Making innovation happen – moving beyond a conceptual framework

Purpose – This paper aims to help people in organizations understand why so much of the talk and effort focused on innovation fails to generate real results. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the origins of the Synectics® approach to creative problem solving based upon observation of successful innovators. This approach resulted in a tool kit that has applicability for anyone in organizational life struggling to get new ideas and to take these to action. Findings – The paper has reference to a number of organizations and the results realised. Originality/value – The originality is the reference to a holistic view of creative problem solving connected with a behavioural approach to make it happen. The value to any organization is beyond measure. At a simplistic level the time in meetings can be halved while simultaneously doubling the output. That is a huge cost saving and release of human energy into more productive effort.