Innovation Journal - Cognizant

REINVENT - SEEDING INNOVATION
Innovation, in today’s socially networked world, is no longer the
preserve of the few; companies are increasingly interested in creating a
participative and collaborative environment to generate ideas, with the
hope of achieving not just a return on investment but also a “return on
imagination.” Such goals are particularly relevant for technology teams,
which are at the forefront of delivering on a global scale, meeting
compliance requirements and speeding time to market for the
business.
In order to foster innovation, however, companies need an approach
that liberates employees’ imaginations in a structured way, something
we call “managed innovation.” The underlying philosophy is to employ
well-researched methods to identify and prioritize transformational
opportunities, within a cost-effective, risk-mitigated framework. This
makes it easier for business to embrace and execute the innovations.
We had a series of follow-up discussions with this executive’s team to
see how our experience in managing innovation could be brought to
bear. We decided to have a series of workshops facilitated by the
Cognizant Innovation Group, aimed at introducing them to Cognizant’s
Managed Innovation Framework. We custom designed sessions for
team members to identify, rate and rank the top 10 innovation
opportunities, and we opened these specific challenges to diverse
team members, seeking their ideas through a set of collaborative
workshops. The sessions included:
Igniter: This session was geared toward encouraging the team to
believe they have ideas worthy of sharing and building their creative
confidence. Sessions included creative games to break down
inhibitions and guidance on how to apply that creativity in an
organizational context. These sessions reinforced three points:
“The series of workshops you conducted last week got very
positive feedback from the participants. They came out with great
energy, enthusiasm and passion to adopt Cognizant’s Framework
for us. I also listened to their idea proposals, generated using the
tools and methodologies you taught them, for some of our key
problem statements. The outcomes are very impressive.
During the full-day Leadership Summit, 70-plus of my leadership
team and I learned “managed innovation” by applying hands-on
techniques to some of our key “how might we?” questions, as you
put it. We closed the day with important idea proposals to pursue.
I am focused on making this a sustainable movement; I look
forward to working with the Cognizant leadership team to
collaborate with us in sharing their experience and creating an
innovation culture.”
Innovation Leader of a Healthcare Payer
All of us are creative, to varying levels.
Thinking tools (such as brain-writing) help improve ideagenerating
efficiency.
By prioritizing and selecting contexts (what matters most), ideas
can become more effective.
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