Embarking on any new initiative requires a plan that includes a definition of what one is going to do, how one is going to do it and how one will measure success.
This is a Critical Success Factor for Innovation Processes, its practitioners and the leadership that have the expectation of results for the money spent.
Setting performance-metrics goals for both process and role players is not a particularly popular initiative, as it ultimately spells-out more W-O-R-K under the gun. However, if properly prepared and supported, it is always worth the additional effort. Much like an athlete looking to improve their time or achieve a new milestone, pushing the limits of what we are accustomed to is a must. These athletic über-performers push themselves and manage to surpass their current thresholds of excellence to arrive at new personal bests; or better yet, break records. Similarly, organizations can stretch and flex in the same way, but only when given the complete Innovation environment to do so; namely the confidence to strive, the tools to execute and the motivation to succeed.
To arrive at these outcomes it is critical for senior management to not only get involved, but to stay involved. They have to set the Innovation pace for the rest of the organization by targeting desired process performance benchmarks – without them, the overall goal becomes a disjointed and murky target. Benchmark goals can come in specific permutations that affect every level of the process; here are a few:
| Participation | Idea submissions |
| Collaborations | Championing |
| Velocity | Approved ideas |
| Net ROI (all costs – time, materials, capital, rewards, tech) | Time-to-implement |
| Verifiable financial benefits (growth + efficiency) | Turn-around times |
Much like the aforementioned athlete’s performance goals, process benchmarks calibrated to overall goals have to be part of the Corporate Innovation Plan from Day 1. After all, a long distance runner would not set-off to improve their time for a specific distance without coordinating their route, hydration and caloric intake to optimize their chances of success – and they would set a target-time for each leg, measuring intervals and split times to insure there are on pace for success. Without it, how would they know if they’ve improved, succeeded or even arrived?