Not The Best In The World — But The First
On a quest to lead better innovation initiatives
If you don’t like problem solving, creating new ideas, or making the world a better place, you should turn off the TV and go back to sleep.
We are heading for a series of challenges that need to be addressed together as a human race. But we can’t do it with the knowledge, tools, and methods we have today.
The work has to be done differently, with new knowledge, tools, and methods.
But who is going to do it? And more importantly, who is going to lead?
In 2018, I joined a certification program to become the first certified innovation management professional in my industry and in the world. Yes, you read that right: in the world.
And that makes me—you guessed it—not better than anyone else.
I just happened to have the privilege of timing and opportunity to go through the program, pass the exam, complete the assignments, and come out a certified individual.
Researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, along with the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) and the Association for Innovation Management Professionals (Innovationsledarna), developed the certificate program itself in Sweden.
What makes the certification process so unique is that it’s based on the ISO 17024 standard, which provides a higher level of trustworthiness and transparency to certificates compared to other company-specific programs.
Proof of being the first
Early in 2019, I got the actual certificate, and by this time only a few individuals had been certified before me. Most of them work in the public sector, but none in urban planning.
RISE, which was in charge of overseeing the certification procedure and issuing new certificates and renewals, verified this. They keep records of each individual who has a certificate and what company and industry they work in.
By this time the certification program had been established in Sweden, making it the only place in the world where to obtain it. However, anyone in the world could participate in the program from their home country.
License to lead
As a certified innovation management professional, people expect me to be an expert in innovation. That might be a fair statement, but I’d argue the leadership is more important.
I believe the process of innovation has to be facilitated to increase the success rate of innovation initiatives. Some companies think they’re innovating, but they’re not, and some don’t have the right knowledge to do it the right way.
From my experience, the three biggest challenges related to innovation in companies are:
1. A bad culture for innovation
When employees are not encouraged to share ideas or solutions, it will most likely lead to a bad culture at best and stagnation at worst. Bad culture leads to bad ideas.
2. No support in the process
When working with innovation, employees often need support and coaching. Creativity is fun and often easy, while innovation is hard work and sometimes goes sideways or south. During these tough times, support from your organization is crucial to maintaining the motivation of your employees.
3. Moving past the “one-off” initiatives
Building a working prototype is not particularly difficult (unless you’re building a rocket or something). But building a commercial product or service that customers will pay for is a different story. So many innovation projects end at the concept or prototype stage.
How to get certified
If you work in innovation and want to take the next step toward legitimizing your profession, you should look into a certification program.
While there are many of them out there, I encourage you to check out the one based on the ISO standard.
A certification engineer (in this case, at RISE) conducts the assessment and also suggests a candidate for a certificate. Experts in the field developed the program’s body of knowledge, which separates the interests of all participants.
Becoming the best in the world
Now that I’ve jokefully claimed the “first in the world” title, I should now look to becoming the best in the world at innovation. As tempting as it might sound, there are probably millions of people out there more experienced, knowledgeable, and driven to claim that title.
It is safe to say that I have developed a passion for innovation, and I get to work with creativity, people, and interesting ideas. The certificate adds more pride than anything else.
Instead of going after becoming the best in the world at anything, I think I’m better off continuing to be the “first at something.” I’ll have that as a goal at work: “be the first to revise the company’s innovation strategy” or “the first to give continuous feedback.”
Leading by example will hopefully inspire more employees to try their ideas.
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