Innovation

Innovation is the design, development and implementation of a service, process or product with the aim of increasing efficiencies, being effective by solving a problem or realising competitive advantage. It is widely acknowledged that success in the marketplace is reflective of a company's ability to innovate. To enable agility in a quickly changing market, a culture of innovation should be embedded in organisational culture. Innovation should be built into projects and be embodied into daily tasks. Individuals need to understand how they fit into this culture of innovation and what they need to do in order to continually support it. It is important not to confuse the concept of innovation and that of ideation. Ideation is the concept of creating original ideas. A structured and efficient evidenced-based innovation process enables the prioritisation of ideas to be realised in a truly agile business.

The Global Innovation Game practically demonstrates this process of ideation and innovation. Without the process of innovation, ideas cannot be validated, prioritised and engineered. Team building programs play a role in demonstrating this concept in a practical and memorable way. In invention and construction program, Chain Reaction, for example, teams are given a series of ideas to curate, prioritise and eventually construct. Innovation can also be applied at a micro level to tasks. Team building construction programs demonstrate this practically. By following a sequence of plans and deciding how to implement them, teams are able to innovate in their execution - how best to use resources at hand in the limited time available. A team can demonstrate an innovative culture through the implementation of original thoughts, changes in execution and process.

During a team building program it becomes apparent that some teams are better innovators than others. Post event debrief and reflecting on the program assists in knowledge sharing on innovation techniques across the business.