Giving Innovation a Foothold

As a former entrepreneur, I was the person who called the shots, made the decisions, assessed and analyzed the available information, and presented policy and process changes to my staff. My strategy has always been to enthusiastically share and champion what I see as the future possibility and the potential vision these changes can provide for the group. In a corporate organization, however, an established directive hierarchy is generally inclined to be resistant to that kind of entrepreneurial thinking and modus operandi. But I learned there are ways to be a change catalyst when you know you have ideas that can greatly benefit the organization. It takes time, patience and preparation, but is worth it to see your ideas result in product and process improvements that benefit your organization and your co-workers.

Injecting innovation into a group can be a precarious road. Initial rejection can be brutal, when people can’t see the full picture of how change will impact what they do every day. Dismissal of any idea is very probable if the question of “what can we do with it, and what is it worth?” can’t be sufficiently addressed. With any new idea, answering these two questions can be extremely difficult, and perhaps real numbers can’t be assessed this early in the game. But there are strategies for beginning the change process that can open the door for exploring the answers to these questions, and giving your ideas a chance for fruition.

Be passionate about your idea, and finesse it as far as you can on your own, but while you are doing that, have one-on-one discussions with people you trust to see if there are other angles you can use to build support for your idea. It is easier for a group to dismiss one idea from one person rather than a multi-faceted set of inter-related ideas from an aligned set of individuals.

Be sure to examine your idea thoroughly for all the possible options it may present, so that you are prepared to counter those “how much is it worth?” questions. Do your homework so that you know if you build it, to what purpose and audience can it be addressed, and does it offer significant innovation, product differentiation and/or process improvement that can be leveraged in a market scenario. Sharing your enthusiasm about your idea is great, but so is sharing some enthusiasm about what it can do to exceed consumer expectations. How much it is worth depends on how much it exceeds specific expectations, of which there may be many options to assess.

Laying this groundwork is like plowing the field. You can’t plant until the soil is ready, so till the ground diligently, so that when the time is right you can present the seed of innovative change in a nurturing environment that will grow into exciting opportunities for your organization.

Theory of Constraints

During my time at EFI (Electronics for Imaging, Inc.) we heard alot about the Theory of Constraints as one of our members was a colleague of Eli Goldratt, author of The Goal. Our charge at EFI was to help companies in the printing and publishing industries manage workflows and reduce constraints as well as increase capacities in their processes to engender greater efficiencies and protect profit margins.

Figuring out where the bottlenecks are is key to being able to manage the constraints, and do some load balancing of your resources. Finding the right balance of throughput for your resources is key to being able to sleep nights! Do you need to factor in some temporary help or overtime, upgrade or add equipment, reduce process redundancies or even rethink your production model? Do you need to implement a workflow system with dashboard reporting so you have a view of real-time “where we are”?

Defining processes to manage risk factors and contingencies is critical as well, all those “what if” scenarios that probably won’t happen (you hope), but that eventually will happen just because that’s how the odds play out. So what are your contingencies? If you lost a major client, or a tornado blew out a chunk of your city (hey, I live in Tulsa, it happens!), or you lost a team of key executives in an airline accident? Do you have a plan, or would it all come to a screeching halt?

At any rate, this short little video is worth a thousand words…

Organizations, Learning and Change

Built-2-Change (B2C) is one of the hot phrases in business literature. It feeds off the dialogue and research around the Learning Organization, and implies an entity that is continually scanning the environment for new information, synthesizing that information with existing paradigms and processes on an individual as well as organizational level, and revising underlying assumptions as necessary to proactively address challenges and opportunities. An organization that has learned how to learn can in turn position itself throughout its structure to be able to take appropriate action to capitalize on strategic strengths and mitigate or eliminate weaknesses and threats.

Much academic research discusses organizational learning, but the seminal research in this domain is that of Chris Argyris and Donald Schönwhose work identifies the conditions which must be addressed for this type of learning to take place. When this occurs, the groundwork is set for developing the learning organization.

Peter Senge’s important work in this field is presented in The Fifth Discipline and underscores five platforms that define this type of organization: Building Shared Vision, Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Team Learning, and Systems Thinking.

In their book Ten Steps to a Learning Organization, Peter Kline and Bernard Saunders share their experiences and success strategies for helping organizations accomplish this transformational change.

Web 2.0 and the new work world

GO2WEB20 is a well-designed place to find new Web 2.0 tools for productivity. Work processes and tools may radically evolve over the next decade, reinforcing my belief that the virtual worker will assume a greater place in the organization. A knowledge economy need not be based on proximity or how much commuting time employees must subject themselves to in order to maintain quality of life. For the health of smaller cities and towns, encouraging infrastructure providers to build high quality networks means allowing their residents the opportunity perhaps for higher paying jobs only available outside their local communities. For the health of our larger urban areas, providing web-based infrastructures that allow employees to work from home at least part of the week will reduce stress levels, restore balance to families, and reduce emissions and highway congestion from rush-hour vehicles.

I think it is way past time that corporations take a serious strategic look at the the benefits to be gained from these types of initiatives, and proceed to implement them before gas prices go back to $4.00 a gallon, and while they can reduce employee overhead costs in an age where profit margins are as tight as they’ve ever been. Perhaps it is a strategy that would help as we struggle to recover from the current economic quagmire…

However, there are concerns which must be thoughtfully considered and appropriately managed. Mentally, and emotionally, the pace and the constant state of vigilance to multiple modes of connectedness that the virtual worker must attend to can be exhausting. As the virtual workforce expands, I think managers need to be cognizant of the need for “disconnect” time during the day in order that employees have time to think through a problem scenario, for example, or perhaps just take time to get their tasks or paperwork in order for the day. Managers need to develop a trust relationship with their virtual team so that expectations are clear, but so are the terms of trust and engagement as an integral part of a collaborative unit that supports the organization through mission-critical work. The demand to be constantly “on” is draining, and virtual workers need to be empowered to find ways to manage their connectedness to mitigate this kind of impact on their productivity.