The Innovation catcher is a method that has been developed for supporting the enhancement of innovation culture in different organizations. The key principle for this method is that innovativeness does not only happen in the R&D department among engineers and researchers. Moreover, the Innovation Catcher aims to reveal the hidden innovation potential throughout the organization; even though the main focus is on the fuzzy front end of the innovation process. In order to benefit from the innovation potential of the whole organization, functional feedback channels should exist for both individual and group level employees. A supportive testing environment and possibilities for idea generation as well as a capability to recognize valuable ideas are also required at the organizational level.
With the help of researchers, companies are able to have interventions where the Innovation catcher is used and employees themselves create their own way to improve their own daily practices. They usually concentrate on how to bring hidden ideas to light, how to handle such ideas and how employees should be awarded or rewarded for the ideas. The results that are achieved by using the Innovation catcher concentrate on for example, formal and informal meeting practices, roles that support innovativeness in the organization etc.
Further information:
Satu Parjanen
Anne Kallio