Unleashing Innovation

Do you believe that innovation is a responsibility of only designated individuals?  Do you believe that good ideas are the purview of only management, those in Research and Development, or those with a certain title or rank?  

Or, do you believe that "Innovator" is a role in everyone's job description, and that good ideas can come from anyone who is engaged, regardless of their job title or rank?

If you are among the latter, you still may be scratching your head as to how to put the theory into practice.  You work hard to cultivate the kind of culture that values innovation, you have an engaged workforce, they are submitting ideas for product and/or process improvements at a rate with which you cannot keep pace, and you know that the quickest and surest way to kill their innovative spirit is to ignore or neglect the ideas they have taken the time and made the effort to submit.  It is a daunting challenge that requires a bias toward action.  What do you do?

Innovation isn't simply having an idea, or even taking the initiative to bring your idea forward.  Innovation is the act of bringing an idea to life--innovation goes from idea to implementation.  How do you manage the process of innovation from idea to implementation?  How do you capture ideas in a way that structures them for analysis?  How do you parse them; how do you discern incremental ideas and breakthrough ideas?  How do you evaluate and prioritize those ideas?  How do you schedule and staff them? How do you govern their conduct so as to engage people's strengths? How do you monitor progress, plans and issues?  How do you give visibility to the process in a way that provides both transparency and accountability?  How do you do all of this efficiently and effectively?

Windward Leadership can help.  In partnership with Red Dragon Solutions, and leveraging Gallup's StrengthsFinder© and Employee Engagement research, we offer practical methods and tools for capturing, evaluating, and acting upon the innovative ideas produced by an engaged work force.

Contact us, invite us to show you how you can unleash innovation in a manageable way that is both beneficial for the organization, and reinforcing for the individuals.