The key to getting good at innovation (resilience building) is to get stuck in and do it. Again, and again and then again. Starting on the road means building trust in the innovators – trust that they will spend the least amount of money to achieve the maximum learning; trust that they understand how to deliver a positive ROI; trust that they will deliver – and that trust begins with early wins.

Everyone in SI has worked in large organisations and clearly understand the perils of land-and-expand consulting companies (some of us used to play ‘kill the consultant’), and how their business model makes clients increasingly dependent.

Our consulting engagements are different. We exist solely to do the job we’ve been asked to do and to pass on the skills so innovation teams can then do it themselves in future. To build the early success stories that build the trust that will then lead to bigger projects that don’t need us.

We, of course, love working on projects that turn into new products and services for clients.  We love working at all stages through the Solution Readiness Level journey. Sometimes the whole 0-9 journey, sometimes just one jump. Sometimes working in partnership with the client, sometimes working with trusted battle-scarred network partners, sometimes in a hidden lab by ourselves. We endeavour to always be there if we’re needed, but we’re clear the relationship needs to be based on pull not push.