Simon Hill

Seeking honest feedback on a regular basis is essential and from a wide range of people. In seeking feedback you should look for development points, areas of weakness, not focus on your strengths. Feedback should be honest and constructive, but should also be contextual.

In order to get to root cause we need to be in a challenge framing mindset, not a solutions mindset. The old adage of 'garbage in, garbage out' otherwise applies. At Wazoku we focus on Challenge Driven Innovation as a key methodology for unlocking innovation at scale. Over the years we have applied this to helping drive impactful solutions for the biggest innovation needs of our time, often these issues had perplexed subject matter experts for months, years, sometimes decades. The other tools in this list are important, but none as ensuring we are focusing on the right problem with the right mindset (not lurching to solution mode too quickly!).

I am aligned with Vida's commentary here. The tools outlined are all relevant at different as lenses to support various activities. The main focus is on application to inform timely and relevant decision making. Not to support pre determined assertions, but to inform, support direction change and empower the organization at all levels.

This list isn't a way to demonstrate innovation to a supervisor, it's examples of things you could do as part of any innovation process. However, you need to be sure you are delivering innovation in areas of interest and relevance to the business. This might sound obvious, but it's totally missing from the steps shared. The best approach for any would be change makers is to understand the why, spend time on the problem you are seeking to address and why this is important for the business. Validation of assumptions here are as important as validation down the line (per the various approaches outlined). In Challenge Driven Innovation pioneered by Wazoku, the focus is on this key part of the process, otherwise we risk wasting time.

All of these aspects (and many more) are not silos. They are part of an interconnected ecosystem that only thrives if it's interconnected. At the heart of this are people and data. Having your different "projects" and data running in different systems that are not connected exacerbates the silo issue and results in missed opportunities, huge inefficiency and more. Check out our Innovation at Scale paper or get in touch to discuss the 100x benefits of the above (and see it in action)

It's important to measure this always and consistently, not ad hoc and using different measures. Why? 1. To quantify and qualify over time. Culture isn't a static thing, it's dynamic, evolving and is very driven by personality, incentives, leadership and more. I know there's a complex relationship between these and culture, but culture is heavily influenced by these. 2. To benchmark - internally and externally. Not just at a top level, but on the sub-drivers. 3. To predict the future - culture can be a leading indicator of future performance, especially if harnessed in the right way. Want to know more, DM me or check out Wazoku.com