Innovation Improvement
Innovation and continuous Improvement could be looked on as a cultural issue. That means that there needs to be a culture for progressive improvement within the business. This need extends to other elements that support this culture. Specific improvements are similar to problem solving instances and require domain expertise and problem solving skills. Both cases operate more effectively in a well motivated environment but the motivational drivers may vary from case to case.
One of the key elements, in my opinion, related to both the culture of innovation and improvement and specific instances of successful improvement or problem resolution is the ability to consider multiple perspectives. This means being able to identify different ways to see the same thing and then using these methods to build a more complete picture and therefore understanding of a situation.
A second ingredient is the capability to visualise and project. This means to be able to create a mental scene that incorporates as complete a view of a situation as possible and also to be able to project this view forward in time to a place where problems have been solved and improvements have been made. Clearly an ability to compare the two visions created is a key component for improvement.
It would be possible to identify the component needs of innovation, continuous improvement etc, and discuss these in some detail. However, it may be more useful to separate the discussion into two main elements that are essentially different. These elements are the culture for improvement or innovation and the capability to innovate or improve in specific cases.
A Culture of Innovation and Improvement
Initially it is important to describe what is meant by a culture of improvement and innovation. It may also be useful to consider the reasons why such a culture may be difficult to achieve or to maintain. Ultimately the purpose is to discuss the ways that a beneficial culture can be implemented and maintained but it will additionally be useful to consider what potential benefits a business could expect from the effort required to achieve the culture. This final discussion should consider ways that overall performance can be measured and its benefits weighed against the cost of implementation and maintenance.
Facilitating Specific instances of Innovation and Improvement
There are two possible starting points for this discussion. The first is that the discussion starts from a point where a business Culture for Innovation and Improvement already exists and the question becomes one of deciding how to support specific cases within a supportive cultural environment. The second starting point would be to consider how to support specific innovations and improvements in any business environment, even a very negative one. It may be useful to consider what differences could be expected between the two cases. In either case there would need to be information to work from, things that are measured and tests that can be performed. However, there will also be some differences between the two requirements for innovation and reasonable expectations from each type. For each of the cases considered, reasonable expectations should be stated and some attempt to justify the claims made.