Obstacles to Innovation

The need for innovation in business today is a given.  But understanding the need and actually being able to innovate are two separate worlds.

Creativity has become the currency of success.  What has always worked will work no longer; new, creative solutions are in demand.

We’ve done a little digging and uncovered the Top 20 obstacles to innovation:

1. Lack of a systematic innovation process
2. Belief that innovation is inherently risky
3. Lack of a shared vision, purpose and/or strategy
4. Short-term thinking
5. Internal process focus rather than external customer focus
6. Inadequate understanding of customers
7. Focus on successes of the past rather than the challenges of the future
8. Unwillingness to acknowledge and learn from past “failures”
9. Hierarchy – over-management and review of new ideas
10. Micromanagement
11. Addiction to left-brained, analytical thinking
12. Absence of user-friendly idea management processes
13. Lack of skillful brainstorm facilitation
14. No creative thinking training
15. Lengthy projects and the fear of wasted time and resources if product fails
16. Internal walls – thinking all good ideas come from the C-suite
17. Disconnect between company and it’s market
18. Companies feel false confidence that they already know the market
19. Market Research has been conducted but inadequately processed
20. Lack of resources

What if there was a map?  A recipe for innovation, per se?  Something that you can learn from and apply to your work immediately.  Something which has a la carte tools and techniques for you to knit into your current innovation processes.  

www.designthinkingireland.ie  

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