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Innovation Growth Firms - Questions To Ask 
Copyright Arupa L. Tesolin, Intuita, 2000, (905) 271-7272

INTRODUCTION:

A single idea has the power to change our destiny.  To date progress in innovation competitiveness has centered mostly on extrinsic factors, such as research funding, commercialization assistance, infrastructure, knowledge sharing and overcoming trade competitiveness issues.  Intrinsic human factors in innovation have not been collectively addressed.  We stand to profit a great deal from learning more about this aspect of innovation.   

Unraveling some of the mystery behind human innovation is within our grasp.   Much future progress in innovation will come from enabling human breakthroughs.  We have the ability to choose -- either to develop learning approaches that influence human mastery in innovation or continue via the current path of trial and error and sometimes luck.  However, the innovation frontier of the future will be littered with industry players who failed to venture beyond merely incremental approaches.

To date there is little industrial practice data to illustrate how best the human capacities for innovation can be tapped, supported, and influenced. Tapping the motivation and central passion of employees remains an industrial problem, one which probably under-reaps the quality and quantity of potential results.  As we move through a more broadly based knowledge economy, understanding the human levers that underscore innovation will become of primary importance.  The answers to some difficult questions await us there.  These questions are beyond the scope of purely industrial, academic, research, and trade interests. 

The human mind and consciousness were made to create.  What happens to a work force in the longer term when these vital and subtle energies are mobilized primarily to create industrial results?   Or when the onus to fulfill a project deadline looms more ominously than the sheer desire to create for the love of it in an employment world that has become increasingly joyless? 

Could we be short-changing ourselves and our lives by failing to address questions such as these early in the growth curve of an innovation society? 

What will the answers mean for the scheduling of work?  For compensation? The sharing of projects?  The mobilizing of talent and resources?  The need to balance employment with personal freedom?  How can we do this in a way that best taps true human talents and gives this talent an outlet for expression?  How do we prevent burn out and early retirement of scores of valuable people who are becoming disenchanted with their career paths, organizational culture, and working conditions?  How do we engage and best mobilize the potentially immeasurable current and future contribution of young inventors and workers?

Consequently the collection and sharing of core information by relevant "growth players" is vitally important in helping to generate this new understanding.

This survey will help you articulate a spectrum of potential innovation training constituents and identify other "influencing factors" to advance our knowledge about how to develop innovation skills in ways that impact positively on innovation competitiveness.

Early results will show some valuable and practical directions for engaging innovation and also raise new questions regarding future approaches and studies.  Respondent data should also fill in training gaps for companies that are now more focused on necessary growth to be able to effectively collect this information themselves.

Some of the questions are:

How can we leverage innovation competencies via training, philosophy and beliefs, culture and industry practices?  What works, what doesn't? 

What are the critical few human innovation competencies needed for success?

Can we create curricula for this?  A practice base? 

How can this be measured? 

What are the influence of things like creative direction, insight, intuition, in the personal experience of innovation leaders? 

What creativity skills do IGF’s (Innovation Growth Firms) see or want in the personal competencies of their workforce?

What other questions should we be asking?

And perhaps the biggest question:  Where do we start?  Here is an elementary Survey to help focus your company.

SURVEY FOCUS:  To identify training needs and development practices specific to innovation.  Identify valuable potential curriculum and development approaches.

SCORING:  When evaluating questions with a graded scale from 1-5, 5 is very important or relevant, 4 is somewhat, 3 is neutral, 2 is somewhat unimportant or irrelevant, 1 is not very important or relevant.

DEFINITION OF INNOVATION TRAINING:  Non standard training or development approaches and skills development that go beyond traditional organizational training needs both technical and non-technical.  Training that relates directly to the development or sustainability of self-competencies in innovation.

COMPANY INFORMATION:

Company Name:
Survey Contact:
Title:
Contact #:
email:

Type of Business (category)
Software development
Telecommunications
Science/Bio-Science
Advanced Engineering
Communications, Service or Manufacturing
Other:

Size of Business (# of employees)

Organizational Culture - Identify
Scientific/technical
Sales/Marketing oriented
Diverse (mix of technical and non-technical professionals)
Other:  describe

Growth rate: (past 3 years)
Measured by:

  LEVERAGING INNOVATION COMPETENCIES:

1.  Do you distinguish between "pure" innovation, such as the encouragement of new invention and adaptive innovation, ie. continuous improvements in products, design, manufacturing?  What type of innovation (by percentage) does your company engage in?

Pure:  %
Adaptive:  %

2.  Describe to what extent do market conditions dictate this ratio.

3. Would it be desirable to increase or decrease either of these?

4.  How best could you do this?  What support/changes would assist?

5.  State your company's core philosophy on innovation. 

6.  How do you believe it is  developed/produced/enhanced or cultivated in employees?

7.  Can innovation be organizationally bred? Learned?  Why or why not?

8.  How does your industry/market encourage innovation?

9.  What is the impact of your organizational culture on innovation?

10.  How prevalent are the following factors in your company? Briefly describe.

Paradox
Certainty/Uncertainty
Dis-Equilibrium
Crazy thinking
Novelty
Trust
Ambiguity
Experimentation
Idea Incubation
Other?:

11.  What have you done to cultivate experimentation in your company?

12.  What have the results been?

13.  What are the biggest challenges you experience in regard to employee motivation?

14.  How do you respond to these?

DEFINING INNOVATION COMPETENCIES

15.  List the competencies you believe are needed for individual excellence in innovation.

16.  What types of training that relate to developing innovation competencies have you offered in your company?

17.  Please rate how valuable do you consider these? (1-5 with 5 being the highest)

18.  Which of these have been influential in generating results in the area of innovation? Place an "I" next to each above.

19.  How do you measure these results?

20.  What are the influence of things like creative direction, insight, intuition, idea incubation processes and "other factors" (explain)  in the personal experience of innovation leaders?  Can you give examples?

21.  What creativity skills do IGF's (Innovation Growth Firms) see or want in the personal competencies of their workforce?

22. a.)  Other developmental approaches and practices you have engaged:

b.) Of these, which ones did not work well?  Why?

23.  Other developmental approaches you'd like to try:

CURRICULUM FOR INNOVATION

24.  What would you consider relevant content for curriculum related to cultivating  innovation in your organization?  (Graded scale 1-5 with 5 being very relevant, add as many new categories as you wish and grade them also)  

Creative Thinking
Idea Generation Methods
Exposure to new cognitive models 
Creative Problem Solving
Exposure to advanced science/technology theory (beyond current market) 
Improvisational skills
Intuitive intelligence
Imaginal skills
Mental Models
Meditation
Mental rehearsal or Visualization processes
Other: (state)

OTHER INNOVATION PRACTICES

25.  What other innovation practices would you consider relevant to support intrinsic innovation factors.  Please describe.  (Graded scale 1-5 with 5 being very relevant, add as many new categories as you wish and grade them also) 

Innovation or "skunkworks" projects (projects with great freedom and experimental range, pre-commercialization)
Inventiveness competitions
Alternative compensation methods
Internal rewards
Awards and recognition
Development Coaching
On Going Technical Training
Participation in alliances and peer groups
Other: Please describe

This survey can also be used for data collection by other industrial groups and associations. Please contact the writer in this regard.  

Arupa Tesolin is founder of Intuita, a Canadian learning company that offers corporate innovation workshops and general business training via your desktop through Intuita’s On-Line Learning Institute. Arupa is an International Correspondent for Training & Management Magazine, published nationally in India.  She is the creator of "The Intuita 3-MINUTE SOLUTIONSTM" for intuitive intelligence, innovation, visioning, and stress, a recognized author of numerous international articles on intuition and innovation in business, a trainer, speaker and consultant. Contact her at 905.271.7272, www.intuita.com or email.