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Mastering the art of acceleration means knowing how (and when) to change the speed and direction of the innovation process

Borrowing from the world of physics, acceleration is the name we give to any process where the velocity changes. Since velocity means speed with a direction, leaders can accelerate innovation in one of three ways: by speeding up, by slowing down, or by changing direction.*

 
 

8 strategies to purposefully speed up the innovation process to achieve desired outcomes faster than planned or envisioned 

 

Create a compelling case for change, instill a sense of urgency, and incentivize speed

Gain leadership support for speed to bypass internal roadblocks and overcome initial resistance

Reset goals for speed, reprioritize projects, and reallocate resources across the portfolio

Introduce leaner and more agile ways of working to reduce waste and minimize friction

 

Encourage co-creation across organizational silos and use specific thinking tools to generate more and stronger ideas at speed

Use experimentation and specific innovation formats to form and test hypotheses faster (without sacrificing quality)

Make it easier for users to understand, embrace, and adopt new solutions through familiarity, compatibility, onboarding, training, etc.

Encourage continuous learning and iteration by building a system for ‘instantaneous’ feedback

 
 

8 strategies to purposefully slow down the process to make sure innovation efforts and projects are on (the right) track

 

Identify long-term opportunities for industry and market disruption (rather than ‘just’ chasing short-term value creation)

Incorporate more inputs, perspectives, and voices to the process (rather than jumping to conclusions and making rash decisions)

Re-analyze and re-synthesize the research data multiple times to uncover insights that are truly actionable (rather than settling for ‘good enough’)

Systematically explore the problem and solution spaces through lateral thinking (rather than settling for the ‘first best’ problem statement or idea)

 

Insert ample opportunities for experimentation, prototyping, and stakeholder feedback into the process

Invest more time in building relationships and commitment with project stakeholders

Actively promote, assess, and improve the emotional, mental, and physical health of leaders and teams

Identify strategic opportunities to stop, reflect, learn, and adapt throughout the process

 
 

8 strategies to purposefully change the direction of the innovation process to align with organizational needs and purpose

 

To ‘tighten up’ the innovation process (if deemed too fuzzy, diffused, or diversified): 

Craft overarching, human-centered innovation quest, purpose, or North Star for leaders and teams to rally around

Create innovation principles, guidelines, toolkits, standards, benchmarks, performance indicators, and other guardrails

Refocus innovation portfolios, reprioritize innovation projects, and reallocate resources in a purpose-led way

Kill ideas and terminate projects that no longer fit or align with new learnings, new opportunities, new goals, new needs, etc.

 

To ‘loosen’ the innovation process (if deemed too myopic, rigid, or one-sided): 

Identify portfolio gaps based on long-term consumer trends, emerging technology, and industry disruptions

Challenge assumptions, reframe problems, and revise hypotheses through research, experimentation, and prototyping

Promote internal crowdsourcing, collaborative play, co-creation, continuous feedback, etc.

Encourage self-organization, self-direction, intrapreneurship, and internal coopetition