One of the more surprising results from studies is that Innovation is a Process. The most Innovative companies do not just hire smart people and wait for inspiration to strike, they carefully select balanced diverse teams, and use a structured process to drive innovative and "out of the box" thinking.
We call this process "Deep-Dive" - based on the principles of Business Driven Action Learning.
Purpose
The purpose of Innovation processes is to allow clean and unfettered thinking about a major problem or issue - something where the business is "stuck". Applying structured out-of-the-box creative thinking allows novel and innovative solutions to be developed.
Method
The Deep Dive process can be held at either a small scale (three meetings) or a large scale (three to six months) depending on the scale of the problem to be solved. At either scale, the process follows the same steps -
Benefits
The Deep Dive process provides a vital framework for creative and innovative thinking in pursuit of breakthrough performance, but rooted in a thorough understanding of the problem, combined with structured learning from nonconventional sources.