Encouraging Innovation with Process and Workflow
To enhance the use of its innovation, a company should not only consider implementing an innovation system, but also implementing certain work procedures and processes that encourage the creation, recognition, and protection of innovation. Sometimes such work processes are enabled or improved by codifying them in a system. Sometimes the system to implement such processes or procedures, along with assisting with compliance, is the innovation management system itself.
Innovation management can embody workflow rules, such as a document approval chain. Many organizations recognize that good practice requires one or more sign-offs before an innovation document may be utilized or released for any purpose. Decisions should be made to patent, publish, release, or hold secret innovation using a well-defined process. An example process might be a review chain where:
1. An engineer submits a document to …
2. A manager, who then may approve or reject it (possibly after seeking third party opinion) for review by …
3. An innovation committee, who then approves or reject it for handling by …
4. The CPC's office, who then approves or rejects it for publication or holding as …
5. A journal article, conference paper, public presentation, patent application, defensive publication, or internal trade secret …
An innovation management system needs to embody the flexibility to express a variety of workflow rules and actions that are appropriate to the procedures, standards, and culture of individual companies. Such workflow rules can incorporate facilities like email notifications of events, automated reminders, process status and aging reports, and rapidly accessible views to encourage use and compliance.
This is the seventh in a series of articles on this blog about Best Practices For Successful Innovation Management. For more in this series, see:
