CHECKLIST SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION IN 1 DAY 20 Tips for Futurebuilders and Innovators in Government & Business

So you are a futurebuilder, an innovator. You want to prepare your country, your profession, your company, your government for the future. But you do not have much time. No big deal. Let me guide you. Here is how you travel from the present to the future. It takes just one day. Learn to know the probable future, then create your desireable future, then create an Innovation Plan. It is as simple as that. Do the futurecheck in the morning, have lunch, and innovate in the afternoon. Follow these tips and you will be successful in 2020.

PS. Including free formula for the ideal government

1. Probable future. In 2020 the world will be global or flat & virtual or smart; transparent & hyper competitive, filled with old and mixed people. Also, it will be continuously changing and therefore insecure. As an innovator and futurebuilder you will have to take all these trends and their counter trends into consideration. U must know the probable future in order to sketch your own desireable future..
2. If you want to use scenarios, please do it well! Scan the futures that others foresee or want. Name the global trends and counter trends, which you will need to take into consideration with each and every imaginable future, and translate these trends into your local or regional conditions. Basics are the expected and probable changes and extrapolations in the field of technology, demographics, immigration and culture. Together they shape the probable future. Let me give you a few hints...
3. In 2020 the world will be virtual. Routine administrative and control activities will disappear into software. Laws, business models, activities, positions, professions, cars, houses: all will be a knowledge system, all will be software, all will be web. In 2020 the world will know less monopolies, trade and knowledge barriers. Customer lock-in will be very difficult. Top quality is the sole survivor: quality of services and quality of products, actual quality and emotional quality. Quality of services is not related to lowering costs, but to the creation of added value and simplicity for the user. The definition of "added value" needs updating continuously.
4. In 2020 the world belongs to the users: customers and citizens. Allow user groups to co-innovate and to value your existing services & products. Use customer complaints as a source of innovation. Assume a maximum of self control & self service from clients & citizens. By managing the complexity for your clients and citizens and by providing options for choice, your company will continue to add value and be profitable. Organise in such a way that the user is not confronted with complexity, in the form of selfservice dashboards for your clients that integrate all their information, communication and transaction needs into one single user interface.
5. In 2020 the world will be transparent. You are at the market square in your swimming trunks, and everyone can see what you do, how you work and perform. As a standard you are evaluated and rated by clients and governments, as a standard you are categorised in a Top 5 or a Flop 5. You do not want to be in the Flop 5, do you?
6. In 2020 only top quality will survive. Innovating is: organising that future top quality. Relate your present products and services portfolio to the standards of 2020: what will then no longer be competitive, what will then have ceased to exist due to virtualisation, what will then have crossed the border, where will low quality have gone then? Which of your products and services will turn into commodities in the foreseeable future? What remains after such "meeting the standards" exercise, is your competitive core quality and the competitive core people with whom you will survive and excel.
7. Desireable future. There are issues on which you have little to no influence, and issues that you can influence. These are the ones you should focus on. Now it is time to think about your desireable future. Phrase what you would like to achieve and visualise it with images or a video. Phrase your mission in one single sentence and one single image, plus a number of sentences related to the limiting conditions and methods. Make use of the transparent world. Rate yourself! Enhance your listing! What places do you occupy now in a number of relevant benchmarks and what places do you want to occupy in the near future?
8. Innovation Plan. This is where many organisations stop, however that is money lost. Innovation is action! The most exciting is yet to come. Plan what you will need to do tomorrow in order to achieve your desireable future. What should you do? What should you not do? What processes, buildings and people will you need to abstain from? Make a plan to go higher up the value chain. Create a time schedule (present - 2010/2015/2020) and include tangible sub results. Phrase in terms of actual services and products based on the clients point of view. Anyone can grasp that: the people on the shop floor as well as the top and the clients. Important: search and find the seeds of the future in your own organisation! Name and support 3 powerful projects and project leaders that in fact now already embody the new future vision.
9. There has to be a burning need for innovation or you will not innovate at all. Newcomers preying at you? On the verge of loosing a monopoly? New laws that force you to change? Good! Imagine a world in which transaction costs and switch costs are absolutely minimal. Innovate based on that idea. Imagine you no longer have a monopoly position and no longer can profit from technological customer lock-in. Imagine you are the biggest competitor or a newcomer with no legacy. Then start freshly. Ask yourself: what changes would an outsider make in your organisation?
10. Organise life moments in order to (double) check the futuristic view and the intermediate results and to keep your people on their toes. Always start with showing the integrated futuristic view, this will keep everyone on edge. Allow persons with high and low responsibilities to present what they have built or accomplished and how this fits the integrated futuristic view. Think of new forms to motivate. User satisfaction is your standard. Invite clients, citizens, competitors, sponsors and friends. Invite a shadow panel of colleagues or competitors, who will comment on your innovation results. Take an Idols-vote. Provide rewards for team efforts. Ask someone outside what he would do if she were boss.
11. Often, innovation is not about complete renewal at all. Usually, it is about smart combining and copying. Combining the top and the shop floor, combining the young and the old, combining new technologies with old concepts. Virtual innovation (the innovation of business model, back office and services) will in the long term increase your global competitive position; physical product innovation is of lesser importance. Avoid lawyers. Get young professionals and entrepreneurs onto the stage. Live! Sparkle! And if you want to sparkle, stop attending bureaucratic meetings. Diminish co-ordination time and increase fun time.
12. Make your organisation flat. Level all information. Standardize it, make it transparent and let it flow. Get rid of all people in your organisation that act as sneaky little information monopolists. Demand and reward information sharing and co-operation within the organisation and the chain. Reward efficiency, reward innovation. If your business model or your rules punish efficiency and innovation, change them into rewards.
13. In an ever changing world, flexibility and creativity are the most valuable assets. Bring both assets into your head, your organisation, your ICT-systems, your decision making. Make decisions on the lowest level possible. If you are a small business, act as if you are a multinational. If you are a multinational, act as if you are a small business.
14. The future is not about technology, yet the smart deployment of technology based on the user point of view is essential for the survival of companies and countries. So it is your duty to make technology invisible. Market solutions and nearness instead of products. The future is not about products. All products will be global commodities. They will have global high quality and will be intelligent: adaptable, self aware, self leaning. The future will be about personalized services around those global and intelligent products. The future will be about identity and lifestyle, about simplicity of choice, the only real cliff hangers in the virtual and fast world of 2020.
15. You want some key words? OK. Here they are. User involvement is decisive. Creativity is decisive. Technology is decisive. Talent is decisive. Leadership is decisive.
16. Leadership is: A) inspire all to everything new and B) leave the old behind (processes, objects, and people). Find the balance between command / central and creativity / freedom.
17. Are you working within the government? Then this is the formula for an invisible & more powerful government: "1 government, 1 face, 1 interface, 1 citizen card." And: "1 problem, 1 problem chain, 1 problem solver, 1 problem solving chain, 1 problem solving financial chain, 1 area, 1 leader."

    First tackle the governmental chaos in which you operate. Stop establishing new governmental organisations, use only existing ones. Reduce the amount of leaders in 1 square mile. No competing bosses anymore! Be brave. Dare to fire bosses or yourself, get rid of organizations.

    Then reduce and integrate existing rules. Stop making new ones. You think of creating a new rule? First call in the Paper Police! The Paper Police makes sure the rule is coherent with existing rules and that it does not cause any (extra) paper trouble for citizens and companies. Start turning rules into software so that they can be maintained in an intelligent, semi automatic and therefore much more efficient way. In general: few rules, tough maintenance.

    Third, get rid of perverse institutional incentives, like police fines as a source of government income. Create positive incentives, that for example lead to more professionals and less managers. That reduce a multitude of financial streams, accountability places and accountability moments, to 1 stream, 1 accountability place, 1 accountability moment. Make sure decision power is at the lowest level possible.

    Fourth, get digital quickly. Become paperless. But remember: digital infrastructure is to be built by central government, not by local government. (Unless of course central government is weak.) Anyhow, use open chain standards, central methods of identification and payment, and never ask a citizen something that is already stored somewhere in any government network. Stop asking dumb questions, please!

    At last. Turn all civil servants that loose their jobs due to technology into safety and education professionals.

18. Naturally, you will not do all this futuring and innovating on your own, as a visionary but lonely CEO slash creative person. Nothing would become of it. You need to motivate your employees and colleagues to use their energy and talents. At the same time you will need to excel on content and process, on ideas and people. What is more fascinating than that?
19. So, you better start futuring and innovating now. Will it take you months or even years, loads of money and a battery of futurists like me? No. You don't have the luxury of that much time and you don't need it either. It takes just one day. Do the futuring in the morning, have lunch, innovate in the afternoon. Just make sure to repeat that day after one year. And no, you do not have to hire me; never underestimate your own qualities! Yet, it is a fact of life that strange eyes prey. And mine are blue...
20. Most important: enjoy what you are doing. Organise warmth, simplicity & choices for your customers and citizens. Do your best and don't be afraid!

Independent European Futurist and Guest Speaker Marcel Bullinga has a passion for the future and innovation. His motto: "There is not one single future, there are many thousands. Choose the one you want!" In 2000, Marcel presented his book In Total Selfcontrol for European Parliament. Mail your reaction to info@futurecheck.nl