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The Innovation Leader
The Essence of Innovation: 5 Principles

Are you serious about driving innovation in your organization? If so, invest your initial efforts in understanding five principles that are the essence of innovation.

"Sustaining innovation is a process with many components interacting in a dynamic and energizing way. It is all too easy to let specific issues or tactics dominate your efforts," says Bob Rosenfeld, author of Making the Invisible Visible: The Human Principles for Sustaining Innovation and CCL's Innovator in Residence. "By learning key principles, leaders and organizations can stay focused on the essence of innovation."

Principles are the fundamental, timeless laws that underlie the methods and techniques used for innovation. While principles are timeless, specific methods will be used and adapted over time as the situation demands. According to Rosenfeld, there are five principles that give life to the process of innovation:

1. Innovation starts when people convert problems to ideas. New ideas are born through questions, problems and obstacles. The process of innovation is indebted to the trouble that comes about when we are surrounded by that which is not solved, not smooth and not simple. Therefore, in order for the innovation process to flourish, it needs a climate that encourages inquiry and welcomes problems.
2. Innovation needs a system. All organizations have innovation systems. Some are formal, designed by the leadership, and some are informal, taking place outside established channels. Informal channels are untidy and inefficient, yet innovation is always associated with them. Systems for innovation fall into one of five categories:
• Originator-assisted, a process that helps employees transform their own ideas into business opportunities (usually driven bottom-up);
• Targeted innovation, a process for developing solutions to meet a specific need (usually driven top-down);
• Internal venturing, a launching process for new businesses that do not fit the company's current lines of business;
• Continuous improvement, a process for incremental improvements that, in their aggregate, lead to cost savings or increased quality; and
• Strategic transfer, a process of transferring technology or knowledge from one point to another for the purpose of leveraging capabilities.
  Passion is the fuel, and pain is the hidden ingredient.Ideas do not propel themselves; passion makes them go. Passion, in addition to talent and skill, is a valuable company asset. Passion is what transforms other resources into profits, but it never shows up on a balance sheet. Unfortunately, there seems to be some universal law that says when pursuing a passion or following a dream, pain is part of the process. Innovation leaders need to take the pain with the passion and learn to manage both effectively.Co-locating drives effective exchange. Co-location refers to physical proximity between people. It is a key for building the trust that is essential to the innovation process. It also increases the possibility for greater exchange of information, cross-fertilization of ideas, stimulation of creative thinking in one another and critique of ideas during their formative stage.
  Differences should be leveraged. The differences that normally divide people — such as language, culture, race, gender and thinking and problem solving styles can be a boon to innovation. When differences are used constructively and people move beyond fear, suspicion, mistrust and prejudice, differences can be leveraged to enhance and sustain the innovation process.
  Kara Franey