There may be naysayers of ideation sessions, who claim they do not work or that there is no room in the budget. However, it’s all about that small percentage of ideas that make it through the process and produce immense payoff for the company. We’ve all seen that one innovative idea or product that’s catapulted sales and increased shareholder value tremendously for an organization. All it takes is that one great idea among thousands.

Do not overlook the importance of ideation sessions in the process of achieving Innovation. To maximize efficiency, invite your customers and salespeople to participate. It’s a golden opportunity to hear the needs of your consumers, and salespeople can produce invaluable insights about the marketplace. Include other departments of your organization as well, even the ones labeled “not creative” because it would be a shame to miss out on a potential opportunity. Everyone is a consumer so all opinions are relevant.

A diverse group, forced to perform out of their comfort zone, produces the highest quality work. So hold your ideation sessions outside of predictable times and locations – try it at a client’s office or a third party venue. Avoid Monday mornings, Friday afternoons or right after lunchtime when energy levels drop. Most importantly, accept every single idea that comes through without objection or ridicule. By asking the right open-ended questions to unlock new insights and discoveries, to narrowing down to specific concepts, you can jump start the idea process and reach the next “Aha!” moment sooner than your competitors. A concept that doesn’t work at the moment could prove to be successful later on down the road – so store best practices. Maintain an idea database, cross fertilize and keep those ideas until the right technology or cost is possible.

Robert’s Rules of Innovation^TM is focused business innovation, with Robert Brands’ goal to bring one new idea to market every year. For more tips on Idea Management and the 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival, see Robert’s Rules of Innovation^TM published in March 2010 by Wiley.

Over the past several weeks and 10 posts on the Vistage Blog , we’ve reviewed key imperatives that formed “Robert’s Rules of Innovation” and that together create the foundation upon which to build, improve, sustain and grow an organization’s innovation mandate.

Consider this the closing chapter in an 11-step treatise on putting what you’ve read into action. First, a brief summary…

Consider the lesson on the first imperative – Inspire and Initiate – to realize the steps necessary. The power of inspiration cannot be over-estimated in the process of innovation. Inspire your people, and then hit the throttle.

With inspiration as the wind in your sails, next comes the realization that with No risk, there can be no innovation. Companies must be willing to take some risk to potentially realize the benefits of innovation.

We discovered how important innovation is to the New product development process it, and how Ownership across the organization – from the CEO to the rank-and-file employee – fuels buy-in to successful innovation.

Innovation, we learned, fuels Value creation, yet Accountability, Training and coaching, and Idea management bring value to the process and its individual elements. Finally, the mandate to Observe and measure every step of the process brings quantifiable metrics to the process, which – hopefully – delivers Net results / net rewards.

Together, these imperatives drive Innovation.

With these imperatives in place, now visualize the role they play in your organization and issue a call to action: Innovate to thrive.

How should you start? Here are three final tips to get you started…

• Just Do It. Like the Nike commercial, it’s all about execution. You can read books and blogs on innovation. You can write plans for your next innovative pursuit. Yet as the Chinese proverb says, “Every long journey begins with one small step.” With the plan in hand, work the plan.

• Communicate. This cannot be stressed enough. From the CEO to the Chief Innovation Officer to every team member involved in the process, communication is essential to relaying key information about goals, intent, progress (from the biggest success to the smallest setback), and lessons learned from any failure. Whether by email, IM, a collaborative whiteboard, or recurring meetings, communicate your milestones.

• Get committed. Personal involvement from the CEO means, “No Lip Service.” From the highest levels, there must be a hands-on presence in update meetings, project rankings, and troop motivation. You must set the example. You must walk the talk.

You’ve been given the tools and insights. Now, it’s time to implement an innovation initiative in your organization. You don’t have to start big; in fact, like so many first-time projects, a beta may be the best way to test the initiative without investing too much time, manpower or resources – only to later discover whether the concept was worthy of pursuing further.

The key, though, is to kick it off. Create a personal action plan, follow it through, get engaged with personal involvement, and be there.

Don’t hesitate to drop me a note if you need encouragement or want to relay news of your successes, robert@innovationcoach.com

For more information and useful content see “Robert’s Rules of Innovation“,

LOOK INSIDE for more chapters, insights and tips on Innovation.

—/—

Robert Brands is a professional Speaker, the founder of InnovationCoach.com, and the author of “Robert’s Rules of Innovation“: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival, with Martin Kleinman published in March, 2010 by Wiley.

They install someone to manage new product development or innovation. They set up a litany of rules. And they select only the “best” ideas for further development.

Then they wonder why innovation falls fallow.

A recent study from The Nielsen Company. found that companies with acknowledged, successful innovation practices also have limited involvement from senior management. The teams are guided, but freed of stifling controls.

With the premise, “Manage Ideas Lightly, Manage Process Precisely,” the study of 30 top consumer and package goods companies found that ideation and new product development must be structured, but unconstrained. The companies enjoyed 80% more new product revenue when senior executives were less involved in managing innovation. The study also found that the companies realized 130% more new product revenue with less rigid “stage gates” or measurable reporting goals along the way.

In short, smart companies – Apple, Starbucks, Whole Foods and IBM, for example – have an innovation an environment that removes the constraints and welcomes a free flow of ideas, noted Tom Agan, the Nielsen SVP and managing director who presented “Renovating Innovation” at Nielsen’s Consumer 360 conference in June.

“One of the keys to successful new product innovation is to manage new ideas lightly,” Agan was quoted in DrugStore News. “While we don’t dispute senior management’s strengths and good intentions, they are often too quick to get involved in the creative process, especially when things are not going well, and their mere presence can stifle free-thinking and boundaryless ideas — which can doom the new product development process to failure.”

I agree – to an extent. This is much of what “Robert’s Rules of Innovation” espouses from its inception. To be sure, meddling leadership can stifle the process. But effective innovation thrives under the guidance of a CEO or Chief Innovation Officer , supported by the Board, with the authority to provide the air cover needed to protect unfettered (but deliberate) innovation, and the soft hand to foster creative, imaginative innovation.

Any and all ideas should be welcomed, Open Innovation from the inside as well as outside and fed into an innovation Idea Hopper , where they can be further developed, if not in the near-term, then when market conditions or forces allow for such development.

The limited involvement of management is the real gem in Nielsen’s findings. While the CEO is the best possible champion for any company’s innovation strategy (after all, support at the highest level generally helps ensure adherence to vision, mission, strategy and ultimately resources), such support also must encourage lower and mid-level management’s embracing of the concept the CEO or CIO is selling.

With objective and not to be forgotten reward systems and incentives aligned, pursuits have the highest chance of taking root.

Agan also noted the need for stage gates and scorecards to measure results. In fact, observation and measurement is essential to effective innovation. Such deliberate focus provides consistency and keeps teams on target and accountable .

The removal of stage gates can help expedite and foster unfettered innovation, as long as the required steps are still incorporated. Yet this only works if such blossoming of ideas is followed by deliberate pruning and cultivating to ensure the best ideas are pursued at the best possible moment, which – in turn – ensures the best possible opportunity for commercialization or market exploitation.

The challenge for the CIO or Emperor, especially in larger companies, remains to encourage hearty pursuit of innovation – without meddling by VPs, who have full plates, unique silos or fiefdoms, and objectives and rewards that often are contradictory to the very premise of the innovation goals. Such mis-alignment can kill innovation.

Instead, an inspired Emperor must lead the charge. He or she must align agendas, and figure out and pull into line the objectives of fully engaged teams and leadership. Across the ranks, those involved in successful innovation are rewarded or bonused accordingly. Such uniformity builds consensus, helps remove conflicting agendas and can ensure.

In the end, the Emperor will find him- or herself ruling over an empire where ideas thrive, goals are met, and innovation blossoms.

Robert Brands is a keynote speaker, author of “Robert’s Rules of Innovation” and InnovationCoach with www.innovationcoach.com.

It needs new views, fresh thinking, a different perspective from across the organization.

We’ve noted that Innovation = Creative x Risk Taking. Setting aside risk for the moment, creativity is a central element to the innovation process. But it must continually be nourished with new ideas from a variety of sources.

Ideation is not a single event. It doesn’t originate from a single silo or one person or one department, although it can come from a single source. Ideation thrives in an open environment; think Wikipedia, the open-source, online repository of the world’s specialized knowledge. It is the result of a collaborative process that welcomes minds and teams from across any organization of any size.

How can you foster a fertile ideation environment?

Start by creating an “idea hopper.” This idea bank is the repository of any idea to be pursued, saved, reconsidered – or at least explored.

In the closing scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Ark of the Covenant is crated and stashed in endless warehouse of similar, non-descript crates. This is the polar opposite. Don’t think of the Hopper as a bottomless pit. Think actionable. While this idea database can be managed online or as a Access Dbase, Word  or Excel spreadsheet, the key word is “managed.” Ideas come in and are vetted by the Innovation Team and the Chief Innovation Officer [link to previous blog on CIO ]. The CIO will organize ideas in order of importance or relevance based on the organization’s current path or needs. Then the ideas then are presented at the next meeting of the Ideation or Brainstorming Session.

About that session… Brainstorm sessions should be held at a regular interval  and include a variety of participants from across the organization. This isn’t just a place for R&D or the New Product team. Sales should be there. So should Marketing. Include Customer Service. Those who interact with customers and have a feel for the shifting tidings of the consumer should have input in ideation – whether in feeding the hopper or digesting its contents.

The meetings also should be structured. They should be scheduled, with an agenda in place so participants know what to expect, the topics of discussion, and the anticipated outcomes. In this instance, the CIO should defer to a facilitator or Innovation Coach who can lead the session with complete neutrality. He or she (or someone designated for that task) will write, chart, graph or otherwise gather every idea presented. There are no bad ideas. All concepts should be filed, prioritized, validated, for future reference and / or use in combination with other ideation session results. The outcome of each meeting besides feeding the hopper is a prioritized list to be worked in in Product Development

Next, feed that hopper. This database needs that constant diet of fresh ideas – especially between brainstorming sessions. Welcome ideas from all corners of the organization – from the C-Suite to the receptionist’s desk. You never know where the next Great Idea will come from.

To be clear, new “ideas” aren’t simply about products. Ideas can include process changes, technological enhancements – anything that represents change in the organization.

In ideation, think green. In those brainstorming sessions, some ideas will rise, some will fall. Throw none away. Those that don’t pass muster at that moment should be placed back in the hopper and recycled. Some ideas fail based on momentary circumstances: bad timing, market conditions, technological disconnect, conflict with the organization’s current needs or vision – any of which can change very quickly. In fact, two ideas discarded today may morph into a better concept tomorrow. Keeping them in the hopper ensures they can be revisited in the future.

The process of ideation isn’t inherently a risk-taking endeavor. But it is part of the experimentation equation. As we’ve noted previously [please link to the blog on Risk], Risk plus Experimentation (plus Failure) equals an Improved Environment for Innovation.

The risk here is to break the mold. Open the silos. Welcome input from across the organization. You might come away thinking, “What a great idea!”