Your Innovation Checklist

Do you follow good practice in every area?

Do not worry, you can start to fix that now. Make a note of the aspects that you think should follow good practice and book a date in your diary to research good practice. When you follow good practice in all areas you will have an efficient and effective organisation; but you also need to innovate to become a better organisation. You might find Ted's Guides are a useful start. On the management page you will see a diagram (the Simple Quality Model), which can be applied to all aspects of an organisation: management, planning, improvement, quality, the environment, and even personal development! Simple solutions like this are easy to adopt, and very effective. Adopt good practice across your organisation, before attempting to innovate.

Well done! If you pause and reflect on this now, are there any aspects that you think could be better? Good practice to improve those aspects might be readily available (e.g. Web search). You could book a date in your diary to research those aspects. Adopting good practice across your organisation is a good starting point for innovation.

Does your organisation have a vision for the future, and does every manager know what it is?

This is critical to the future survival of the organisation. The process of creating a vision makes you think about the organisation, its purpose, and its relevance in the future. Its future relevance should be contemplated within the context of science, technology, innovation, the environment, and society. For a business, the impact from innovative competitors and disruptive innovations should be critically evaluated. Your vision must be relevant in a future context: Future Gallery. Your vison could be presented as a one page visual representation.

Good! Hopefully, the development of that vision made you think about the organisation, its purpose, and its relevance in the future. Its future relevance should be contemplated within the context of science, technology, innovation, the environment, and society. For a business, the impact from innovative competitors and disruptive innovations should have been critically evaluated. Your vision must be relevant in a future context: Future Gallery. Can your vison be presented as a one page visual representation?

Does your organisation have an innovation policy, and does every member of staff know what it is?

A good policy will be simple to understand and readily accessible, by every member of staff. The benefit of a good policy is widespread engagement by the staff. That means lots of ideas for improvement and innovation! The simplest way to do this is a one page policy on the wall in every office and/or a prominent page on your intranet. The policy should be policed, periodically reviewed and updated as required. Ask: does it encourage widespread participation?

Good, well done! A good policy will be simple to understand and readily accessible, by every member of staff. The benefit of a good policy is widespread engagement by the staff. That means lots of ideas for improvement and innovation! Is your policy policed, periodically reviewed and updated as required? Does it encourage widespread participation?

Do you have an innovation strategy?

All innovative organisations should have an innovation strategy. This may be a separate strategy document or it may be incorporated into the organisational strategy document. The pros and cons of these two approaches are considered in the innovation training courses.

Good. All innovative organisations should have an innovation strategy. Is yours a separate strategy document or is it incorporated into the organisational strategy document? The pros and cons of these two approaches are considered in the innovation training courses.

Has your organisation adopted an innovation process?

You should adopt an effective innovation process. Failure to do so means that your success rate will be low and the organisation will be exposed to the risks arising from failed innovation attempts. Even the best innovators have failures, but their process provides a risk management framework to anticipate and deal with those potential failures. Of course, just one successful innovation can radically transform an organisation and make it a successful leader; that is why innovators accept the (managed) failures along the way. The risk of not innovating is that sooner or later the organisation will become redundant and cease to exist. Hint: innovation does have a process!

Good.