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If you’re like a lot of people, your company is trying to drive innovation internally, with a workforce that wasn’t really hired for that. It’s a tough nut to crack, and the very reason we started Swarm Vision.

In a recent conversation with one of our clients, a $75 billion company, we asked how they used to approached this problem, prior to using Swarm Vision. They answered:

  1. Training, mainly on Lean Start-Up, to change mindsets and process
  2. Hiring for digital skills, not just in marketing but across the business

THESE ARE BOTH REASONABLE APPROACHES, BUT NOT ENOUGH. WHY?

The Limits of Lean

Lean Start-Up is great for teaching certain innovation skills, such as Resourcefulness and Adaptability. In the Swarm model, these are part of Deliver. But Deliver is just one of the 8 innovation skills that drive real-world business results. The 8 Swarm skills are:

IT TAKES ALL 8 INNOVATION SKILLS TO ACHIEVE BUSINESS RESULTS

The Limits of Digital

A Fortune 50 tech company just used Swarm Vision to profile their global software group. Their digital skills are world-class, but their average Swarm score was only 69. And no wonder this business unit has been in maintenance mode. In short, even strong digital skills can be a placebo, unless these coding wizards also have the 8 innovation skills.

DIGITAL SKILLS ARE NOT THE SAME AS INNOVATION SKILLS

So by all means, instill Lean, and up your digital technology game. But these strategies alone won’t be enough to drive systemic innovation.

To learn more about identifying and nurturing innovation talent, download the infographic here.

About the author

Suzan Briganti brings 25 years of experience in research, strategy and innovation. Suzan has a patent pending in innovation software. She has grown Swarm Vision from a garage start-up to a trusted solution provider to global Fortune 500 clients. Swarm Vision is a platform to identify and leverage innovation talent in the enterprise to drive growth. Suzan leads Swarm Vision with a focus on building great products and teams. Suzan has an MBA summa cum laude from Boston University and a design degree from Italy. Contact: suzan@swarmvision.com.

Featured image via Yayimages.