How one small company beat some of Australia's biggest contenders to wear the innovation crown

Last month, Australia's "Business Review Weekly" published its Top 50 list of "Most Innovative Companies." Denise Meyerson, director of Management Consultancy International (MCI), was delighted to discover her company ranked #7. Here she reflects on the key steps that led to this top honor. (Hint: FourSight helped!)

Our Top 5 Tips of How We Got There!

By Denise Meyerson, Director of MCI training company in Australia

Our company batted way above our average to make #7 on the most innovative companies listing. So, how did we get there?

1. We ingrain into our programs, our team and our very essence that standing still is the same as moving backwards.  Anything and everything is up for renovation and refreshing. There are no sacred cows that are immovable or so entrenched in history that they are impervious to shake-up.  What we did in the past does not have to dictate the way in which we do in the future.

2. We do our very best to listen and to consult so that we can respond in flexible ways to challenges.  There's no such thing as an easy, smooth road to success, and when I listen to case studies presented at conferences or people telling their stories with no obstacles highlighted, I wonder just how truthful they are.... Our business experience is that there are always improved ways of responding to internal and external challenges and these are some of the best ways of lifting your game and driving more innovative solutions.

3. Most importantly:  All team leaders are trained in creative problem solving  techniques by top facilitator Russ Schoen [FourSight's Chief Collaboration Officer, who works with practitioners to develop FourSight programs].  We apply these techniques to resolve problems and to change the nature of our conversations.  We even have the 'YES AND' principle of creative problem solving as one of our company values.  This encourages people to delete the 'Yes but...' part of the sentence and build on other people's ideas - instead of putting the brakes on their thinking.  We have internal competitions that run off the back of this key value and we encourage creative ideas to emerge - and be actioned.\

4. All team leaders are also fully aware of their preferred innovation style.  They have undertaken the world renowned FourSight Thinking Profile and know if they are a Clarifier, Ideator, Developer or Implementer. This gives us a huge advantage as we structure teams and ensure that we have a good mix so that we don't get analysis paralysis or simply jump in blindly with no planning at all.

5. We have a mindset of Plan - Do - Plan - Do.  In other words, we are keen to try things out and get in to BETA mode really quickly.  If it is low risk and no one will be injured and our budget will withstand the pressure, we give it a go.  No fingers pointed if it does not work out as intended.  Learn the lessons and just move on.

Denise Meyerson is the Founder of MCI in Sydney, Australia.