Developing new products and processes involves several things, it involves inventing, it involves reseaching, it involves manufactring and it involves hard work.  But one thing that is common to every stage of R&D and manufacturing is the prinicpal of continuous learning.  Below are five ways to lay a strong foundation for fast innovation, whether you’re in a University setting, a large corportion or are planning a high tech start up these steps can help.

1. Study external publications, save experimental and study time by learning from others, I am amazed that people skip or skim over this step, there is much to learn from others, if you’ll take the time.
2. Study inventions, patent’s teach in detail what someone is patenting, take advantage of this by studying other peoples patents (be careful to not infringe).
3. Collaborate with others, you can learn from others by seeking out the expertise of others, take advantage of other people’s place on the leanring curve.
4. Use tools like hypothesis trees to guide experimentation, by taking alot of time sitting down with other experts you can intensely focus your experimentation time rather than guessing what to experiment on.
5. Write down what you are leanring as a team, its easy to forget what has already been learned, write down everything that has been learned in one place, make sure everyone has access and can contribute to this document or blog.

R&D and manufacturing is a learning process primarily, take the time to place rigor around your learning process and you will not regret it.

Do you know of other ways to encourage fast learning for the innovative organization?