I got this formula from a presentation that Professor Roy Glen gave on Fostering Innovation.
(VxTxI)/S= Innovation
The amount of Variety times the number of Trials times the search Intensity, divided by the Selection process equals successful Innovation.
Variety refers to the source of the *raw product* that you start the innovation process with. This could be actual product or inspiration from different industries, or people from different departments or even companies. The more varied the better. Weeding out the ones that don’t fit is easier than adding something you didn’t start with.
The amount of trials and combinations that you preform are just as important as the variety of raw product used. This is where people are applying the principles of agile development. I also blogged previously about “Fail Cheap, Fail Often.” This is a hard stage to control. Many people will want to run with the first combination that looks viable, instead of trying other combinations for a better solution. Others will want to try every conceivable combination holding up progress on the project.
Search Intensity was a little confusing for me at first. Probably because I immediately started thinking about algorithms and search results. Intensity will drive the group to find the best solution and force them to reach out beyond the organization’s comfort level. This is why so many companies (especially in tech) try to hire “risk taking entrepreneurs.” To me Intensity translates into Passion.
Selection is where the right management becomes crucial. Someone has to have the experience/authority/intuition to say “try again” or “good enough”. At IDEO this is where they say the *grown ups* have to make a decision. During the initial phase of innovation diverging is crucial; constantly looking for more Variety and preforming more Trials. It is a very Intense process, emotions run high and conflicts are good; to a point. Someone has to reign in the chaos eventually. At this phase, the wrong type of manager can destroy the entire process.
Innovation requires divergence, openness and creativity. These are not things that come naturally to businesses. Businesses typically build wealth and success on repeatable scalable processes, convergence and consensus.
Business leaders need to learn to adapt. They need to be comfortable with change and ambiguity. Roy used a quote I want to end with, I’m sorry I can’t remember who he was quoting. If any of you know leave me a comment.
“When your business is stuck, let chaos reign and then rein chaos in.”
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