Where to Look for Insight

In today's organizations, innovators are in demand everywhere--from the factory floor to the salesroom, the IT help desk to the HR department, the employee cafeteria to the C-suite. Innovation isn't a department, the authors say; it's a mindset that should permeate your entire enterprise. And what fuels it is insight--an imaginative understanding of an internal or external opportunity that can be tapped to improve efficiency, generate revenue, or boost engagement. Sawhney and Khosla outline seven "insight channels" that would-be innovators in any function or role can use: (1) anomalies, or data that deviates from business as usual; (2) confluence, when economic, demographic, and technological trends come together; (3) frustrations, which lead to innovative work-arounds; (4) orthodoxies, which can spark a search for alternatives; (5) extremities, such as fringe members of stakeholder groups who push for solutions; (6) voyages, whereby innovators leave their offices to visit colleagues or customers; and (7) analogies, useful ideas or systems in other teams, business units, companies, or industries.