Of all the things that CIOs say they’re interested in, innovation remains the most abstract. But this week I saw something on Twitter that seemed to offer a great way to get the process started and maybe even keep it going.
Although I didn’t see it when it first came out, the Conference Board of Canada published a report in May called Improving Innovation Management in Decision-Making. I haven’t read the report, but after seeing this, I’m thinking about it:
ICYMI: Questions to improve innovation decision-making. @ConfBoardofCda report: http://bit.ly/1wyZtpZ #innovation
Many of these questions strike me as not only ideal for CIOs but ones they can use to better define the requirements and expected outcomes from various stakeholders across the enterprise. For those thinking about deploying enterprise apps, for example, or trying to leverage the Internet of Things in some way, a question like, “What steeps can we take to gain more experience and capture lessons?” It might sound like a fancy way of suggesting a firm does a pilot project first, but the answers could be much more specific and detailed than that.
Other favourites here are the second-guessing questions that could stop CIOs and their teams from chasing unicorns: “Have we fallen in love with the idea?” Or better yet, “Are we drawing too much on an analogy of an established success?” I think the latter is particularly relevant. Organizations often either forget the past entirely, or cling to crumbs from the past that they believe will prove a particular point. That’s not helpful when you’re trying to grapple with tough projects involving big data, cloud computing, digital marketing or other initiatives.
Here’s my offer: if you’ve adopted this framework (or one like it), get in touch with me at sschick@itwc.ca and it may be the story that gets you on the cover of CanadianCIO. Or, perhaps even better, it establishes you as an innovator within your firm.
photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc