Innovation leaders: new rules apply

Companies are searching for talented leaders to help them win new customers and achieve successful innovation. Innovation is now the key defining factor for the world's most successful companies, and even entire countries are being ranked and monitored for their capacity to support populations, institutes and industries to innovate successfully.

In 2010, Scandinavian and Asian economies dominate the Global Innovation Index, with Iceland (1st), Sweden (2nd), Hong Kong (3rd), Switzerland (4th), and Denmark (5th) in the top 5 out of 132 economies.

How do you lead teams to successful innovation?

Innovation leaders understand that giving people dedicated (albeit limited) space to create and implement radically different solutions to their customers' challenges can make them a healthy profit.
Innovative companies have a way of putting the right teams and customers together, and rewarding teams that learn fast from their customers and decide fast how to help their customers.
The process of innovation requires excellent communication and decision-making skills. Leaders also understand that the project is not only about introducing new ideas but about clearly controlling the often chaotic process and spirally costs that innovation may involve.

By building tight-knit teams that have a specific span of communication and control, it is easier for an innovation leader to keep direct connections with people and accountability and control of developments in that network. To get - or stay - connected with customers, your teams need to be led into a valuable “coalition” of parties who are willing to communicate about their new discoveries, to co-create solutions and share investments in an innovation project.

Co-creation is a trendy word in the world of innovation but in reality, it is still a pretty new approach in business. Co-creation asks for new rules to apply in working with customers and leading teams. Co-creation is more than just a process of brainstorming or telling the customer what your clever solution is. Instead, it is a targeted program of change that involves clear agreements about collaboration and strategic decision-making between multiple parties and disciplines. This is no easy task.

Where can co-creation go wrong?

1. Lack of facilitation
Co-creation only delivers if it is facilitated properly. Innovation leaders in companies may hesitate to share ideas and strategies with people who are not on their payroll. But co-creation only works if ideas are shared openly, in structured way, over time. To achieve this your leadership must be all about making connections and integrating learning across the board instead of staking out turf and claiming your team/knowledge as your private power zone.

2. Too much pressure on time, not enough on intelligence
Many companies expect their teams to produce the next "killer app" in a short period of time -- some even after a day of brainstorming. By putting unrealistic deadlines on production of solutions, teams set themselves up for failure. The reason is not that people can't work fast, but that they simply might not have the skills in the team to produce the right solution.

Research shows that only 1% of people in any group generate the majority of creative output in that group. So it is the innovation leader's job to develop a mid- to long-term view, and start approaching, educating and involving the other 99% -- especially if they are key stakeholders. This takes a lot of lead time -- networking, presenting, convincing others to invest in the systematic development of in innovation processes and co-creation sessions, so that you can get the best results for everyone.