177: Inspiring Innovation Across Your Organisation

Innovation is closely linked with transformation. But innovation can be perceived differently and without understanding what innovation means to you and your organisation, it’s likely that misalignment will lead to conflict and confusion. Join Oliver Banks to learn how to understand what innovation means for you and how you can go about putting simple actions in place to inspire more creativity, new thinking and innovation across your organisation.

Listen to this episode now to hear:

• 4 questions to help you to clarify what innovation means.
• Actionable tips to inspire more creative thinking in your organisation.
• Inspiration to what you can do to breed a culture of innovation.

 

 

4 key questions to define what innovation means for you and your organisation

In the episode, Oliver shared 4 key questions. Whilst they may seem simple on the face of it, the opportunity is to explore each and ensure that you and your colleagues are closely aligned.

Q1 – What does innovation mean to you and to your company?

Different companies approach “innovation” in very different ways. And innovation also has a very different meaning to different individuals, based on their experience and perspective. Be sure to understand what it means to you and those around you. Have an open conversation about what is meant as you use the term.

Q2 – How innovative do you want to be relative to the wider world

Are you a pioneer? A naturally innovative individual and company that is keen to explore and experiment with new solutions and ideas.

Or are you a fast follower? Keen to realise the benefit early on, but cautious to see what happens to others first.

Perhaps you wait for critical mass? Waiting for a solution to firm up and become more standardised can be a low risk approach but also risks you being caught on the back foot.

Or are you a laggard? Denying newness and change and waiting until there is no other option but to adopt the “new” idea.

And as you consider this, are your own views, your colleagues’ views and your organisation’s outlook aligned?

Q3 – Where do you innovate?

You don’t need to have the same innovation policy across all parts of the organisation’s operating model. Consider which elements or functions of your business are most critical to success. How can you innovate here to ensure you build and maintain a competitive advantage.

And consider your purpose. Why you exist. This can guide you to think about how you can innovate to better deliver your mission.

Q4 – How do you be innovative rather than “do innovation”?

Inspired by Lee Woodard’s conversation in episode 72, you should consider the difference of being and doing when it comes to innovation. And as you become more serious about innovation, you’ll need to consider how you can let innovation become part of your mindset and culture in a drive to naturally become more innovative.

Reach out to connect with Oliver Banks

If you’d like to reach out to Oliver Banks, you can contact him on email, oliver.banks@obandco.uk. Or connect with Oliver Banks on LinkedIn.

Additional episodes of the Retail Transformation Show to listen to next.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out episode 87: The Reinventionist Mindset (part 1) and 088: (part 2). In these episodes, Joe Jackman explores the mindset considerations that you can develop to help you reinvent and transform.

Also listen to episode 113: Disruptive Thinking For A Volatile World, featuring Dr Jackie Mulligan. In this episode, you’ll discover how you can encourage you and others to explore uncomfortable truths.

And finally, you should listen to Laurens Bonnema in episode 116: Understanding Agile. Agile can also inspire innovative thinking and approaches. Therefore, it’s important to discover Laurens’s simple Agile viewpoint of “common sense with an uncommon level of discipline.”