7 Secrets to Innovation Success

Laws exist to keep some form of order or control such as the traffic laws we follow to avoid chaos as we drive around. There are a variety of laws that exist. Scientific laws are laws that we can test and prove, and we can reconfirm that the law still applies. An example would be the law of gravity that always exists. There are also other kinds of laws that we use in the context of business terms. In this case, those laws are observed and validated over extended periods of time. We can test them, predict from them, and see if those predictions are true. A perfect example of a law used in business is Moore's law, which states that the number of transistors on semiconductors will double about every 18 to 24 months. This law has been in place since the 60s and is continuously validated.

There are some things that people mistake as laws that are actually rules of thumb. Rule of thumb is an anecdote that is based on personal experience or some lore that has been passed down. One of the most prevalent rules of thumb is the 8020 rule, which says that 20% of your actions generate 80% of the results. For example, 20% of your customers generate 80% of the revenue, or 20% of your trouble tickets generate 80% of your truck rolls. What is interesting, though, is that this rule has been proven to be not very sound. Rules of thumb are good to identify if there is a problem. It is an early test to see if there's something that you can narrow down to find a problem that you can work on, but a rule of thumb is not a law.

Laws of Innovation

The laws of innovation have been observed and validated for over 30 years by successful people. They are not a rule of thumb. These laws are proven and tested for effective innovation.  I will be specifically covering the seven laws of innovation.

Law of Leadership

The first law for successful innovation is the law of leadership. Good leadership is a foundational necessity. High-quality leaders prioritize innovation and show it through their actions. Leaders do not only fall in the executive leadership category such as the CEO or the owners of a business. Leaders include everybody from lower-level team leaders to organization leaders. For example, if you are a project manager, you don't have people reporting to you, but you've been put in charge of a project to deliver. Therefore, the law of leadership applies to you. If innovation is important to you and as important to your organization, you must demonstrate it. The team will follow you based on what you model to your organization.

Law of Culture

Law number two is the law of culture. A lot of organizations focus more heavily on their strategy. They are trying to come up with the perfect strategy to achieve success. But culture is foundational. What I mean by foundational is that it lays the bedrock that everything else in the organization builds upon. If you do not have a well-defined culture, that foundation is weak. Without the ability to drive a program of innovation inside any organization, your team is going to fail. Specifically, around a culture of innovation, there are certain elements that you need to have in that culture such as the willingness to take risks and not penalize people for it. If team members try something and fail, their failure can be used as a learning experience. We should never see failure as something negative when we can use it as a positive. If a trial-and-error culture is not strong in the workplace, people will not take risks, and without risks, there is no innovation. The law of culture is critical for innovation success.

Law of Resources

The third law of innovation is the law of resources. Innovation requires committed and consistent resourcing. Resourcing involves people, time, and money. All three are necessary for innovation to be successful. Most organizations do not dedicate or allocate resources to innovation. Organizations that want to achieve innovation success must have a consistent set of resources committed. How many organizations have a budget line with uncommitted dollars that are given away to teams and organizations where people can throw in their latest ideas? Most organizations do not have that. Challenges arise when new ideas are created, and not enough people are available to make that idea a reality. Another problems innovators face is the issue of funding. In the case of a lot of resources, projects go beyond the calendar year and the budget year you dedicate resources to. But what about every budget cycle? Do you have to revalidate every project? Do you have to go through and ask for money again to keep your project going? Or does this law of resources enable you to have committed resources for extended periods of time depending on how big and how complex the project is? The law of resources not only covers resources allocated to a project, but also ensures organizations stay committed to them so innovators are not tied to an arbitrary calendar of budget cycles. It is defined by what is appropriate for the project at hand. The law of resources is critical because if you do not have people, time, and money, the odds of you having innovation success are slim.

Law of Patience

The fourth law of innovation is the law of patience. Innovation takes time, more time than expected. The path to innovation is difficult and the outcome is hard to predict. You don’t know what's going to happen and you don't know what the efforts will look like. You must have patience, and you must get enough things moving in your innovation pipeline. You must be willing to see failure happen or experiments not work out, or trials that did not generate the results that you were expecting. Patience by far is one of the hardest laws for executive leaders to get their heads around. Most executive leaders like predictability. They live by the quarter to see those results. Most executive leaders struggle with this law, which is a hindrance for organizations trying to achieve innovation success. Executives throughout the entire leadership organization down to individual employees need to have patience. In a lot of organizations, people become frustrated because they are not seeing progress fast enough. You must get used to the fact that no matter what you plan, odds are it's going to take longer than expected.

Law of Process

The fifth law of innovation is the law of process. It establishes a continuous innovation process. The key point is that it initiates and builds relation processes while using the fire framework focus ideation principles of ranking and execution as a structure in the process. It is important to continuously improve and remember innovation isn’t static. There are many consultants out there that will come to you with a list of ten magic steps for innovation and tell you to follow them for undisputed success. Reality is, there is no one-size-fits-all plan. Teams and organizations are unique with different projects and different team nomenclature. Processes behind the scenes are different for every organization. If you take an innovation process from somewhere, be willing to adapt it, change it, or tweak it in a way that works for your project experiment. You might uncover an entirely new activity in the process that succeeds. It is important to have a process established. Your team needs to train in it. They need to know how to use it and operate it. Additionally, you need to avoid rigidness so you can continuously innovate. 

 

If your established process isn’t working, how do you improve that innovation process? What experiment could you do? You could try something a little different than how you define the target area. You could change how you do your brainstorming or your ideation activities. Try a new way to rank your ideas to find the best solution out of the hundreds of ideas that you are going to generate. And then execute an experiment in different ways. And be willing to exercise it. If the process doesn’t work, change things around. You need to be flexible, you need to establish your process, and you need to continuously innovate around it.

Law of BHAG

The next law of innovation, the law of BHAG, defines the target and shows a clear finish line for your projects. BHAG or “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” is used because it catalyzes a team by giving a straight-forward goal to try to achieve. BHAGs are unbelievable motivators. When you look at and dissect teams that had high innovation impact, they consciously or unconsciously followed the principles of BHAG. A prevalent BHAG example is when, in the 60s, the president of the United States announced during a speech to Congress that before the end of the decade, we would put a man on the moon and return him safely. That was a big hairy audacious goal. They had no clue how to do it at the time. They had not worked out all the engineering. But the president defined a clear goal, and the United States successfully put a man on the moon and brought him home safely by using the components of BHAG.

Organizations may have multiple BHAGs depending on what they are trying to achieve. This is why it is important to have a goal that everybody in the team understands, can communicate, and can share. BHAG defines your innovation mission by asking questions like, “where is your BHAG at?” Is it going to motivate and attract people to want to be on this project to deliver that mission?

Law of Execution

The seventh and final innovation law is the law of execution. The law of execution says that ideas without execution are a hobby. Putting ideas into notebooks and sticking them on the shelf provides zero value. How do we deliver ideas? For ideas to become successful realities, action is necessary. You need to translate that idea into something tangible like a mobile app, a piece of hardware, or a new advertising campaign. The law of execution is where rubber meets the road because without execution, all the other activities in the innovation create no value. When ideas are executed, they translate into innovations that can have a significant impact, and in some cases, can even change the world. Teams and organizations should focus on that ability to execute and drive strategies to get things done. Take your best ideas and execute them.

Conclusion

The seven laws of innovation set a clear path for teams and organizations to embark on to reach success. Failure can be mitigated by following these principles during the innovation process. Although there is no clear-cut way to reach innovative success, these laws are proven by trial and error to guide and direct people to achievement.