Innovation Strategists: 3 Ways to Drive Innovation at Your Organization

One of the biggest threats to companies across industries is disruption, and thus, innovation becomes the crucial factor that determines whether an organization can survive and thrive. As a journalism student at Northwestern University with an interest in business design, I have found these two pieces of content that offer great insights for innovation strategists.

The first piece is an article titled “How to Set the Conditions for Innovation,” published on IDEO’s blog and co-written by IDEO designers Sean Tang, David Aycan and Kateryna Romanova. This article shares five ways for organization leaders to develop the work environments most conducive to their teams’ creativity. These recommendations are proven by empirical evidence from IDEO’s Creative Difference (C∆) platform. According to results from over 100 companies, IDEO confirms that creative and innovative teams “tend to outperform teams that stick to the status quo.”

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The second piece is a TEDx talk by the legendary evangelist Guy Kawasaki, titled “The Art of Innovation.” Inspired by his remarkable careers, Kawasaki succinctly explains what innovation is and how to be innovative in 11 maxims. His advice are very practical and cover different aspects of innovation. He also offers specific examples to support his arguments.

Based on my learning from Northwestern and my reflection on these two pieces, I have developed 3 recommendations for innovation strategists looking to drive innovation at their organizations:

• Define Your Purpose – An innovative company should clearly define its purpose and communicate it to everyone on the team.

• Actively Encourage Experiments – To propel innovation, a company should encourage its employees to experiment and create an environment that celebrates not only success, but also failure.

• Share Your Learnings – To innovate effectively, a company should establish a system that allows people to learn from each other, which will significantly reduce repeated efforts.

An effective innovation strategy is no longer a nice-to-have, but can make or break an organization. I hope these resources are helpful to you, and I’d really appreciate it if you could share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Hi there! My name is Cathy He, and I’m a senior at Northwestern University studying Journalism, Comparative Literature, Marketing and Design. My career goal is to work at the intersection of business, design and innovation. In my free time, I enjoy reading, boxing, cooking and baking. I am also a connoisseur of tea!