid of the word innovation and replace it with problem solving. After all, that's all we are doing. Keep it simple, what problem are you solving it, why is important to solve, how are you going to solve it (what innovative solution, process can you implement). In a world full of distractions, technology/innovation hypes and fear of missing out (FOMO), staying focused can be challenging. Keep things simple and avoid getting overwhelmed by the constant allure of the next shiny object. Prioritize what is truly important, limit information overload, and say no to activities, events, commitments and yes "innovation projects" that do not align with priorities.

In my experience you need to first solidify your core areas and your expertise. Innovation can then happen to shift the value curve upwards. The innovation strategy has to be centered on how it could add value to our end clients and what role can we play in it.

This is not innovation but incremental improvement. True innovation comes from the proverbial left field. Define your organizations purpose, aka “why” (thank you Simon Sinek) and let that be the guardrails for what should or should not be pursued. Establish a culture of risk taking, being ok with failure, and equal opportunity/participation by tearing down hierarchal structures. Encourage rapid experimentation and failing quickly to bubble up potential successful innovations.

In my opinion every organization needs to operate at 2 levels, similar to what our DNA is: 1. Level 1 - operating level, ensuring business runs efficiently in short term 2. Level 2 - build growth engines of future. Both of these run in parallel and require mindful orchestration.

Companies must first align innovation efforts to the business strategy and key objectives. Otherwise companies risk different parts of the organization and teams (i.e. Marketing, Sales, etc.) pursuing conflicting priorities, instead of aligning to common enterprise-wide priorities to meet the end goal.

Innovation is simply making something better. Cultures that embrace innovation make it part of their norms— seeking to make better products, improve process, and provide meaning. While I agree that strategy and innovation should align, we should simply and make it part of our culture.

I like to use the Golden Circle from Simon Sinek in these situations. Team members, leaders, and stakeholders have to agree and explain the How, What, and Why of the importance of innovation in your organization. An organization needs to know WHAT they do i.e. provide products and services to whom through innovation. Then, HOW innovation makes the organization's product and services stand out. Lastly, WHY innovation helps the organization achieve its purpose/mission.

As a leader, to foster innovation you need to care more about the destination and not the journey. The OKR framework affords you to be super clear about what you want to achieve, importantly why you want to achieve it and crucially how you'll measure progress and success. Then you create a brilliant culture of empowerment to get your people to solve the more specific increments and iterations that will be steps on the journey. Avoid at all costs being too specific on initiatives or deliverables - or at least afford the team the freedom to be critical or to build and shape their own destiny. Then support and champion and do everything in your power to create the right conditions for success and remove any blockages or impediments.

1) Innovation must be tied to long-term strategic goals & long-term KPIs (and not short term goals)…. 2) Some of goals/KPIs should be around the “process & learnings” and not just the “end-result” of the innovation projects. Because Innovation, inherently, is bound to be an iterative process. This will drive a shared risk-acceptance culture..

I appreciate some balance of effort and impact. I've always been struck that some of our biggest advances have come from efforts that didn't require months of work. They often come from looking at the problem or the solution slightly different than others have before. Some mix of voice of the customer feedback and other partners in the form of benchmarking have always served us well in product development and growing the impact of innovation.

Decide what you want to be better at than anyone in the world. Align the organization to that vision. And anything that doesn't support that objective is a "no." Strategy is made or broken one 'yes' or 'no' at a time.

Set Innovation Boundaries: Not all innovation is beneficial. Define what constitutes acceptable innovation and what falls outside these boundaries. This can prevent unnecessary risk-taking or deviation from the core mission.

Experimenting allows you to learn from your mistakes. When you test an idea and it doesn't work, you can identify what went wrong and make changes. This helps you to improve your ideas and make them more successful.

I love this experiment phase. We've had so much success from crafting the right mix of MVPs that are often some mix of technology and manual process. The piece we haven't always been as good with is either ending the MVP or reworking the original concept to get there. A structured innovation or product development process helps but there needs to be the discipline to revisit & learn from or fix what didn't work. When this becomes part of the culture the work really starts to become fun and the drive becomes infectious.

In my experience, the hardest part is moving out of the theoretical. Stop talking about innovating and start innovating! Create an environment that embraces action, is mistake-friendly, and allows people to share learnings.

The key to successfully balancing exploration and exploitation is to understand what your minimum viable product (MVP) is for new projects and focus on delivering that value. Once you deliver it, solicit feedback from your customer. In my experience, they will make it painfully obvious where optimization is required. Like most things in life - that which is simplest is best.

Implement Innovation Stage-Gates: Use a stage-gate process to assess and review the innovation at various stages. This ensures that the innovation remains on track and within the defined boundaries.

In my experience, the essential phase is to identify the problem and describe it in detail. Innovation, in my opinion, is not a goal but a very effective process that starts with the question: what is the problem? How important is it? If we solve it, what will be the value? Don’t forget that the innovation process is derived from your organization's culture, and it should be well-constructed and pragmatic. The second important thing to consider is prioritizing the problems that need solving based on prioritization parameters such as complexity versus complication, the value expected, and strategy alignment. The last thing I’d like to emphasize is that keep it simple, lean, and effective.

Innovation is by definition new. 🔸A new way to think. 🔸A new way to solve an old problem. 🔸Identifying a problem that others didn't see. Get outside of your comfort zone. Be curious. 🔸Stand on your head. 🔸Read books about something you don't know. 🔸Study the challenges other professions and industries are encountering and how they solve for them (or don't). Understand the things that came before you. The future is connected to the past, but won't be repeated in quite the same way. What's different now? Study innovation and innovative products. How did some catch on and others flop? Name the root of the problem, who has the problem, the core of the opportunity, and the outcome that will be achieved. Then iterate.

Learn and Adapt: Establish a robust feedback system to learn from both successful and unsuccessful innovations. This will provide insight into areas of improvement, keeping your innovation efforts focused and effective. Maintain a Long-Term View: Understand that innovation may involve failure and require patience. Keep the long-term benefits in mind to stay focused during challenging times