Two of the key elements in a world-class organization, as defined by the Baldrige model, are innovation and communication. In “Eight Communication Traps That Foil Innovation” (HBR, January 12, 2011), Georgia Everse, who was the chief communications officer for Steelcase, argues that innovative ideas, initiatives, and products need smart communications to succeed. She proposes eight traps to avoid as you innovate. Here’s the positive action you can take to avoid those traps:

1. Link innovation to your mission and vision. Projects are more likely to succeed if they support your organization’s reason for being.
2. Make your thinking visible. Create a space where project teams can post charters, objectives, process diagrams, measurement trends, prototyping efforts, etc. to help teams stay on track, reinforce their goals, and bring new stakeholder quickly up to speed.
3. Follow well-defined innovation processes. Develop and refine innovation processes to ensure consistent progress and results.
4. Follow well-defined communication processes. Don’t wait until the team is ready to hand the innovation off for production or marketing or integrating it into your culture. Communicate from the start the opportunities, the options being explored, progress on the project, and your innovative solutions.
5. Bring the future to life. “Tell stories and create experiences that put [internal stakeholders] in the role of the customer, where they can touch and feel a prototype of the new product or service.”
6. Share insights into customer wants and needs. “The best ideas are born out of a discovery process that unveils insights into the behavior patterns of people.” Those insights are valuable to other parts of your organization, too.
7. Build a common language. Be careful to avoid jargon that your team understands but that other parts of the organization—and critical stakeholders—may not.
8. Link innovation to your brand strategy. “Develop a brand-audit tool and use it early in your process. This will guide decision-making and only allow initiatives that meet certain brand criteria to be approved for further development.”

To read more about innovation and communication, click on these articles:

• Managing for Innovation
• Revolutionary Thinking
• When Innovation and Planning Collide
• 10 Healthcare Innovations
• What People Need to Hear
• Be Prepared
• Effective Employee Communication

(7 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5)

 Loading ...