The Key question with innovation training
Here is the key question.
Is it better to have 100% of the people to be more innovative by 1%.
Or is better to have 1% of the workforce to be 100% more innovative?
These are great questions.
Because if you believe that only a few people that work in say innovation, marketing or R&D have the potential to be innovative then spending a huge amount on innovation training might be a waste of time.
You might be better employing 1 to 1 creativity coaches or mentors for example for these select people.
However if you believe that everyone has a creative potential and their ideas are worth hearing then investing in innovation training might be a good initiative.
Here’s the other problem with innovation training.
How do you measure its effectiveness?
This is why whenever I conduct training I always run a pilot program first.
In this way I can better customise the content,
And I conduct a pre and post survey on the impact of the training.
This survey might measure attitudes to innovation, skill levels, tools used and confidence in innovation for example.
But here is the red flag with any innovation training.
I have conducted many training sessions with managers around the world and there is one moment of truth.
When people complete their training they (hopefully) are all dressed up and ready to go.
But then when they suggest their first big, new idea to a leader who quickly knocks it on the head a massive disconnect occurs.
Everyone’s frustration levels sky rocket.
The key message?
If you are going to conduct innovation training for all of the staff then also pay attention to the other cultural impact as expectations will have risen.
As a last insight — make the innovation training as real and grounded as possible.
In my experience, participants will respond more to real problems rather than made up ones.