Innovation article

Desperately Seeking Breakthroughs?

Turbo-Charge Your Innovation Agenda

You wouldn’t bake a cake without flour, enter a marathon without running shoes, or expect a garden to grow where no seeds have been planted. So, when it comes to innovation, why would you expect a result if a key ingredient is missing or used out of sequence?

Here are five common gaps that can derail innovation:

1. No clear picture of success – so anxious to get started, groups start working without a shared vision. Investing up-front time to clarify the end game will have huge payoffs. Are you 100% confident that everyone on your team is working towards the same picture of success?

2. No truly bold thinking – warming over yesteray's ideas will not get you breakthough results. You need originality that pushes the boundary of your comfort zone. What are you doing to blast off from safe ideas trying to pass for fresh thinking?

3. No care and feeding – early ideas are like a tottering baby. They need to be nurtured before they can stand on their own. You’ll want people who can incubate, shape and streamline early thinking into plausible possibilities. Are you fueling ideas with enough energy to get all the way down the runway?

4. No calibration – don’t be discouraged or surprised if things doesn’t work as planned. This is not defeat - this is reality. Expect glitches and swoop in quickly to make needed changes. Are you problem-sovling glitches or are you letting challenges get the better of you?

5. No follow through - Do it. Test it. Learn and then revise it. A great idea is useless if it doesn't get off the the ground. So be persistent, rallying the team to create prototypes, experiment, learn from experience. What are you doing to push ideas off the memo pad and out into the real world?

The V-CARE Model

Each of the steps outlined above reflect a symbolic sequence, a way to transform a Very Big Idea into a real-world application – be it a sizzling new product or the internal fix to an impossible process.

Use our V-CARE framework to keep you on track.

VISION - Describe your ideal future. If you were wildly successful, what would it look like?
CREATE - Brainstorm possibilities and stimulate fresh thoughts. Bring in fresh voices...take a field trip...identify the most outrageous or risky idea you can image.
ADVANCE - Converge ideas into a robust possibility. Engage multiple stakeholders and go for early test drives.
REFINE - Assess glitches, risks and past experience to frame out your project plan; When you identify serious barriers, cycle back to 'CREATE' mode to come up with orignal solutions
EXECUTE - Follow through and adapt the plan based on real experience. Be certain that activity leads to impact. Check back with your 'VISION' to see if you're on track.

As you check your innovation must-have list, , you will also find that different team members have energy for different parts of the sequence. So match the right talent to the right task at the right time - and you will have lift-off.

Every organization is talking about an innovation imperative - get your team to be the one that actually does someting about it!

The C.A.R.E. framework is used in the Team Dimensions Profile, a registered trademark of Inscape Publishing, Inc.