The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

Time for an Innovation Renaissance

Imagine if you could start an innovation renaissance inside your own organization. Imagine if people came to work each day knowing your company viewed every single employee as a potential innovator. Imagine if everyone, everywhere (not just the folks in R&D or New Product Development) was encouraged to tap into their own inherent creativity—their inner genius—and to get involved in dreaming up and developing exciting new ideas for the company. Imagine if people were free to challenge the status quo and suggest different ways of doing things. Imagine if they were motivated to submit insights on nascent trends and unvoiced customer needs, perhaps based on their own observations or front-line experience. Imagine if they could follow their curiosity, their interests and passions, and spend time experimenting with their own pet projects, or be assigned to pursue emerging business opportunities which they themselves had identified. Imagine if all the latent brainpower and human potential across your company, and even beyond it—in your value network and with a variety of external constituencies—was unleashed and mobilized to continuously rethink your business for the sake of the customer. Imagine if your firm maintained a rich and vibrant ecosystem of connections—both internal and external—where people could inspire each other and cross-pollinate ideas ...