While our work on the Innovation Capability Maturity Model (ICMM) has not so far taken off in the way I thought it would (biggest problem: people don’t like bad news), we continue to have lots of discussions with senior leadership teams on the subject of building innovation capability. A common question is, ‘what are the top five things we should do to build our capability?’ To which the answer is, ‘it depends’. What it depends on is your ICMM Level. That’s why we built the Model. So we can give meaningful answers to the question.

Far less frequent is the question, ‘what are the five worst things we should do?’ Probably, I believe, because most manager have a (correct) instinct that the answers I’m going to give them are closely aligned with what they have been doing. Or are about to do.

As to be expected, the Top Five Worse things also depend on ICMM Level. Here’s what I think the five different Top Five’s look like, based on the sorts of things I usually and frequently see enterprises doing or not doing. While, I might add, simultaneously striving to be seen to be doing something in order to satisfy the CEO’s request that something be done, and ensuring there is some kind of plausible deniability when it all (inevitably) goes wrong.

So, in the vain hope that by publishing this we might take away some of that plausible deniability, here are my ICMM Level-based Top Five Worst Innovation-Capability building Ideas, ranked in increasing levels of harm:

ICMM Level 1
5) Hold a Dragon’s-Den/Shark-Tank type internal innovation competition
4) Instigate big, sexy high impact innovation targets
3) Set up a centralised ‘idea management’ system
2) Bring in a ‘creativity consultant’ (‘lack of ideas’ is never the problem to be solved)
1) Establish an ‘Innovation Manager’/’Innovation Centre’

ICMM Level 2
=5) Seek to ‘add’ innovation tools to existing operational-excellence toolkits (Lean/SixSigma, etc)
=5) Embark on widespread teaching of innovation tools across the organisation
4) Set innovation-related KPIs based on commercial return
3) Embark on technical innovation projects that also demand a corresponding business innovation. Or vice-versa.
2) Embark on cross-silo innovation projects without cross-silo KPIs
1) Operate innovation projects under operational excellence rules and protocols (KPIs, hourly rates, quality standards, career progression, etc)

ICMM Level 3
5) Not knowing prevailing industry step-chenge pulse rate
4) Not having an disruptor-observatory actively looking for out-of-industry threats
3) Instigating projects that fail the ‘critical mass @ critical point’ test
2) Assuming the same person can have the requisite skills to lead the project from start to finish
1) Not having a CIO/person with a main Board position

ICMM Level 4
5) Are not recruiting/training/placing according to requisite OpEx/Innovation ratio
4) Have not established ‘systems coaching’ for innovation project leads
3) Have not deployed widespread TRIZ/contradiction-solving training
2) Still have matrix-management organisation structure
1) Have not integrated Complex-Adaptive-Systems/OODA thinking into Senior Leadership Team

ICMM Level 5 (NB: there are very few Level 5 enterprises on the planet, and those that do exist are so far ahead of everyone else it seems almost churlish to find fault in what they’re doing. However, for the sake of completeness…)
5) Failure to introduce mechanisms for influencing industry pulse rates
4) Not managing R&D activities according to ‘contradictions-solved/remaining’
3) Failure to maintain step-change scenario opportunity map for target markets
2) Succumbing to hubris
1) Failing to build ‘meaning’ into project design opportunities