Competency Traps Meeting

Paul Sloane — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:33:24 +0000

Today’s meeting of the BQF Innovation Unit discussed the issue of Competency Traps. The session was led by Richard Granger of Arthur D Little. He presented a comprehensive review of the topic and then facilitated a workshop where delegates assessed their organisational competence in 7 key areas. Competency traps are skills, attributes and things we are proud of, that constrain our thinking. They break down into a Vision trap, a Routinisation trap and Technology traps. Richard advised that the best way to combat these hazards is to open the organisation up to external stimuli. This led into a discussion of many aspects of open innovation and we reviewed what P&G, Rolls-Royce and Philips Research were doing in these areas. Seven key management capabilities were identified:

Innovation Sourcing Strategy
Ideas Management
Business Intelligence
Relationship Management
Project Management
Competence Management
Innovation Culture

In the workshop session delegates identified the areas of greatness weakness as being Innovation Culture, Business Intelligence and Project Management.

There followed a presentation on Innovation actitivities at EDF Energy given by Kathy Hart. She covered a range of initiatives including ‘Let’s Try it’, Dragon’s Lair, Ambassadors, Innovation Funding Incentives and E-Factor and described some of the successful innovations that have resulted.

Delegates who attended and BQF members can obtain copies of the powerpoint presentations from Pat Myles.

Our thanks go to our presenters Richard Granger and Kathy Hart for making the morning stimulating and productive.

Paul Sloane

BQF Innovation Blog » project

Competency Traps Meeting