Calibrate Innovation Capability

In the Olympics, athletes must meet an ever-increasing performance level to simply compete. An athlete might break a current world record and still finish fourth. Winning is not a finite challenge, it is a relative one.

The same holds true for innovation. An organization’s reaction time and capabilities might be exactly the same this year as last, but it might be viewed as slow and ineffective in comparison to an aggressive, innovative competitor.

In the final measure, success at innovation is a comparative quality established when an organization judges itself against the demands of the marketplace and the speed and innovativeness of its competitors.

Every business would be wise to calibrate its “capacity to innovate” not only on the basis of the time it takes to implement a new idea it has chosen to pursue, but also against the response time of the competition to achieve comparable results.
Also, just like in the Olympics, the proverbial “bar” is continually being raised in business. The competitive advantage tomorrow will not go to those who can deliver what is needed today, but to those who can produce “overnight” an innovative response to a customer’s need faster than the competition.

The potential for future success at innovation can be quantified through assessing an organization’s context - internal environment. The current innovation pipeline, key cultural traits, strategies, structures, processes and technologies that impact innovation have to be evaluated. Roadblocks to the effectiveness of individuals and teams need to be pinpointed and differences identified between the intent of leaders and their capacity to deliver

With a deeper understanding of the organization’s context, leaders will more effectively increase the speed, dexterity and resourcefulness of employees to innovate. The prize will not be a gold medal but rather a number of important competitive advantages, including securing new business, keeping existing customers and attracting more competent employees when they expand their capacity to innovate.