Innovations are ideas—implemented

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Leaders generate ideas. In the last article, you assessed your vigilance for new ideas. Great leaders curate those ideas and make the best come true. Simple, right? Not so fast.

Innovations travel from cradle to grave. Understanding this life cycle helps us know where we are and where we should go next.

Idea—Innovation—Experiment—Adoption—Differentiator—Commodity—Redundancy.

 Sometimes the grave ends with the experiment, while longer lived ideas will simply become redundant after a good run. Either is fine. Failing fast is a healthy step in the culling process, Redundancy is a healthy outcome of successful innovations—provided you usurp your own innovations before this happens.

Making ideas real is the key principle of my book, Trusting Technology. Divergent idea creation, rigorous culling, bold experimentation, and effective transfer of ideas to the field. Technology is a key enabler of this process.

Next up, we look at when do you have ideas, but before that, try this …

Where are your ideas in the life cycle? 

Pick an idea that you are working and spend 5 minutes on these questions to assess your position in the life cycle and what to do next:

  1. Describe your idea in ten words or less.

  2. Think of the three biggest reasons your idea could fail. How will you test for each risk?

  3. List the experiments you have conducted so far to assess the value of this idea. What were the results of each, pass or fail?

  4. If your idea failed a test, how did you modify it? Did you kill it?

  5. If your ideas passed all tests, has it been adopted? How does it differentiate you from your competition?

  6. When do you think it would become a commodity—no longer a differentiator?

  7. When might it be replaced, become redundant? What will do you about that?

PS In association with Catalyzing the Future, I am offering myTransforming Outcomes by Reducing Unknowns workshop on December 9th. Check here for a preview and here for signup details.

Trusting Technology is a book about forming ideas, exploring opportunities with customers and colleagues, and building your future together. Order your copy here.