The innovation assessment: identifying and addressing barriers

No matter how well you know yourself, you cannot predict your own behavior. That's why all questions with 'would' in them are prohibited in somewhat decent customer research. Instead, you look for similar past behavior and use that as a reference.

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The same principle applies to the innovation assessment.It's a way to identify and address the obstacles you encounter in your innovation work. Because no matter how beautifully it may have been presented to you beforehand, it's only when you're truly immersed in the muck of innovation that you discover how the fork is positioned in the innovation handle within your organization. 

The reality is often that there's some noise on the line. The question is: where? Do you have a clear enough view of the business impact of a project? Do your colleagues truly understand what you're asking of them, or are you not quite on the same linguistic track? And, when it comes down to it, what are you actually being assessed on by management?

Enthusiasm is often not lacking. But what is it lacking in? The right skills? The best tools? Does management support your innovation processes, or is there secretly not much alignment? How do colleagues react to your way of working?

It can all lead to frustrations. Unwanted energy that has more influence than you thought, hoped, or wanted. It often takes up time you'd rather use elsewhere. Or even worse, you end up 'taking into account' more than you'd like.

A little resistance when you're innovating is quite normal. However, if your responsibility is to bring about innovation, it's useful to be able to understand and address that resistance. After all, this also helps your organization!

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That can seem tricky, but with a bit of assistance, you can make the intangible tangible.

Organization innovation model

The innovation assessment based on the organizational innovation model (see the image at the top of this blog) can help you in this situation to gain insight into the areas where action can be taken. This model focuses on the innovation focus and the context within which it takes place in your organization.

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The model shows that the essence of innovation revolves around the development of (new) services, products, or processes. In other words, it is about achieving the optimal blend of technical feasibility (possible), the right business/organizational impact (viable), and meeting a genuine customer need (desirable).

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It also defines the preconditions, frameworks or context of your innovation work: skills, governance, culture and innovation strategy.

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The innovation assessment combines qualitative and quantitative research and results in insights and related actions for each element. It thus helps you build a bridge between strategy (doing the right things), tactics (doing things right) and operations (getting things done).

Start now!

Get a first impression of what such an assessment can do for you right away. Fill in a light version of the quantitative section yourself here, our Innovation Quickscan. It will take you about 10 minutes and provide you with a concrete understanding of the various elements covered in the assessment.

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We'll send you an analysis of your situation, so you can take a first step forward immediately. Click here to start the quick scan. 

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