Innovation Indoctrination

Sophie Louise Owen
Jul 21, 2017 · 4 min read

My name is Sophie Owen and I work as a Technology Graduate for the John Lewis Partnership. After having spent 6 weeks working as an Innovation Analyst within the skunk-works, affectionately known as ‘Room Y’, I have come to the conclusion that although our small but mighty team of three each have the word ‘Innovation’ at the heart of their job title, it is in fact “everyone’s responsibility, not just Research and Development”, as the great Albert Einstein once said. And if that maxim is good enough for Einstein, then It’s certainly good enough for me.

Whilst our trio in Room Y is undoubtedly responsible for preaching the gospel of innovation and evangelising it’s importance, the creation of a culture in which every employee is empowered to innovate is a hallmark of a prosperous organisation. And prosperity is key to ensuring retail supertankers do not capsize whilst riding the storm-tossed seas which are tormenting every player in today’s challenging retail landscape. Successful organisations do not depend on a small number of exclusive people to ideate, rather they recognise that by leveraging the creativity, intellect and talents of every employee and encouraging them to be innovative, be it through processes, products, or services, the chances of unearthing a breakthrough idea increase tenfold. In a nutshell, innovation isn’t something you do after your work is done, it’s how you do your work.

With that in mind, here are some tips you can apply to cultivate the fertile ground needed for a community of budding innovators to flourish:

  1. Find a creative environment — It may be necessary to step outside of your regular work space. Breaking from routine allows your mind to venture in different directions
  2. Don’t be afraid to challenge — Fostering an environment that values challenging ideas and others over passive followership ensures the very best ideas can grow
  3. Embrace failure — Don’t shy away from taking risks and accept that failure can be as insightful as success, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original” Ken Robinson
  4. Think blue-sky — By removing self-limiting inhibitions, we become more open to new ideas and are freed from the shackles of mind-created constraints, “if at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” — Albert Einstein
  5. Be persistent — Innovation requires steadfast commitment to turn sparks into flames. If you really believe in an idea, nurture it continuously and retain a laser sharp focus. All ideas starts as seedlings but, under the right conditions, can grow into something spectacular which could just be the all important life jacket needed to keep an organisation afloat.

The key to ensuring innovation courses through the veins of an organisation lies in understanding who the customer truly is. There are many tools and frameworks available to help structure your thinking and adopt a customer-centric approach so I thought I would share one that we use in Room Y when trying to get to the heart of who our customers are and what they really want.

The Value Proposition Canvas is a tool created by the company Strategyzer and was the result of a study by Simon Kucher & Partners in which they unveiled that 72% of new products and services introduced to the market fail to deliver on expectations. It is organised as illustrated in the diagram below:

The diagram is populated from right to left, starting with customer jobs and finishing with products and services. This ensures that you do not jump into solutinising, but rather dissect the customer’s persona first and then work backwards to identify the products and services which help alleviate customer pains and leverage gains. The video below explains this in more detail.

https://strategyzer.com/canvas/value-proposition-canvas

By understanding your customer, you’ll be primed to innovate successfully. By all means, we can look to technology for opportunities to be disruptive in the market, however to achieve business success via innovation, the solution must be aligned to a critical customer problem that no one else has solved.

And if you’re wondering what the problem is, step away from your desk, venture down a different avenue, and talk to your customers.

Room Y

Room Y is the John Lewis Partnership's innovation studio. Operating like a Skunkworks, the team is responsible for supporting innovation, entrepreneurship and the wider innovation ecosystem through rapid experimentation, design thinking and future scenario planning.

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Sophie Louise Owen

Written by

Innovation Analyst at the John Lewis Partnership

Room Y

Room Y

Room Y is the John Lewis Partnership's innovation studio. Operating like a Skunkworks, the team is responsible for supporting innovation, entrepreneurship and the wider innovation ecosystem through rapid experimentation, design thinking and future scenario planning.

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