Nurturing the innovation capabilities of your own staff

One of the key advantages of CIDA's Innovation process is that, in doing this work with you, we also show you how to do it yourselves and leave you with the tools that get used in the process. We firmly believe that the innovation process should be a regularly used tool in the management toolkit, enabling leaders to engage and capture the capacity for creative thinking and innovation amongst their own workforce. We're happy to come back from time to time to help refresh the practice if you wish, but really our success is measured in your ability to sustain an innovation process within your own company.



When Greg Dyke instituted this process in the BBC in his shortlived but acclaimed period of running the institution, he made a clear point of dispensing with the myriad consultants that had invaded the place under his predecessor. As described by Caroline Van Den Brul, the former Creativity Change Leader at the BBC, "The BBC in 2000 was using hundreds of consultants to bring creativity into the organization. At the same time a lot of top-down change programmes happened but did not succeed. The organization had become change fatigued.  Greg Dyke therefore wanted to awaken the untapped creative potential within the BBC. Dyke concluded that further radical change was needed: improve creativity, get closer to audiences and serve them better, make staff feel more valued, build trust and collaboration to the organisation and improve leadership and internal communications."  Andy Parfitt, Controller of Radio One, was sent on the 5-day Innovation Process workshop with CIDA's partners Herman Gyr and Laszlo Gyorffy.  On his return, he revolutionised the station's fortunes by implementing with his own staff some of the practice and new thinking he had learned.  (There is an excellent and inspirational short video showing the impact that this had on Radio One, leading to its current success.)


Then today comes news that the new CEO of AIG, the beleagured insurance company, has come in and sent consultants McKinsey packing............Bloomberg News says new AIG CEO Benmosche has given consultant McKinsey & Co. its marching orders. Benmosche says AIG already has “too many advisers” and “forgot to look in our own backyard for skills". Benmosche’s fighting words about revamping and reviving AIG by using its own staff means a lot to those who’ve been slaving under death threats and Congressional carping because of bonuses they never even received. (http://industry.bnet.com)


As management guru Tom Peters never tires of pointing out, if you want to know what your customer is thinking, ask your front line staff - no one knows better than them!