Burst Innovation to Bounce Forward

New Normal means a New You!

Really? When external context changes, you must change the internal thinking and working to succeed.

Five Steps to Bounce Forward

In its simplest form, it is about generating a lot of ideas, and screening them down to projects that can then turn out an offering for creating a revenue stream. This is still the same as before the disaster struck. What changes is the external context and the way you execute it internally after the disaster.

The five steps here are:

1. Assessment of the new normal

Start with defining the internal and immediate external Context. Separate out what is known for sure and what may be a speculation, or fear factor, yet to be verified. Conduct a quick and narrow SWOT analysis in this context of your business situation.

2. Clear Executive Charter

Now define three scenarios (optimistic, realistic, and pessimistic) and predict the impact (near term and long term) for each of these scenarios on your purpose. State what the success should look like in near term and far term. Provide a clear charter – objective(s), resources, and constraints.

3. Open Ideation

Next step is to generate dozens of ideas through structured ideation sessions, using proven techniques and a neutral facilitator. Please solicit external input if required. Ideation is different than brainstorming. Criticize openly to build upon each other’s ideas to refine. This is a team sport where individuals do not win when the team loses.

4. Robust Concept Qualification

Qualify ideas and concepts by asking these questions – Does it address the VUCA? Do you have resources (sources) to execute required activities within time frame? Will it cause any collateral damage? Review and prioritize qualified concepts into projects as Prime path, Plan B, and Plan C.

Ensure that qualified concepts do not distract you from your purpose.

5. Agile Execution Plan

The mini projects are like corporate firefighting and most of us are great at it. So, I will not dwell too much on that. Bring on a leader, put the execution team together, and go for it. Diversity of skills and experience is valuable in the team. If you have a former ER nurse or a special forces individual, please include him/her on the team. They may turn out to be the most valuable player here. Monitor and be agile because the context evolves.

Success depends upon many factors including.

In Summary,

Illusion – Life is returning to normal.
Reality – We do not what the normal will look like.
Opportunity – Only for those who care to understand the new context and build something new.

If you like this blog post, you will like my book – “Inspiring Next Innovation Value Chain” available on Amazon.