Our experience shows that organisations or individuals can be reluctant to engage with research or creative processes because they see innovation as something for the Apples and Amazons of the world. In fact, innovation – bringing creative ideas to life – ranges from continuous improvement of businesses processes to new product design to the introduction of a new delivery channel. Many of the best ideas will come from your own people who are in the trenches interacting with your customers and service users every day. Your suppliers too will be itching to share with you their own R&D and what others in your area are up to.
Getting started can be as simple as taking one market or operations challenge and setting a team to look at this. Lead from the top in setting the agenda and start with researching your customers, markets and competitors. Consider how the lived experience of the widest range of your customers or service users can inform your service or product design. Get some support to bring your research to life and to facilitate the process if internal resources are tight.
Think about the language you use in leading your team – not everyone will feel they can be insightful, creative and innovative, but most will have ideas of what doesn’t work very well just now and how things can be improved. In building a team look to be as inclusive as possible. Include functional specialists from the most relevant areas of course but where possible bring together people who think differently from you as well as from each other to get the most creative solutions. Research has shown that more diverse teams perform better.
Look to set project phases in short sprints and aim to get feedback quickly from customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. Adapt and re-launch.
Finally, see it as a mindset rather than a one-off event. Evaluate and share lessons learned making this a core part of the process. This in turn can help drive a sustainable and resilient culture of creativity and continuous improvement.
To find out more how we can help contact us at enquiries@pivotlab
