The belief is that an essential gap often exists between how we set about innovation today and our strategic intent. It becomes absolutely essential to frame innovation correctly in pulling together a comprehensive dialogue.
A critical need is to have a well-articulated and well-communicated innovation strategic framework that can be delivered across the organization to rapidly close those gaps.
Let us introduce the Executive Innovation Work Mat. and the SEVEN essential domains.
We all need a dialoguing framework to relate, build out and constantly update and validate. The Executive Innovation work mat needs to be a living, dynamic framing tool to work around and through.
The framework becomes the document of the leadership’s strategic commitment and operational engagement, raising innovation visibility in a structured, thoughtful way. It seeks to encourage and draw in the organization for them to gather around and identify the value, impact and importance of having innovation central to the core of the business and in their thinking.
For engagement in the Executive Innovation Framework, the work invested in this design specific to your circumstances offers real value benefits:
- The framework can create cohesion and consistency of innovation purpose that will reduce many existing barriers and uncertainties around innovation
- As the leadership becomes engaged, this will demonstrate a significant commitment and promise that will certainly increase the visibility of innovation, lower risks, and encourage more involvement and better ideas.
- The framework itself will generate workflows that link and become more dynamic to explore and promote the innovation skills, capabilities and competencies needed. They become more cohesive, coordinated and focused. It seeks to reduce tension and increase the dynamics within innovation.
- As the framework connects, in its understanding and as its impact grows, we certainly believe confidence builds. Both formal and informal areas are addressed in parallel, growing all-around identification and alignment.
- You begin to align compensation and incentives into your abilities to generate the innovation activities that provide the impact the organization is looking for.
Having a distinct framework mechanism linking strategy and innovation becomes the innovation strategic foundation document that articulates innovation and provides the guiding aspects of innovation for others to work through.
Making that real alignment of strategy and innovation provides a good base
- Greater cohesion and consistency of purpose in your innovation activities
- A framework that raises the visibility of innovation and reduces risk and misalignment.
- Provide the mechanism for improving the workflow making innovation more dynamic and interconnected throughout the organization
- Deliver a greater connection & confidence that builds for lasting identification
- Using frames becomes the organizing point for alignment of activities, measurement, compensation and recognition.
- From this, you can derive inspiration, clarity and connection and become a sustaining source of impact and motivation.
The establishment of innovation within any Strategic thinking is becoming even more important today than ever.
Innovation drives the momentum towards 1) goals and visions, 2) it is the major catalyst in providing the growth and impact needed and 3) it builds the creation and potential towards new business models that can sustain and build your business.
The specific role the Senior Management Team play in innovation capability and compacity building
While CEOs or other senior leaders are responsible for innovation, they don’t need to dominate innovation activities yet they do need to fill this critical role to ensure:
- linking of innovation activities to corporate strategies,
- communicating the importance of innovation consistently and demonstrating their personal engagement,
- aligning the corporate culture and compensation programs to innovation goals and activities
- creating innovation governance frameworks and providing the environment for innovation to function and thrive.
To get closer to achieving alignment for innovation, as an example, we need an overarching strategic design to reduce the ‘disconnects’. Innovation needs constant alignment. One essential need is to provide a well-designed strategic plan to allow the connections and reconnects needed. to allow innovation that greater freedom and scope to contribute to the growth organizations leaders are demanding to keep us all ‘still on track. We must seek alignment through clarification, talking to each other, and working explicitly from the ‘same page.’
Building the use of the innovation work mat as a compelling business case- A series of conversations
Innovative Dialogues on Executive’s Role in Innovation
Below are the links if you wish to view the six elements of a conversation I had recently with the co-designer of this Executive Work Mat, Jeffrey Philips recently made to explore critical components of the work mat.
We explore the value of building out each domain and why this is essential to innovation in the videos we’ve created. These have covered:
Convergence & Divergence– The opening outline of our discussion to the series seeking the need for alignment through the Executive Innovation Work Mat.
Strategy – we discuss the relationship between corporate strategy and innovation.
Governance – we examine how to govern an innovation project and why this work requires different governance models from other projects.
Function/Structure/Design – we examine how innovation should “work” – design and processes – and why it is vital to focus on an innovation capacity.
Common Language/Communication – we look at the importance of having common definitions, common language and regularly communicating about innovation.
Making a compelling business case – the senior executive’s role is essential in involvement for innovation to take hold and become core within any business’s future; why the leadership of organizations needs to get deeply involved in the innovation activity, building the compelling need.
We trust you find the time to listen; each conversation is 10 to 15 minutes, or equally, and each dialogue between Jeffrey and myself has a supporting post I have written to support these.
Just click here to start or go to my posting site www.paul4innovating.com and in the search box, put in “Work Mat”.
To find out more or request a detailed White Paper on this, please contact phobcraft@gmail.com or explore more here by clicking on the tab “insights and thinking” or on this site www.agilityinnovation.com under the tab “innovation toolbox.”
