You wouldn’t normally expect the somewhat complex concepts surrounding workplace innovation to be referenced using video games, Winnie the Pooh and Alice’s Red Queen, gardening, medieval history, natural and man-made disasters and Victorian shipbuilding practices. Oh yes, there is a song thrown in as well.

But that’s John Bessant for you. He delivers enthralling and inspirational masterclasses with roller coaster explanations of the dynamics of innovation and how to make it work through high involvement, an acceptance that not all innovative ideas work and that innovation is more than ideation.

If we are to create value from ideas, we must recognise that there is no single right answer only open ended solutions. It’s an uncertain process but we know it can work. We can still learn from intelligent failure. We know it makes a difference and we know it makes for better workplaces and motivated employees. We also know it applies in any setting – big, small, public or private. The trick is to listen to other people’s thinking which can set you off in new directions. The more minds on the work, the more variation in ideas.

According to John Bessant high involvement innovation is a continually moving phenomenon and rarely depends on a light bulb moment. The key is knowledge management where everyone’s ideas matter and require a response; where ideas have an enabling process to create value and can make a strategic difference; above all, people can learn to be innovative.

So how do you build an innovative culture that will create value? Start with making clear what behaviours you want, provide a clear direction and let them do the rest (Articulate); support processes, training and facilitation (Enable); provide feedback, incentives, encouragement, recognition, celebration (Reinforce); adapt, refine, reconfigure (Review).

The challenges in creating value from ideas are many and varied because of a constantly changing context so Bessant characterizes it as a journey which will be full of surprises and, often, disappointments – ‘the technology won’t work, the market isn’t really there or doesn’t want what we thought, competitors have stolen a march on us and launched a better alternative, the government changes the regulatory rules of the game’ – multiple and simultaneous sources of change make up what he sees as the ‘Red Queen world’.

The goal must be to learn skills and capabilities in ourselves and in our organizations; to update our models for managing innovation. We need ‘dynamic capability’ a concept brilliantly conveyed by Bessant with a specially written song which he delivered with guitar accompaniment. While it won’t win the Eurovision Song Contest, it certainly hit the right note for this wonderful masterclass.

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