If you ask any executives what are the top three barriers for large organization for innovation, the most likely answer you will get is 1/time 2/organization and culture 3/lack of executive support. Everyone is so busy making everything work harder and making incremental operational improvements. Innovation rarely happens by accident. It occurs as a result of a concentrated focus on problems and challenges, and a fresh look at creating solutions that appear to be beyond the scope of existing customer wants and needs.
Time is on top of the list for many. There are little room today for playing with new ideas and exploring new possibilities. Executives are often distracted by endless meetings and pressure on quarterly results, so there is no time for practicing innovation in a systematic manner. How can organizations create or steal bandwidth for innovation while not losing focus on execution? This is the wrong question in the first place. It is not about stealing time, it is about developing a critical mass of innovators within the organization with the help from outside innovation experts. People need to work less and play more.
Senior executives must carve out time to participate (play) in these innovation initiatives, not only as a sponsor but as full participants. Every senior executive should spend at least 10% of their time on innovation play projects. Play is not simply just play, it requires tools and infrastruture. To create compelling customer experience innovation, we must use a new model—one that put “fun and play” at the core of the creation. They are not brain storming or power point shooting sessions (I hate those), they are structured spiritual activities based on imagination, empathy and creativity. It is a mind play. This new ecology of creativity, imagination and empathy are the core of any innovation activities. This is an indispensible condition of every human individual to choreograph interactions between user, information, objects and space.
With some outside help, a systematic approach to bring “play” into the innovation and strategy development process can produce some good outcomes. If these play ideas become real and receive funding, these executives could find themselves assigned to the project on a full time basis. It is in play that we have historically made our greatest discoveries and economic value creation
