The Three-Legged Race of Innovation

Want to drive innovation outcomes, accelerate future growth opportunities, achieve breakthroughs, and be disruptive?

The answer: Learn To Coach A Three-Legged Race.

The three-legged race is made up of two people — who tie their innermost legs together — in favor of a shared leg to run towards a finish-line.

Here’s the problem:

There are three pillars (legs) in innovation: design, engineering, and business. In order to cross the finish-line, people within those pillars must combine their efforts — tether themselves to another group. Traditional enterprise companies try organizational structures (cross-functional teams “two-in-a-box”) and processes (stage gate, lean start-up, six sigma, and agile) to coach people to collaborate. They also use enterprise systems and tools to track activities, such as roadmaps and portfolio management. Yet, innovations continue to falter because there is insufficient guidance within these linear approaches to accommodate the nonlinear impact of people.

Here’s the solution:

Instead of exclusively relying on org structures, processes, systems and tools, companies should build in ambidextrous small teams of executive leaders to guide and to deploy multiple strategies across the three pillars. Their use of context and insights can dynamically reposition and transform businesses for new growth. Research has shown that building ambidexterity into an organization is good for innovation. Pragmatically speaking: “Building a portfolio of options for specific problems is better than a list for specific tasks that do not meet the challenges” (Johnson, Disruptive Innovation and Digital Transformation).

Additional support:

Running the best race increases with a company’s talent, capabilities, and resources. A quick assessment, using the below Table 6.1 Innovation Growth Maturity, can help determine where there are gaps that could hinder performance.