Today’s hyper-competitive global marketplace demands that organizations continuously play their A-game, whether it is their customers, products and services, or operations. New and viable ideas are key to reinventing yourself and capturing your competitive advantage. However, generating ideas can seem like a chaotic process.
Phil McKinney is the author of the new book, Beyond the obvious: Killer questions sparking game-changing innovation. He is an innovation expert who has served as CTO for top technology companies and also runs innovation boot camps.
McKinney advocates using his Killer Questions and FIRE (Focus, Ideation, Ranking, Execution) method to generate strategic order in the innovation process.
He says that knowledge is becoming a commodity. Today, his competitive advantage stems from his desire to continually tap into and use his creative skills to help his organization meet its challenges. He also admits that creativity is hard work.
McKinney’s FIRE method is simply structured and applicable to companies of any size. It is flexible enough to cope with the challenges of generating ideas. It helps you identify the most important ideas to work on to improve your chances of translating those ideas into successful innovations.
The FIRE method works because it addresses the innovation gap and lag that all organizations face. Tea innovation gap It is the difference between the need for great ideas and the actual supply of them. “Every organization can use a supply of more and better ideas,” says McKinney. FIRE provides you with a system that improves the quality and quantity of ideas. Tea delay innovation It is the time that elapses from the selection of an idea for its execution until the commercialization of a product.
Both the gap and the lag in innovation are caused by several factors: corporate antibodies (detractors); assumptions about how your organization should operate; viable ideas; And who are your customers?
FOCUS. It is not a question of limiting the search for ideas, but of using a systematic approach to ensure that all relevant areas are covered.
Any innovation effort needs to explore three areas to cover all the bases:
- Who is the person or organization you are selling your product or service to?
- What is the product or service?
- How does your organization create, deliver, and support your customer product or service?
McKinney finds that most companies focus on the customer (who) and the product (what). They tend to ignore everything else the organization does to function (how). Examine all three areas and you’ll gain your competitive advantage. Examine them individually, but cover all three areas eventually to eliminate potential blind spots. The focus should be a never-ending process of cycling through all three areas.
IDEATION. McKinney’s Killer Questions are used in the Ideation phase of FIRE. Killer Questions keep you focused on a specific area of your business, whether it’s your customers, products, or operations. They also keep you looking for expansive ideas within that area. Killer Questions help him see problems from perspectives he hadn’t previously considered. They also keep you informed about possible answers that fall outside of your existing assumptions about how and why he does the things he does.
McKinney denies the assumption that ideas can only come from a certain person or department within your organization. It is essential to believe that a great idea will come from a seemingly random place.
CLASSIFICATION. The innovation process typically leaves the decisions to top-level managers. But they are not always involved in the process of creating and selecting the best ideas. The ideas they like can be strongly influenced by personal preferences and biases. The chance of your selected ideas becoming impactful innovations will be low. A defined classification system helps people put aside their prejudices and see ideas from a broader perspective.
McKinney says it’s a myth that the process of sorting out the best ideas should be a complex set of analyses. His system uses questions to determine which ideas will have significant results and align with his core skills and experience. The team rates five questions for each idea generated in the innovation workshop.
When designing a ranking system, keep in mind how important it is to eliminate bias and influence at the voting stage. “Anonymity significantly changes group dynamics, so it’s critical to keep people in the dark about how others vote,” says McKinney.
PERFORMANCE. McKinney’s motto is “Ideas without execution are a hobby, and I’m not in the hobby business.” Execution is a risk. It requires commitment, money and manpower. Successful execution is a balance between pushing your organization to take a risk and pushing your case so hard that you scare corporate antibodies into backing off.
The implementation phase of FIRE uses a “closed funding” model. It ensures that good ideas have a chance to prove themselves, while also ensuring that your organization is not overexposed to risk if an idea doesn’t work.
McKinney believes that innovation requires a disciplined and methodical approach. He begins by addressing the assumptions of his industry and company, managing the inevitable shocks, and neutralizing his corporate antibodies. He masters these three preliminary steps; and incorporate the FIRE method and the closed financing model to move towards true innovation.
For a list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies, as ranked by Fast Company, visit: http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2012/full-list.