Human Resource departments often find themselves tasked with creating a more innovative climate for their firms. That can make sense given that innovation is a people activity. It's a skill, not a gift, and it can be taught and learned like any other business skill. And it is usually team-based. My advice to HR leaders? Experience innovation close to home first. Use innovation tools on actual people or HR systems before venturing out to the broader organization. This has the effect of making true believers out of the HR team, it gives them a handy reference point for other departments to benchmark, and it yields creative new approaches to traditional HR processes.
Human Resource departments often find themselves tasked with creating a more innovative climate for their firms. That can make sense given that innovation is a people activity. It’s a skill, not a gift, and it can be taught and learned like any other business skill. And it is usually team-based.
My advice to HR leaders? Experience innovation close to home first. Use innovation tools on actual people or HR systems before venturing out to the broader organization. This has the effect of making true believers out of the HR team, it gives them a handy reference point for other departments to benchmark, and it yields creative new approaches to traditional HR processes. How?
Using the five templates of Systematic Inventive Thinking, here are examples of pre-inventive forms within the HR realm. The key is to envision the pre-inventive form, then find a useful role or benefit for it.
The real trick in using this method correctly is to envision a pre-inventive form that doesn’t seem to make sense at first. Then, using a cross-functional team, you outline specific benefits that could be derived for the HR department, the company at large, or some other entity. Ask yourself: is it feasible? How could the idea be modified to make it even more beneficial or feasible?
Another approach is to use innovation templates on specific employees – create ideas that innovate their life or career. Here are five more examples of pre-inventive forms at the individual level:
Re-invent others by re-inventing yourself first.