How to welcome the left-brain thinkers into your innovation strategy

How to welcome the left-brain thinkers into your neuerung strategyHow to welcome the left-brain thinkers into your neuheit strategyThe classic method of segregating innovation to a single department, or to a process led by specialists, just isnt fast enough any longer. Whats needed is a culture in which innovation is the mission of everyone, everywhere, every day. Whats not understood is how to do it.fruchtwein innovation methods dont actually result in innovative solutions. Research shows that just 5-15% of innovations are successful at large companies. Most business leaders would have greater odds of success if they went to a Las Vegas casino and gambled their innovation investment on one big bet. But companies pursuing innovation as their core business strategy realize 50-100% higher profit margins than those who pursue low cost, high quality, and fast delivery strategies, or simply doing whatever the customer says.Yet now, with Innovation Engineering a data-driven, reliable ordn ungsprinzip for creating fresh ideas and successfully turning them into reality companies can transform innovation from a random act to a reliable science. Innovation Engineering is validated in real-world practice and has been the launch pad for more than $16 billion in growth and system improvement projects.Every existing innovation program preaches the importance of embracing a childlike, creative spirit. This works for the 15% of the work population who have a right-brain creative thinking style. But it doesnt work for the 85% with a logical left-brain thinking style. And without the 85% who are logical, theres virtually no chance a meaningfully unique innovation will become reality. Left-brainers are critical to accomplishing the engineering, finance, production and operational work thats required to make meaningful change happen.Innovation Engineering methods and tools are designed to engage both left and right-brain thinkers. Projects are focused with clear, motivating strat egic missions that speak to both project vision and boundaries. The result is an unleashing of a culture of whole brain thinking.The following are some of the essential practices of Innovation Engineering1. Create systems that enable instead of controlThe word system, especially in connection with innovation, creates a vision of being controlled, constrained and restricted. Thats not the purpose of Innovation Engineering. Its a system designed to enable innovation by everyone. Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a renowned systems specialist, observed Ninety-four percent of problems are caused by the system 6% by the workers. In fact, 99% of companies have no system for innovation. Often, leaders dont believe the people in their organization can innovate, or they blame their people for a lack of innovation. In fact, the problem lies in their lack of an embedded innovation system. A new mindset is needed to embrace the discovery of ideas, methods, and tools for working smarter.2. Generate a mult itude of ideas to end up a big ideaInvite teams of workers to free-associate around a problem or challenge. The more ideas you create, the more big ideas you end up with. For example, a business selling Christmas trees, who needed to find a profitable way to dispose of leftover trees, generated a multitude of ideas, such as pine needle tea and pine oil extract. The notion of creating great ideas by first creating lots of unrealistic ones is a viable approach to innovation.3. Discover and develop meaningfully unique innovationInnovation Engineerings definition of innovation is concise meaningful, in that it has an obvious value to the customer that is, customers would willingly give up their existing behaviors for it, and unique, in that its genuinely original. Often it offers a quantifiable advantage that you can put a number on that shows how much better it is versus the existing alternative.4. Analyze potential death threatsKey issues that could keep an idea from succeeding, in I nnovation Engineering termed death threats, must be resolved through disciplined systems of discovery, instead of the old declare and defend approach. The term denotes the emotional intensity that matches a fear of unknowns inherent in innovation. It enables honest conversations about critical issues without igniting defensiveness. Instead of saying, Your idea cant work, others are taught to say, There could be a death threat with this idea. Defining a challenge (such as a regulatory barrier) as a hypothetical concern moves it to the less confrontational third person. Death threats are examined by creating What if? hypotheses and experiments.5. Add define-and-discover phases before the classic develop-and-deliver phasesTo enable speed and success with innovation projects, include disciplined front-end phases to get clarity on the entire idea before entering the develop stage. Innovation Engineering designers have found that adding these phases increases development success by up to 250%. Two big decision points occur before develop-and-deliver where the bulk of the investment (60% and 30%) is made. The define stage involves laying out the entire idea, as opposed to a sequential system of hand-offs from marking to RD to production and sales. The discover stage involves problem-solving to reduce uncertainty and address the projects death threats.6. Know that kapitnspatent owners reap the rewardsPatent filings in the U.S. have grown exponentially. While ideas alone arent patentable, the methods or the proofs of innovative ideas are. The importance of technology ownership is significant. The U.S. Patent Office found that, on average, wages are 70% higher for those employees who work in intellectual property-intensive industries versus non-intellectual property-intensive industries. Filing of provisional patents now take hours, not weeks, and doing so is a no-brainer.Doug Hall is an inventor, researcher, educator, and craft whiskey maker. He is the founder of the E ureka Ranch, Innovation Engineering Institute and Brain Brew Custom Whisk(e)y. Hes been named one of Americas top innovation experts by Inc. magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Dateline NBC, CNBC, CIO Magazine and the CBC. His new book, Driving Eureka Problem Solving with Data Driven Methods the Innovation Engineering System describes how to transform innovation from random acts to a reliable science. Learn more at DougHall.com.