So your organization needs a new idea; where do you start? Part of the purpose of this blog is to education you on how to innovate. But sometimes is you just need to hire an innovation consultant. Here are five reasons why this can be helpful.

1. Perspective – when you have been in an organization for a while you can quickly get used to the common rhetoric. A new perspective questions old ways and sees new connections.

2. Change Management – Innovation always leads to change. Leading change is a challenge at the best of times. Any innovation consultant will take some of the “heat” of change. And a good innovation consultant also helps lead the change.

3. Authority – An outside expert automatically gains a form of authority. This authority is more vulnerable, but allows for more efficient innovation. The reason is that when you form an innovation team from within your organization the members of that team are not doing what they normally do. As a result there can be a lack of confidence, which hinders decision making.

4. Systems – There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Innovation consultants will have effective systems for innovation already in place.

5. Experts – not only do they know about innovation, but they know when to bring in experts from other fields. A good consultant will get you started, give you a clear direction, and guide you along they way.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2007 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Innovation Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.