Overview

Participants will come to see the management of innovation as a powerful and practical way to create value by selecting and exploiting the best new ideas —both for improvement and for radical change in products, processes, positioning, or paradigm.

Participants will learn to incorporate innovation management skills and processes into their jobs by absorbing the results of research on exceptionally innovative organizations; they will put that knowledge to work through structured activities, cases, and skill practice. They will simulate an “innovation journey” and will practice many of the skills and tools used by the most successful innovation managers.

Objectives and Outcomes

During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to assess their own skills and the culture, structure, and processes relating to innovation in their organization, comparing them to the best practices of benchmarked organizations. Participants will create a plan to move their own skills forward and to create a more innovation supportive structure and culture within their organizations and teams.

• Describe best practices in innovation management
• Reflect systematically on their own strengths and weaknesses as a manager of innovation
• Identify ways to weave innovation into their management practices and/or in the larger world
• Use context-specific behavioral skills that drive, foster, support and improve innovation practices
• Explore the norms, values, competencies, structures, and processes that facilitate
• Begin to develop a draft innovation agenda that can be explored, developed and implemented following the workshop

Who Should Participate?

Managers who see fostering innovation as a part of their role, individual contributors whose work involves facilitating innovation, and senior managers who lead or sponsor innovation as part of their responsibilities.

Content Outline

Opening Exercise, Definitions, Key Models

• Exercise, discussion, and exploration of core definitions and concepts related to creativity, innovation, and innovation management

Personal Connections: Contributions, Lessons Learned, Needs and Issues

• Examination of participant and organizational strengths, needs, and experiences regarding innovation management

The Innovation Journey

• Introduction to the core model for innovation management and application to participants’ past experiences

The Avatars of Innovation

• Exploration of the mind-sets and skill-sets required during each phase of the innovation journey

Deep Dive: Searching, Exploring, Committing

• Analysis of the early phases of the innovation journey through viewing and discussing a video example followed by skill practice, observation and feedback

Skill Assessment

• Review of the mind-sets and skill-sets as applied to participants’ own management practices; identification of further learning needs

Tools for Idea Development

• Introduction to several tools for generating, developing, and selecting promising ideas

Innovation Journey Exercise

• Practice in managing a competitive, time-bound innovation journey through all the phases

Organizational Capability: Research and Application

• Application of six areas of innovation capability identified through research on successfully innovative organizations to participants’ own areas of influence and responsibility

Innovation Agenda

• Development of a draft plan for implementing innovation management skills

TidalShift is a Barnes & Conti Global Partner. These courses are used by permission from Barnes and Conti Associates © 2011