According to a leading management thinker, business innovation is not being handled the way it must be. Dr. Paddy Miller has taught at leading MBA institutes in Spain, China, South Africa and USA. He feels that innovation experts have been set up at most organizations, but most of them are not really producing any major value apart from nicely collating new ideas on power point presentations. He feels that ideally, innovation must be wedded into the daily routine itself and not something for which the team needs to strive independently. The best ideas will be generated not by seeking funding for new projects, but by going around the existing system. He has coined this new term called stealth-storming to describe the constraints within which any management team can develop its own ideas and starting working around such innovations. He feels that the most ground-breaking innovations have occurred in this manner rather than deploying a standalone team for the purpose of innovation.

Source:http://www.manilatimes.net/leaders-create-space-innovation-can-happen/295167/ 901354933&spReportId=OTAxMzU0OTMzS0

Ten ways have been identified which leaders must use in order to foster a sense of business innovation within their teams. Right at the onset, the fear of failure has to be eliminated because innovations naturally require risk taking, and risks inherently are fraught with failures. Employees must be accorded the space to experiment. All the business research need not be commissioned from the top, but some of that must be deployed across the teams as it leads to the growth of independence and learning. The teams members must be involved in strategizing sessions. The communication process must involve complete clarity with little scope for ambiguity. Incentives must be set up for employees to learn new things. Each time any task is started, the team head must care to explain its purpose and value to the others, rather than simply delegating micro-tasks. Also reasons for procedures need to be explained. A good method is for the manager to try to think the others’ perspectives. The work model must be set tangible values for team members to properly evaluate or measure their individual work.

Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2016/10/28/10-ways-leaders-can-encourage-their-teams-to-embrace-innovation/#38bb76c94804

In order to drive the organization towards the next level of business innovation, the HR department needs to take up certain steps. In fact, HR activities can broadly be divided into two levels or a bimodal system. In this system, Mode 1 looks at basic functional aspects such as the smooth running of operations while reducing costs, reducing work errors, cost efficiency, privacy regarding work patterns or labour agreements, outsourcing of work and talent management especially onboarding. Mode 2 on the other hand, looks into aspects which induce creativity among the employees. It looks into ways, talent can perform differentiated tasks, stimulate innovation, builds agility into the firm and is empathetic towards the people while being customer centric. Such tasks cannot be outsourced, understands that during experimentation stage some errors will naturally creep up and builds transparency throughout the firm.

Source:ttp://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/10/16/how-to-connect-people-to-drive-innovation/

It has been noticed as well as proven over successive studies that moments of inspiration often take place at times when the person isn’t actively working. This is because the brain gets rest to reflect upon conditions and rejuvenate the state of consciousness. So while inventions may seem random, there is definitely a proven path to best generation of business innovation plans. Four steps have been identified for the same. First of all, the person concerned must take time out to be in quiet conditions. Between busy schedules, some such time for reflection needs to be separated out. Individuals need to look inwards for solutions to problems at times as this generates alpha waves within the brain, ideal for ideation. A positive approach can be half the work done especially as the brain tends to get particularly anxious when searching for critical solutions. Sometimes working less, but smartly can offset stress. Moments of inactivity provide humans the opportunity to analyze critical data and process them into solutions.

source:https://hbr.org/2016/10/4-steps-to-having-more-aha-moments?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date&spMailingID=15634201&spUserID=OTY0OTMwNTk5NwS2&spJobID=880939321&spReportId=ODgwOTM5MzIxS0

Leaders need to be forever prepared to get reviews based on the performance of the team. Thus mentorship and constant motivation is a tool to get best performances out of team members. Product managers must understand that constant feedback is necessary as this also allows engagement with colleagues. Redundancies can then immediately be weeded out. Leaders must stay away from office politics, communicate clearly, reduce ambiguities and provide support to the staff members. Even without actual authority, control can be maintained as long everyone understands his / her role within the broader scope. Good talent management involves separating out the differences that co-workers have to instead develop a cohesive unit. Some degree of conflict is good as it shows difference in opinion that can be leveraged to enhance creativity.

 http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/10/02/leading-and-managing-product-and-innovation-teams/

Most people are programmed to believe that their skill sets are permanent and little to no modification can take place over them. It is this mindset that is the greatest impediment to implementation of business innovations. The person who developed the first copier machines, was not initially able to sell to anyone as they were very expensive. So the idea of leasing them out instead of selling was thought of and worked instantly. This gave birth to Xerox which became a market leader. Yet its corporate mindset sought to maximize its benefits and survive within the industry rather than try out new experiments. This led to them being unable to identify the true merits of its own future innovations. Other more fleet footed rivals such as Apple and IBM took over its leadership position leading to decline of Xerox.

source:http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/10/07/innovation-starts-or-ends-with-mindset/

An observation has chronicled nine bets practices followed by Google in order to set off business innovation. First of all it must be understood that innovations do not follow patterns but can emerge from anywhere. Ultimately for any innovation to work it must be relevant for the end user in some way. Innovations must aim at substantial growth not incremental. A ten time rather than percent enhancement. Before setting out to innovate, the developers must gleam business intelligence from authentic sources. It is better to launch products devised already rather than waiting for the final development which will disrupt existing patterns. The waiting time may prove costly with rivals swooping up the prizes. All companies must borrow the twenty-percent time principle from Google which encourages all its employees to spend a fifth of working time doing what they enjoy the most. Google all leads trends by being forever open to new ideas or people without waiting for formal lines to be cleared. Thus apps can be developed by external hires. While aiming at innovation, there will be failures along the way. Failures must be seen as learning method rather than de-motivation for the team. Most importantly, every organization must keep to its intrinsic values as only then can creativity flourish.

Source:http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/09/19/learn-from-the-best-googles-nine-principles-of-innovation/