Creativity and innovation only truly happen when the ideas are transformed into workable solutions, implemented and add value. To achieve this innovation teams need the discipline of execution. Having ideas is great but without disciplined execution, all of your ideas will translate to less value or no value at all. Here are two tools that can help with ensuring disciplined implementation of your innovative solutions:

• How-How Diagram: When you want to begin implementation – from the development of a prototype, testing and to the final roll-out depending on your solution, it is important that you break the work to be done into as many granular parts as possible. This way every angle is covered, and nothing gets swept under the carpet. A How-How diagram simply asks the question – How and breaks down the main project or goal into smaller activities by asking “How” continuously as depicted in the illustration below for planning an event. Each of the answers to the question “How” then represents an action step required to implement the project that will now be used in the Project Plan/Tracker
• Various tasks required to deliver on your innovation project, you can

create a tracking sheet usually on a spread sheet that shows the various tasks arranged in sequential order; the timeline for starting and completing each task; the responsibility officer for each task, and the status of each task using the RAGg colour codes. The Project Planner/Tracker will then be made available to all with one person responsible for keeping track of performance. In some teams, it is placed in a shared drive, and all staff members can go in and edit the file with updates. The Project Plan/Tracker can then serve as a Dashboard for reporting on the project and identifying areas of implementation that require improvement.