7 tips to help the innovation fight…
I’ve been kickboxing for ten years and getting my hands dirty running innovation projects for fifteen. Every so often, the two worlds collide:
- Execution beats inspiration.
Ideas are cheap, but execution is hard. Landing your move is the tricky bit. The most seemingly crazy idea — using flies, actual insects, to deliver a marketing message — becomes brilliant only if you can make it work.
2. Think before you throw your first punch.
The smartest thing my tutor has ever told me was; ‘When going against someone more experienced than you, throw fewer punches but eventually you have to take a [calculated] risk and make your move’. Aim and be specific, otherwise you’ll waste a lot of energy, but, to progress, you will need to be brave.
3. Sometimes, you just get smacked in the face. But those times are beneficial too.
It’s certainly true in kickboxing, and if you spend any time trying to promote organisational change, you’ll get slapped down every so often. A client team and I created a Linkedin group to promote their innovation lab; it was closed down in a matter of hours for not going through the many, many rounds of sign off. Fortunately, the anecdote spread and the assassinated LinkedIn group became infamous around the company, which really helped get the agile method out.
4. Surprises work.
When Fluxx run events, like the 48-hour RapidStart workshop we held at Heathrow last year, we often give teams little or no time to prepare. They arrive not knowing what to expect, deliberately hiding details like “You’re pitching to the CEO at 4pm this afternoon”. This ‘comfort zone shaker’ injects a creative buzz.
5. Quick footwork keeps you nimble and agile.
Taking a quick step back to regroup works wonders and there’s always space to do that. Agile project management, which we use on most projects, promotes, amongst other things, small teams to increase mobility and daily stand ups (or re-groups) to drive progress instead of endless planning and reports.
6. Move fast when you find the opportunity.
Whilst working with Lloyds Bank, our first experiment took twelve weeks of hard slog, working with a nervous compliance team. But the second took just a month because the team knew and trusted us. Getting the people who’ll be affected involved early and bringing them along for the ride really helps team morale and increases efficiency.
7. Taking blows always hurts.
But with practise it becomes less shocking and you’ll avoid more. We have been working with Atkins for a few years, with various clients, on enhancing their approach to innovation; their digital incubator now takes experimentation in its stride, which is inspiring the whole company.
Adam Slawson is Senior Consultant at Fluxx, a company that uses experiments to understand customers, helping clients to build better products. We work with organisations such as Atkins, National Grid, the Parliamentary Digital Service and the Royal Society of Arts. Email me if you’d like to know more.
If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy “Six behavioural flaws that make us stupid around money” and “13 things we learned while designing a more democratic Houses of Parliament.” We also sometimes write articles without a number in the headline.
