How to conquer your Daily Innovation Zone

Once you’ve understood the four quadrants of the innovation model – steady growth, productivity gain, industry leadership, game change -, you’ll need a plan to conquer your own Daily Innovation Zone. This means also learning how to create game changing innovation with minimum cost and risk.

To do it, consider the green zone at the bottom of the model. This is the daily innovation zone and spreads across from process to product innovation but in a narrow band on the boundary of incremental change.

The theory is that a company that trains itself to constantly innovate in this zone – small changes and improvements on a daily basis – will most certainly position itself to deliver that big radical, game changing product or industry leading process in the long run. These baby steps would help the company start small, take lower risks, and make innovation a part of its DNA.

Daily innovation is more about building a culture of innovation. It is not about creating an “innovation committee” or “working group.” It is about motivating everyone in the organization to think like an innovator, celebrating daily improvements in the life of the organization. A zone where saving a sheet of paper is treated on par with reducing the cost of production, or adding a new feature to a product.

From janitor to CEO, everyone is involved in the process. Self-driven, motivated and eager to make a change – with a sense of pride at the changes they bring and a reward that may be as little as a pat on the back.

READ MORE:
Creativity, creative leadership and the value of innovation management

FROM THE START:
“Innovation is not for us”, they say

By Rumman Ahmad. An MSc in Creativity and Change Leadership from Buffalo State University, Rumman trains, teaches and facilitates groups of people to learn and apply the creative process to solve problems, energizing and motivating them to do their best. He is also the organizer of an annual conference on innovation in Pakistan. An Exago partner since 2016 in this key geography, Rumman has developed a Model for Daily Innovation which can be complemented by Exago’s innovation management software.