Technology leaders play a crucial role in driving innovation within their organizations. We’ve long been regarded as key advocates and purveyors of the latest innovative technologies but are increasingly asked to drive innovation more broadly.
By staying up-to-date with the latest technological advancements and trends, tech leaders can help their companies remain competitive and relevant today and lay the foundation for future growth that aids their organization and increases their leadership capabilities and purview. Here are five ways for technology executives to drive innovation and stay ahead of the curve while advancing their personal brand within the organization.
1. Understand the Business
To drive innovation within a company, technology executives must have a clear understanding of their business. This involves identifying key business objectives and assessing the current technology landscape.
The first step in understanding the business is to identify the company’s key objectives. This means understanding what the company is trying to achieve and what metrics it uses to measure success. Technology executives must work closely with business leaders to understand these objectives and ensure that technology is aligned. This is the core of corporate strategic planning efforts, and if you’re not already engaged in this process, it’s worth gaining some basic understanding of your corporate strategy.
To identify key business objectives and understand your company’s high-level strategy, technology executives can use a variety of tools, such as the following:
- SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
- Market research to understand customer needs and preferences
- Financial analysis to understand the company’s financial performance
Assess the Current Technology Landscape
Once key business objectives have been identified, technology executives should assess the current technology landscape both within and outside the company to understand how technology is currently being used and opportunities that might be overlooked. This involves understanding what systems and processes are in place, what data is being collected, and how those data are being used.
As a technology leader, internal systems should be the most straightforward element of the technology landscape to understand. If you don’t currently understand your internal technology landscape or have concerns about shadow IT, it’s likely time to pause any significant innovation investments until your current landscape is well understood.
By understanding the current technology landscape, technology executives can identify areas where technology can be leveraged to drive innovation and improve business outcomes and prepare to determine what capabilities already exist within the organization that can be used to drive innovation.
2. Foster Collaboration Across Teams
Collaborating across teams, both within and outside your technology organization, is an essential element in driving innovation. Tech leaders can leverage the expertise of their teams to create new products, services, and solutions that meet the needs of their customers.
Technology is undoubtedly crucial to driving innovation, especially via a tech organization within a company, but ultimately any form of innovation is created and executed by teams of individuals.
High-performing teams that can collaborate and understand multiple dimensions of the company are critical to success.
Build Cross-Functional Teams
Building cross-functional teams is a critical step in creating a culture of innovation. Cross-functional teams bring together individuals from different departments with diverse skill sets and perspectives. This diversity of thought and experience can lead to more comprehensive and innovative solutions.
To build cross-functional teams, technology executives should create opportunities for team members to work on projects outside their traditional roles. This approach allows team members to learn new skills, gain exposure to different aspects of the business, and collaborate with colleagues they may have yet to work with.
Start the process by collaborating with peers outside IT, and look for problems that could be solved by combining technology and business savvy. The “cross-pollination” will create new relationships, allow for knowledge sharing, and ideally, sow the seeds for broader innovation.
Encourage Open Communication
Encouraging open communication is another critical element in driving innovation through team collaboration. Technology leaders should create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas, opinions, and feedback. This approach fosters a culture of trust and transparency, which can lead to more creative and innovative solutions.
To encourage open communication, create regular opportunities for team members to share their ideas and feedback. This approach can include regular team meetings, brainstorming sessions, and one-on-one conversations with team members. Additionally, leaders should be open to receiving feedback from their teams and use it to drive organizational innovation.
Model the behaviors you’re trying to create through techniques like these:
- Using a team approach to problem-solving
- Celebrating and incentivizing open collaboration, even when the outcome isn’t helpful or ultimately successful
- Sharing stories of when open communication has resulted in successful innovations, however small
By building cross-functional teams and encouraging open communication, you can leverage a broader base of expertise and experience and bring multiple minds to bear on your innovation challenges.
3. Stay Ahead of the Curve
To drive innovation, tech leaders need a solid grasp of what’s happening within their industry and the broader market. The next driver for years of technology innovation might originate from one of your industry peers or a completely unrelated industry.
While it’s rare that tech leaders find themselves with ample time for what might seem like aimless and undirected research, it’s hard to drive new innovations without understanding the industry trends and emerging technologies that can help drive new capabilities. To stay ahead of the curve, consider the following:
Monitor Industry Trends
Industry trends include the obvious task of keeping up with new technologies, changes in consumer behavior, and shifts in the competitive landscape. By monitoring these trends, executives can anticipate changes in the market and adjust their strategies accordingly.
The obvious ways to stay abreast of trends include attending industry conferences and vendor events and following industry and consumer publications. Don’t be afraid to leverage your technology partners. A cornerstone of their business is understanding a variety of industries to best assist their customers, and better organizations often publish reports on emerging trends.
Invest in Emerging Technologies
Investing in emerging technologies is another way to stay ahead of the curve. This includes technologies that are still in the early stages of development but have the potential to disrupt the market. By investing in these technologies, executives can position their company as a leader in innovation.
An obvious example of an emerging technology is artificial intelligence (AI). AI has the potential to transform whole industries and has gone from a wonky technology topic to a dinner table conversation seemingly overnight.
Investing in emerging technologies can be relatively inexpensive, requiring massive investments on long timeframes. AI tools like ChatGPT can be accessed for free, and an “investment” might be as simple as an hour or two spent experimenting with these technologies.
You can also combine a drive toward more open collaboration and cross-functional teams by assigning a small working group to investigate these technologies, with the end “deliverable” being a small demo or experimental tool. These efforts need not take significant time and, when thoughtfully designed, present development opportunities for individuals and a learning opportunity for you and the broader organization.
4. Promote a Culture of Innovation
The classic bromide that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” is abundantly true when driving innovation. Too many organizations will launch innovation efforts to great fanfare and then perform the equivalent of a public execution on the first team that attempts something that’s not wildly successful.
Innovation requires creating an environment that encourages experimentation, risk-taking, and the generation of new ideas. Without these ingredients, all the fanfare in the world will fall flat.
Empower Employees to Experiment
One of the best ways to promote a culture of innovation is to empower employees to experiment. This requires giving them the freedom to try new things, take risks, and make mistakes. By doing so, employees will feel more comfortable sharing their ideas and more likely to develop innovative solutions to problems.
To empower employees to experiment, ensure your culture has the following traits:
- Encourages and rewards experimentation
- Creates a safe space for employees to take thoughtful risks, try new ideas, and be allowed to recover from unsuccessful efforts
- Communicates the value of innovation to the team by sharing stories of innovation successes and failure
- Provides resources and support to help employees experiment
Recognize and Reward Innovative Ideas
Another important way to promote a culture of innovation is to recognize and reward innovative ideas. Employees who feel their ideas are valued and appreciated are more likely to continue generating new ideas and taking risks.
Monetary rewards are an obvious means to rewarding innovative ideas, but allocating “cultural capital” can be even more effective when a team becomes the “hero” in company legend. When teams model the behaviors you’re trying to foster and successfully drive innovation, share that story far and wide.
Most of us have experienced the impact of “company legend” and the stories of a successful sale or that project no one thought could be delivered coming through in the nick of time. These stories reinforce positive behaviors, make the teams that delivered them increasingly respected individuals within the organization, and open new opportunities for those individuals that might be far more valuable than a monetary reward.
5. Measure and Track Progress
Innovation is a crucial driver of growth and success in the technology industry. Monitoring that success is essential, but so is determining the measurement approach and indicators that should be tracked.
Set Metrics for Success
To measure innovation progress, you should carefully select a small number of readily understandable metrics. These metrics should be aligned with the company’s overall strategy and goals. Metrics can include both quantitative and qualitative measures, such as customer satisfaction, revenue growth, and employee engagement.
One effective way to set metrics is to use the SMART framework. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. By using this framework, technology executives can ensure that their metrics are clear, achievable, and aligned with the company’s goals.
Generally, two or three metrics that capture success, impact, and progress toward an objective are better than dozens of metrics that deliver so much information that a sense of momentum is ultimately lost in the sea of data.
Regularly Evaluate and Adjust Strategy
Measuring progress is not enough; technology executives must also regularly evaluate and adjust their innovation strategy. This involves analyzing the effectiveness of current initiatives and making changes as needed.
A core tenet of any innovation effort is that you’re developing untried or unproven practices to create new, innovative results. As such, ensure you have metrics and processes for understanding when an innovation effort might go in the wrong direction and require adjustment or cancellation.
One effective way to evaluate innovation strategy is to conduct regular innovation audits. These audits can help technology executives identify strengths and weaknesses in their innovation efforts and make informed decisions about where to focus their resources.
In addition to audits, tech leaders should regularly solicit feedback from employees, customers, and other stakeholders. This feedback can help identify areas for improvement and ensure that innovation efforts are aligned with the needs of the company and its customers.
By setting metrics for success, regularly evaluating and adjusting strategy, and “course correcting” as appropriate, technology executives can ensure that their innovation efforts are effective and aligned with the company’s overall goals.
Following these guidelines can drive and accelerate innovation in your tech organization. Not only does this benefit your company but it can also position IT and the individual tech leader as forward-thinking executives.
