"I found working with nfpSynergy a pleasure and had complete confidence in them."
Susanne Levy, Remember a Charity
nfpSynergy insight April 2010
How to make your organisation
more innovative - the 10 minute primer
Download this page as a pdf document - How
to make your organisation more innovative, April 2010 (62.50KB)
Innovation
matters because …….. it helps your organisation do a better job
Innovation
is all about putting new ideas into operation. It’s about helping
organisations do a better job. Non-profits in particular should love
innovation because it often ISN’T about spending lots of money but
changing working practices or changing old habits or using existing
budget better. You can see innovation as continuously asking the
question ‘how can we do this better?’, ‘how can we improve this?’
Innovation
or creativity – which do I need?
Lots of people get
confused about the difference between creativity and innovation. We tend
to describe the difference fairly simply. Creativity is about having
the new ideas and innovation is about putting new ideas into practice.
The two are like Morecambe and Wise, Laurel and Hardy, Gin and tonic or
Posh and Becks. They are much better together. Having great ideas and
not implementing them is a waste. And there is no innovation without the
ideas for change. Every organisation needs to be clear as to where the
blockages are - in having new ideas or putting them into practice?
How
call I tell if my organisation needs to innovate?
Like
syphilis or the bubonic plague there are clear symptoms of an
organisation that isn’t innovating. Here are some of the tell-tale
signs:
• People do things because that’s the way they have always
been done
• The organisation is out of step with what other
organisations are doing in terms of best practice
• Directors and
trustees say things like ‘I have seen all these new ideas and none of
them will ever work’ or ‘just say it won’t work’ without helping find
ways round the obstacles.
• Energetic staff with lots of ideas get
new jobs or put all of their energy into their activities outside work
What
stops innovation?
We have all seen some great examples of
things that stop innovation:
• Rigid, inflexible budgets can kill
innovation. If its takes 18 months to get the budget for a new idea
approved (or even changed) the momentum for change will be gone.
•
If managers blame people personally for failure. Innovation comes with
risks so when managers expect every new idea to work and point the
finger when it doesn’t – that stops people trying to do new things
•
Most of the best ideas for innovation come from people at the frontline
of the activity that needs innovating. So if management expect
consultants or directors to be the source of innovation and ignores the
grassroots then the best source of ideas for innovation will be lost.
Conversely, if the frontline isn’t listened to if they say a new idea
has problems then innovation may be difficult (this is not to say that
the frontline has a power of veto over new ideas – but often they will
have valid concerns)
• Trustees and subcommittees can be great
innovation killers. Ideas get referred from one committee to the next.
Clueless trustees asked clueless questions or get staff to investigate
blind alleys or red herrings (I exaggerate for effect). Committee
structures can make innovation feel like wading through treacle in a
minefield.
There must be some practical exercises I can
do?
I thought you’d never ask. There are some great ways to
show people the importance of creativity and innovation and how they can
think differently.
Exercise 1 – Ask people to draw a
picture of Humpty Dumpty as an ice-breaker.
The chances are
that 99% of people will draw humpty dumpty as an egg-shaped person
sitting on a wall. But why is humpty dumpty egg-shaped. The rhyme
doesn’t say that he’s egg-shaped. Conformity has made him egg shaped.
Creativity is about breaking out of our organisational equivalent of
always seeing humpty dumpty as egg-shaped.
Exercise 2 –
Brainstorm new ways of doing something.
In small groups get
people to come up with new ways of doing a specific task. What kind of
fundraising event could we hold? How could we develop relationships with
the communications or fundraising team? How could we get more case
studies? How can we make trustee meetings more productive? Record as
many ideas as possible and then at the end ask each group to pick its
favourite 3 ideas.
Exercise 3 – Understand what
encourages and what stops innovation in your organisation?
Most
people in an organisation have a good idea of how innovation can be
encouraged and how the organisation both stops and encourages innovation
(in one charity we heard of the suggestion scheme was only for staff
above a certain grade!). So in your organisation, what have people seen
that encourages innovation and what have they experienced that puts them
off innovating?
How can I encourage innovation?
Here
are seven things (there’s lots more but seven will do for starters)
that you and your organisation can do to encourage innovation.
Thing
1: Lead from the top. If you want to create an innovative
organisation or an innovative team then show people you are serious.
Demonstrate that you are serious enough to put into practice a couple of
ideas that demonstrate you are committed. Leave your office and have a
desk in the open plan. Cancel the boring meeting that everybody hates
and doesn’t work. Buy a bottle of wine for the employee who had a great
idea.
Thing 2: Make it clear that the status quo isn’t
sufficient. Constantly emphasise how change is necessary and
that doing the same thing next year isn’t good enough. Give examples of
what change is needed. Set deadlines and provide time for ideas and
innovation (through away-days for example)
Thing 3:
Provide a budget for innovation. New ideas often need funds. If
a budget is rigid and inflexible then the waiting will stop innovation.
Many organisations tackle this by having a budget pot which people can
pitch to, for their new ideas.
Thing 4: Make sure new
ideas happen. Most people in charities are astute management
watchers. What really matters is not what people say but what managers
actually do and achieve. It’s no good talking about innovation if the
new ideas don’t actually happen. So make sure some of the new ideas get
implemented – otherwise people will assume its all just rhetoric.
Thing
5: Constantly look for new ideas from the frontline. As we
have already said people at the frontline often have ideas for
innovation. Talk to those people. Ask them how they would improve
things. Set up schemes and mechanisms for people to put their ideas
forward. The task of management is then to work out how those ideas can
be put into action.
Thing 6: Watch your tongue.
It’s very easy to inadvertently crush new ideas and new suggestions
without even realising it. A careless word, a sarcastic comment, an
ill-considered brush-off, a humorous put-down can all make people
reluctant to put their new ideas forward (and I am afraid I have been
guilty of all them). If people stick their head above the parapet they
won’t do it again if a verbal lashing is one of the consequences.
Thing
7: Praise and reward the innovators. When people have come up
with good ideas and those good ideas have been put into practice make
sure those people are publicly praised and publicly rewarded – a bottle
of wine, a box of doughnuts or a bunch of flowers might be suitable.
