Does everyone need innovation training?
Yes, because innovation is different than business as usual. Ideally all of us, the thousands of employees with the corporation, should be trained on the key innovation concepts and skills, so we can be at our best to successfully innovate. This includes understanding the innovation framework (ideation, experimentation, pilot), how to learn fast (fail fast, iterate), how and when to engage which stakeholders (customers, compliance, legal, finance, management), learning to use support tools (reverse income statement), etc.
That would indeed be ideal, but can be expensive in time and cost. It may also be wasteful, as not all employees will want to innovate and use the tools. In some geographies, employee turnover is rather high, requiring repeat training.
The approach we took was to establish and train local Innovation Leaders, one for each country (about 50). Their role was to stimulate innovation and identify innovative initiatives in their country. When local innovators emerged in a country, the local Innovation Leader could provide guidance or connect them with the global Innovation Leader for additional support.
This approach was very cost effective and worked well. A lot depended of course on the selection and engagement of the local Innovation Leaders (and their turnover). As a complementary support for the local Innovation Leaders, we created short how-to videos, addressing key innovation questions and inspirational examples.
Global and local Innovation Leaders should of course collaborate with HR and L&D colleagues to systematically integrate innovation in learning platforms. HR could also incorporate innovation in employee communications, incentive systems, recruitment and talent development programs.
As Goethe said:
”Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do.”
So, as Innovation Leader, I aimed to balance the need for training with avoiding waste. The focus on a team of about 50 local Innovation Leaders was one way to achieve this.
More about this topic: How to attract and retain innovative talent at an enterprise, by Chris Galy from Moves the Needle.
This is one opinion. What is yours? Please share below.
More of my blogs on innovation: Wim Vandenhouweele