In a world where innovation has often been equated with bursts of creativity or risky leaps of faith, organizations are starting to rethink their approach. The question on the table isn’t just how to innovate, but how to sustain it—how to make innovation as predictable and enduring as financial planning or supply chain management.
Enter ISO 56001, a standard that has quietly emerged as the blueprint for turning innovation into a consistent, scalable capability. But what does that actually mean? And how can corporate innovators turn the promise of ISO 56001 into everyday practice?
The Shift from Innovation as an Event to Innovation as a Capability
For decades, innovation was treated like a one-off project—a hackathon here, a brainstorm there—often with little regard for long-term integration. ISO 56001 flips this on its head. It challenges organizations to approach innovation with the same rigor they apply to finance or operations. The goal isn’t to stifle creativity but to create a framework where it can thrive—structured, yes, but never rigid.
To build this capability, organizations can focus on foundational elements that bring clarity and direction to their innovation efforts:
- Define and Document Your Innovation Strategy: Develop a living document outlining strategic imperatives, objectives, and metrics. Incorporate market analyses, competitive landscapes, and customer needs.
- Create a Portfolio Mindset: Divide innovation efforts into three categories—incremental, adjacent, and breakthrough—and allocate resources accordingly. This ensures you balance quick wins with long-term bets.
- Embrace Learning Cycles: Treat failed experiments as data points, not dead ends. Implement post-mortem reviews to identify insights from every project and formalize those learnings into your processes.
Breaking Down Silos with Shared Language and Purpose
One of ISO 56001’s most powerful contributions is its emphasis on collaboration. It’s no longer enough for marketing to dream up a campaign while R&D tinkers away in isolation. The standard pushes for a shared language of innovation—a lingua franca that aligns departments around common goals.
To foster collaboration across departments, organizations can take steps to build alignment and bridge gaps:
- Establish Cross-Functional Innovation Teams: Bring together representatives from marketing, R&D, sales, and operations to collaborate on projects. Rotate members regularly to inject fresh perspectives.
- Introduce Innovation Ambassadors: Designate champions in each department who act as liaisons, ensuring innovation initiatives are integrated into daily work.
- Create Innovation Playbooks: Develop guides that detail the organization’s innovation processes, frameworks, and terminology. Make these accessible to all employees.
Consistency Without Conformity: The Balancing Act
Critics often argue that standards like ISO 56001 could limit flexibility. After all, how can creativity flourish within a defined framework? The answer lies in the standard’s adaptability. ISO 56001 isn’t prescriptive — it’s descriptive. It provides guidelines but leaves room for organizations to adapt those guidelines to their unique cultures and goals.
To maintain flexibility while embedding structure, organizations can adopt practices that balance both:
- Tailor Metrics to Your Goals: Don’t just track the number of new ideas generated. Measure outcomes that matter to your organization, such as time-to-market, customer satisfaction, or operational efficiencies.
- Pilot New Processes: Before rolling out a framework across the organization, test it with a smaller team. Collect feedback, refine, and scale.
- Empower Autonomous Teams: Within the structure of ISO 56001, allow teams to innovate their way—whether through agile sprints, design thinking workshops, or lean methodologies.
Turning Commitment into Culture
Perhaps the most understated benefit of ISO 56001 is its role in embedding innovation into organizational culture. It’s not enough to have a strategy; the real test is whether that strategy can withstand turnover, market shifts, and economic uncertainty. ISO 56001 helps organizations build the systems and processes that make innovation sustainable, even in the face of disruption.
Creating an innovation-centric culture means focusing on practices that empower employees and build alignment:
- Incentivize Intrapreneurship: Implement recognition programs for employees who contribute valuable ideas, whether through formal channels or ad hoc solutions.
- Provide Accessible Training: Make innovation part of onboarding and ongoing education. Equip employees with tools to think creatively and apply innovation frameworks.
- Host Regular Innovation Town Halls: Create open forums where leadership shares innovation successes, invites feedback, and communicates the company’s vision.
A Roadmap for Corporate Innovators
ISO 56001 provides a clear path to consistent innovation. Corporate innovators looking to make the most of it can begin by addressing key steps to build enduring systems:
- Conduct a Current State Analysis: Assess your organization’s innovation capabilities against ISO 56001 principles. Identify gaps in strategy, processes, and resources.
- Establish Governance: Form an innovation council that sets priorities, allocates budgets, and oversees progress.
- Document Processes and Metrics: Standardize the key stages of your innovation process, from idea generation to commercialization. Include decision-making criteria, go/no-go processes, and review cycles.
- Implement a Continuous Improvement Loop: Schedule quarterly reviews to assess what’s working, what isn’t, and where to adjust. Assign clear action items and follow up on progress.
- Start Small, Scale Strategically: Begin with one or two initiatives. Demonstrate success, refine your approach, and expand gradually.
The Path to Enduring Innovation
ISO 56001 isn’t just a set of guidelines; it’s a call to action for corporate innovators to think bigger and work smarter. By combining structure with adaptability, collaboration with independence, and learning with action, it empowers organizations to build innovation into their DNA.
Consistency in innovation doesn’t mean giving up creativity—it means giving creativity a system in which to thrive. And in an increasingly competitive landscape, that’s the key to staying ahead.
Colin Nelson is Chief Consulting Officer at HYPE Innovation.
