The 5 Things You Need to Create a Culture of Innovation

What constitutes an innovation? Among entrepreneurs, the definition varies, from something that disrupts an entire industry or way of doing business to something as simple as tweaking a product feature or step in a process.

In the end, it is difficult to create a culture of innovation in an organization when expectations vary so widely. To help determine how a company can create an innovation culture, I spoke with Doug Hall, founder and chairman of Eureka! Ranch International. In addition to being a best-selling author, television and radio host, and inventor himself, he was previous the Master Marketing Inventor at Procter & Gamble, where he shipping a record nine products in 12 months.

Disclaimer, I work with Eureka! Ranch and deliver consulting services, lectures and classes based on the ideas and systems developed there.

As someone with over 40 years innovating and helping companies develop internal capabilities to innovate, Hall has a very clear idea about what it takes to develop an innovative culture.

1. Alignment

Hall says that in order to develop successful innovations, organizations must be aligned when it comes to the definition of an innovation. Without it, you have many people striving for goals that cannot be measured with any level of consistency.

“We define an idea as an innovation if it is Meaningfully Unique,” says Hall. “We measure it by asking customers how likely they are to purchase (meaningfulness) and how new and different (unique) they perceive the idea to be.”

By embracing the idea that an innovation must be Meaningful Unique and engaging in a rigorous process that measures this, organizations can then ground their processes in factual evidence.

2. Failure is Fundamental

To be Meaningfully Unique, an innovation has to have never been done before. These types of ideas need to be vetted through testing and experimentation. By nature, Meaningful Unique ideas are incredibly difficult to derive, because they require individuals seeped in organizational paradigms and rituals to ignore constraints and history.

More important, Meaningful Unique ideas are often constrained by fear of failing or looking silly. “You must embrace failure as just the normal process required to turn big ideas into reality,” Hall points out. “Rapid cycles of experimentation (must be) run, because we don’t know the answer before we begin. Importantly, these cycles of learning are not random, rather they are disciplined cycles of what is known as the Deming cycle — Plan, Do, Study, Act,” a process that is a critical part of vetting in the ideation process.

3. No Math, No Innovation

From my experience, and that of Halls, where most entrepreneurs fail during the innovation process is in determining the commercial viability of an idea. Yes, everyone is capable of being creative and delivering on unique ideas, but determining meaningfulness (willingness to buy) is 50 percent of the process.

“Doing the math on sales, savings, profits, costs, etc. turns your idea into a business opportunity,” says Hall. “When you do the math using the new risk adjusted methods (developed by the Eureka! Ranch), you quickly quantify the areas of greater risk due to uncertainty in your understanding.”

I have used and applied the methods developed by Eureka! Ranch with clients, and while it is convenient and streamlined, it is not impossible to replicate. Thoroughly researching online and conducting in-person tests and surveys to validate your idea quickly is the best way to determine the meaningfulness of an idea.

4. No Patent, No Innovation

While this is a high bar to set, Hall says, “The highest standard of Meaningful Uniqueness is an innovation that is patentability. Ideas that are patentable generate pride and passion and are, by definition, non-obvious to someone with ordinary skill in the area.”

5. Passion

Lastly, Hall says that for an innovation to be successful, “You Gotta LOVE It.” According to Hall — and any inventor you speak with — if you are not passionate and love your innovation, the effort and energy needed to vet and commercialize it will fall flat.

“Innovation equals change, and working through change requires massive investment of energy,” Hall says. “The only way you can sustain the energy required to commercialize a meaningfully unique idea is if you really love it.”