Champions Fax Archive

Part 1 of this Church Champions FAX series "Innovation Basics" reflected the insights found in the new book entitled Innovation: Breakthrough Thinking at 3M, Dupont, GE, Pfizer and Rubbermaid. The conversation between Rosabeth Moss Kanter, John Kao, and Fred Wiersema in the book's introduction also discusses the stages of innovation.

We often think of innovation as idea generation. This is the easiest phase. Sustaining innovation means two more stages. The first is development. Development means taking an idea and making it real product or marketable service. This requires managerial energy, discipline and focus.

The third stage is actually taking the product or service to the market place or customers and guiding it to implementation. This latter phase requires well executed and coordinated pricing, marketing, distribution, training, public relations, networking, and establishing the proper systems for evaluation and guidance.

Most often organizations, including Church Champion organizations, fail at the latter two stages of innovation development. Good, workable, helpful ideas and practices often fail to gain widespread adoption due to inadequate infrastructure and systems development.

This three-stage process explains the reasons that inventors themselves fail to capture the potential of a new idea. The skills needed for stages two and three are different from stage one. Innovation development means teaming up with others to bring ideas to impact.

Many times the real innovation is in the system and infrastructure development. The book cites the electronic linkages between WalMart and its suppliers as an example. These secondary functions support the innovation and allow faster adoption by key users.

Church Champion organizations need to find the key ideas, practices and products that will create the largest kingdom impact and then build the appropriate systems and processes to spread their adoption. Each new idea, practice or product may mean a separate system. At times, parallel structures must be built while at other times, an integrated, existing structure can be used.

Remember that the idea may be sound but it needs a system.

Innovation: Breakthrough Thinking at 3M, Dupont, GE, Pfizer and Rubbermaid is from Harper Business, copyright 1998.

The Gathering of Church Champions: Networking & New Tools to Serve the Emerging Church – Registration is now open for this event. Cost is $175 prior to November 1, 1998; $225 thereafter. Call 888.LEADNET to register.