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Features

Published January 2008

Innovation: Nature and Nurture?

  

  Corinne Miller

Since findings support both nature and nurture with no clear winner, we’re left to make talent decisions with the assumption that the environment, which includes learning, can shape skills, knowledge and behaviors. As such, this provides a unique opportunity for the learning function to demonstrate bottom-line impact, both by developing skill sets around innovation and directly contributing to innovation through action-learning sessions.

About Innovation
In order to operationalize the nurture component within a learning context, we need to first understand the environment and ask why, what, who, where, when and how. Why does the corporation want to innovate? What is the definition of innovation? Who is sponsoring innovation? Where should we innovate? When should we innovate? How should we innovate? With the answers to these questions, the learning organization can be a powerful enabler for innovation in ways that may not have been fully realized in the past.

There are three basic areas where a corporation can focus innovation: product enhancements such as quality improvements or cost reductions, product extensions such as additional features or incremental functionality, and breakthrough or disruptive products. Of course, innovation doesn’t have to be all about products. You can replace “product” with service, process, business model or market, as well.

Understanding where the corporation’s strategy is focused is important to the learning strategy. What percentage of resources will be allocated to each of the three innovation areas? With this answer in hand, the learning organization can set an innovation learning strategy that enables the business’ strategy.

What Is Innovation?
There are several conceivable definitions of innovation. However, the definition that works best for this particular discussion is “the process of transforming new and novel ideas into commercial value.” What is especially attractive about this definition is that while it includes the necessary “new and novel ideas,” it more importantly starts with “process” and ends with “commercial value.”

Does your corporation have a definition? If not, the learning organization can have an instrumental role in defining it. How can we direct innovation learning solutions without it?

Who Is Sponsoring Innovation?
There will be senior leaders in the corporation who will act as the drivers of innovation, whether they’re interested in initiating an innovation movement or trying to drive innovation themselves.

Recognizing these innovation sponsors across all functions (products, services, processes, business models and markets) and establishing a formal sponsorship-style relationship is critical to ensure the innovation learning strategy has the resources and authority to be executed.

Where Should We Innovate?
Innovation can occur anywhere across the business ecosystem: products and services, processes, business models and markets. Many times, the focus is narrowly placed on product technology, but phenomenal value can result from an innovative business model, as evidenced by Southwest Airlines’ point-to-point model or Google’s AdWords model.