By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

There is a lot going on in this great big world of ours. American politics has entered a new phase.  Jon Meacham, author and political commentator is convinced, “the lesson of 2016 is that none of the old rules apply.” In Europe countries are deciding whether they want [or are wanted] in or out. Throughout it all leaders need to recognize that independent of independent variables [e.g., stuff we have little or no control over] innovation transcends all happenstance.  There will always be pockets of extraordinary achievement. Innovation happens everywhere – in every vertical market, geography, and discipline. What can you do as a leader do to make sure the light of innovation stays lit in this gusty world of hyper-change?

Put Change on the Calendar
Taco Bell rolls out a new menu item every five weeks. Leading media companies reorganize content teams every three months to keep perspectives fresh and to engender new connections.

Intuit keeps change teams small – “2 pizza teams” [as in the # of people you can feed with two pizzas - ~4 or 5]. Kaaren Hanson, VP of Design Innovation at Intuit believes that the trick is:

A]  “creating a culture of rapid experimentation”
B]  “fall in love with the problem, not the solution”
C]  “innovation is part of everyone’s job” 

One of Intuit’s innovations was SnapTax, a tool that let’s you prepare and file your taxes in less than 10 minutes on your smart phone.

Larry Page at Google expects his employees to create products and services that are 10 times better than the competition.

You need to keep your hand on the change dial. Fellow futurists estimate that nearly four in 10 top incumbents in every major vertical market will be displaced due to digital disruption over the next five years.

Geoffrey Moore  [Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in an Age of Disruption] believes organizations need to restructure themselves to be more innovation-friendly.

Focus on the Customer
At Intuit they Design for Delight by watching the customer, talking to the customer and being the customer. Customer ethnography is key. Observing customers “in the wild” – in their homes, at the coffee shops, or on the train.  Observing customers going about their daily lives allows one to understand the motivations and emotions that drive their behaviors.  These nuggets provide rich material for innovation.

90% of companies believe that they are too slow to market with new products. 38% of the world’s top 200 companies have set up innovation centers [teams of people and a physical location dedicated to accelerate innovation].

The number one mistake that most innovation centers make is falling in love with the process of generating raw ideas. We can’t forget that something needs to be done with those ideas. This is the essence of innovation.