Innovations are a lot like magic shows. Innovations are not usually as spontaneous and instantaneous as they appear to be. Combinations of things need to be brought together at the right time in a methodical fashion.
A magic trick looks simple and defies the impossible but a lot of work has gone into creating that trick. There are preparations which need to be made in advance and steps that need to be followed in a specific order to make the trick successful and dazzling to the audience.
I have an aspiring magician at home and am amused by the number of hours spent in learning a trick. It begins with a passion, the right tools, practice and creating awareness for the magic show. This is not all that different than creating innovation –you need a passion, the right tools, practice and creating awareness of the innovation.
Learning from others:
The best tools for my aspiring magician are watching Youtube videos of other magicians. Innovation works the same way – we look at what others in the industry are doing. Innovators look to industry leaders in their own industry and parallel industries for ideas and insight on how to be successful. Google is an organization many look to for ideas on innovation and providing environments which enable innovation. Even in the public sector, the Canadian government has looked at the work done by Denmark and US governments for ideas and inspiration.
Tools:
Buying gadgets to increase the number of tricks and make the show even better is part of the arsenal for all magicians. In business technologies are purchased to make it easier and faster for us to bring new products and services to market. Whether it is systems for helping the business be better or software to help capture innovative ideas, adding technology can make businesses more effective.
Assistants:
Magicians also have assistants or volunteers to help them with their work. Successful innovators use partners to assist in developing innovations. These assistors come in different sizes; they can be friendly customers where proofs of concepts can be trialed or partners who help build better systems and offerings by working with you. Working in IT many years ago we had many partners who helped us create an innovative process for getting computers into the hands of our employees much faster. For an organization with over 40,000 employees thanks to partners this meant a significant reduction in wait times.
Marketing:
For my magician marketing involves gathering up everyone in the house, especially during the holidays where the house is fuller than usual. He’ll enlist his brother and cousins to spread the word around the house. In business, marketing is about creating awareness for products, services and innovations. Organizations need to market the work done on innovating and the innovations being developed. Knowing and seeing that innovation is important will get more employees engaging in innovation, especially if they know how to contribute to innovation efforts.
Implementation:
The final steps to the art of magic and innovation is implementation. It’s all good and well to watch others perform but work has to be done to showcase your own talents and demonstrate your magic tricks. This is a huge component in organizations – implementing innovation. Lots of thought and discussion is given to bringing about innovation but more can be done to implement the action plans. The more magic shows a magician conducts the better they get. The same applies for organizations and innovation – the more you innovate and implement innovation the better the organization gets at it.
There are succinct steps in creating an innovation; the more often an organization goes through them, the easier it gets to create new innovations. Spring2 Innovation can help you determine the steps you need to take to get your innovations out and dazzle your customers.