10 Characteristics Of Effective Innovation

As a person who works with church leaders, I am often engaged in conversations about the subject of innovation.  When most people discuss innovation, here is what they are usually referring to:

• Something New
• Something Visual
• Something Digital
• Something Cool – there is a subjective term
• Something That Young People Require
• Something Young People Need To Connect With The Heart Of God
• Something Needed To Keep Us Relevant To The Culture
• Something That Will Keep Us From Dying
• Something That Will Get People Talking

I appreciate those descriptions and actually agree with all of them on a certain level.  However, doing something innovative for innovation’s sake is a recipe for disaster.

If you wish to do something innovative in your church or business, you will want to work towards having the following 10 Characteristics of Effective Innovation:

1. Effective Innovation Is Personal - By definition, innovation is doing something different but it should never violate your core values.  It should be customized to fit your unique environment.
2. Effective Innovation Increases Skill – Any effective innovation leverages the skills of your most talented people and allows them to perform at higher levels.
3. Effective Innovation Increases Passion – Not only should your team be performing at higher levels, they should have an increased level of ownership in the organization’s results.
4. Effective Innovation Helps ALL Team Members - Innovation should be done in a way that it weaves expertise throughout the entire church or organization.
5. Effective Innovation Increases Bottom-Up Communication – By weaving expertise throughout the entire organization, those closest to the action and carrying out the ground-level assignments can give feedback to their leaders about the new processes.
6. Effective Innovation Is Constantly Evolving – As feedback is given to the organizational leadership, modifications are made to improve the recently implemented processes.
7. Effective Innovation Must IMPROVE Communication – The mark of any effective innovation is more openness and less isolation.  Effective innovation breaks down silos and builds the team concept.
8. Effective Innovation Determines Assignments – In innovative environments, assignments are determined by assigning individual skill to a particular task.
9. Effective Innovation Is Collaborative – As mentioned, effective innovation does not take place in silos.  It is a coordinated effort by a passionate, skillful, and hardworking team of individuals.
10. Effective Innovation Creates A Leadership Culture – Effective innovation builds leadership and allows your team to approach each day with a leadership bias and strategy.

So to all of my friends who consider themselves to be creatives, I love the smoke coming from the dry ice as much as the next guy.  I love the black-and-white videos.  I love your scarf.  I love the shaky camera shots.  I love the rimmed glasses.  I love the multiple hairstyles.  I don’t even like skinny jeans on guys but I guess you must have some give-and-take!

However, if you what you are doing is not accomplishing the 10 items listed above, it is not effective innovation.  It can be simply insulting.

So leaders, let me ask you the question.  As you do things you feel are “innovative”, how many of the 10 items listed are you achieving?

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