All successful companies are successful because they have a good system in the production of products or services, in sales, in human resources, in financing and in the rest. Systems bring more value. What about a lean innovation system?
We are sharing a series of 8 short blog posts. The individual components form a whole concept of a lean innovation system.
2/7
Innovation is people and lean innovation doesn’t go without saying. People and teams need a different mindset to gain new competencies and take ownership that will generate real value. The first step is building awareness (learning abc-s), the second is training and the third step is implementation.
Development of lean innovation competencies is the responsibility of upper management. The point of innovation is to gain and continuously build new knowledge and experience – it is not just about building products. Lack of knowledge and experience is the main reason for open innovation that includes external stakeholders.
Special role in the company holds Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) that has to be excellent in communications (internally and externally), managing pressure of uncertainty and accepting failures. CINO has to be aware of technological trends and needs the ability to make a lot of impact with scarce resources.
To make CINO role truly count, we also need ambassadors of lean innovation in several departments of the company, support of the management and other teams.
Just like a professional sportsmen keep on looking for opportunities to train, creative people keep on looking for opportunities to innovate and create. And we have the chance to offer them exactly this – inside the company they work for. In case that we don’t offer them such opportunities, we might lose a potentially valuable coworker.
“Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” ― Albert Szent-Györgyi
Start your new year as Chief Innovation Officer – Apply for Certification Program here or join us at Lean Innovation Week!
