“Apple is an incredibly collaborative company,” Steve Jobs said. He may have been making an understatement.
Recently, I met with the CEO of a medium-sized nonprofit in the immigration services sector. His organization provides assistance to new immigrants in the country to help them get settled and adjust to a new life. The organization’s five-year stategic plan was coming to an end, and the CEO wanted to build a new strategy to grow the operations and deal with change like potential budget cuts.
An Innovation Team can sort the good ideas from the bad
“Do you have an innovation team?” I asked.
“No,” he answered.
I explained that he should set one up – a team of key people, from management, staff and his board, to henceforth manage innovation. He liked the idea immediately, to his credit.
For the CEO, it was a new concept. He said he had never previously received advice to set up an innovation team. Quite the contrary, the organization’s existing strategic plan was the usual, outdated, stale corporate speak full of platitudes, vague strategic objectives, a wordy mission statement, and little substance.
Surprisingly, many organizations still follow these old models and methods. They see innovation as something only the big companies do. They are wrong.
If your organization is serious about dealing with change today, or aiming to grow its business, here is a simple three-step plan:
Step 1: The first step to is to set up the innovation team. This particular organization wanted to target the twin goals of developing new funding sources as well as expanding the services it provides. It will need to innovate in both areas.
Step 2: The next step is to put the right people on the innovation team. This is an art in itself. If there is one core principle to follow it is that you want to have a diversity of talent on the team. Creativity flourishes when there is a diversity of talents, skills and viewpoints.
Step 3: The third step is to train the team members to properly understand the innovation process and develop innovation skills.
By setting up a proper process to organize and manage innovation, you elevate it to one of the organization’s priorities. Innovating becomes part of the ongoing operations. New ideas are managed, turned into projects, and executed. It’s no longer just a matter of collecting good ideas and hoping someone acts on them.
