Table of Contents (click
on blue hyperlinks) 2. Creativity vs. Innovation - A BIG Difference 3. The Need for Innovation – Staying
Competitive 4. The Challenges of Innovation – Embracing Change 5. The Innovation Infrastructure Solution – Systems Framework
6. Full Spectrum Innovation – Eight types of innovations 7. Innovation Infrastructure Applications – Putting Theory into Practice Today, innovation for
many companies is pretty much in a free-form state. And while the importance
of innovation is understood and increasingly showing up as a strategic
priority* … there has been little
genuine understanding of how to build an innovation organization. So instead of relying on
chance and acts of creative genius to foster innovation, this white paper
describes how an Innovation Infrastructure can systematically bring a steady
pipeline of incremental and radical breakthrough innovations to your
organization and marketplace. Innovation
Infrastructure Applications
2. Creativity vs. Innovation … What’s the difference?
(TOC) Everyone wants
innovation and wants to be innovative, but few can really define what this
means. Ask ten people to define innovation and you’ll likely get ten
different answers. Creativity Defined: According to wikipedia, there
are over 60 definitions for creativity.
The most commonly used are:
Innovation Defined: The basic dictionary definition of innovation is: A
change made in the established way of doing things. The classic business definition for innovation is: To
turn a creative idea into products and services of value and profit. The
basic goal of all innovation is positive change, to make someone or something
better. There are two basic types of innovation.
From a business perspective, like any business function, modern
innovation is an organizational process that requires
specific procedures and tools needed for generating, considering, and acting
on creative insights. 3. Need for Innovation … Staying competitive (TOC) In the 50s thru 80s the
watchword was efficiency. This kind of innovation had its roots in
F.W. Taylor’s development of scientific management at the turn of the century
and evolved into Womack’s Lean methodology in the 90s. Over the past 25
years, the watchword was quality.
Quality methodologies started with TQM (Total Quality Management) from Deming
in the 1960s and evolved to Six-Sigma in the 90s. How is Change … Changing: The Evolution of Innovation
Methodologies and Tools
During these times, the fields of efficiency
and quality have been systemized to the point that the world now benefits
from the best products at the fastest rates of production. But
improving Efficiency & Quality is no longer enough to remain competitive. IT guru Kevin Kelly may
have said it best: “Efficiency and
quality, while necessary conditions for business success, are insufficient to
sustain growth over decades. While new levels of efficiency and quality
require inventive solutions, their goal is not the same as the goal of
innovation. … Wealth flows directly from innovation... not optimization.” 4. Challenges of
Innovation
(TOC) Tom Peters
author and business guru bluntly said: “I
worry what will happen to the American psyche should the nation be knocked
off the economic catbird seat. But, I believe American business is capable of
competing if companies are willing to continually reinvent themselves. … The
only way we're going to survive is to innovate our way out of the box." Peter Drucker once said that “Innovation is the only competitive advantage a company really has,
because quality improvements and price reductions can be replicated, as can
technology. Therefore, if a company could have just one major capability, it
should be innovation.” Assess these obstacles
and enablers to determine how ready your organization is for innovation. Obstacles & Enablers
of Innovation
Customer
Focus Groups vs. Customer Observation A customer-centric focus
is essential for Innovation. This requires knowing your customers at three
different levels, 1. Who are your customers?, 2. What are your customers
saying? and 3. How are your customers behaving? Customer
Demographics – Who are your customers:
While you need to acquire basic data about your customers, it’s likely only
minimal innovation insights will come from it. Focus
Groups - What are your customers saying:
When looking for innovation, many organizations turn
to meetings (focus groups) with he aim of gaining
valuable customer insights. And while this "tried and true"
approach can yield wonderful insights for incremental innovations, it is
unlikely to lead to breakthrough innovations. Quoting Henry Ford: “If I had asked my customers what they
wanted they would have said a faster horse." So
how do you find breakthrough innovations from your customers? Customer
Observation – How do your customers behave: Anthropologists
have been studying human behavior for a century. Now
forward thinking companies are starting to apply the same anthropology
premise; to truly understand humans (customers), you need to be a first hand
witness ... essentially “walk in your
customers’ shoes.” This field of work,
called ethnology, involves going into customer’s natural settings versus
dialoguing with them in a controlled environment, such as Focus Groups. By
living among your customers you come to learn: 1) Actual customer behavior,
versus what they say they do; and 2) Underlying “whys” or motivations behind
their behaviors. This is the level of
understanding that leads to breakthrough innovations. For example, Procter
& Gamble's’ CEO A.G. Lafley
in this book, The Game
Changer, describes how P&G created a Consumer Closeness
initiative to find ways to get closer to their customers. The results were
development of programs like; Living-It (living with families), Working-It
(working in small businesses), Home-visits, and Shop-alongs.
These programs bridge the gap in customer understanding and turn this understanding
into profits. Note: If you want to jump-start
your development this valuable observation skill, there is a lot to learn by getting
a book on “How to become a birdwatcher.” Resistance
to Change vs. Embracing Change Innovation by definition
requires change and change requires moving away
from the comfort of the status quo. Resistance is normal and should not be
used as an excuse to avoid innovation. Human
change: Humans get entrenched in their ways of working … and
don’t like change. In yesterday’s relatively stable world, workers were
trained to become very efficient in performing prescribed tasks. The worker’s
mindset was to master a routine. Today,
workers must respond to change and emerging opportunities with a mindset to master the process of changing the
routine. Organizational
change: Organizational structures by their nature are not
pre-disposed to change. In fact their primary purpose is to produce
predictable behaviors that are usually based on successful “past”
experiences. Unfortunately, risk aversion and uncertainty can leave companies
ill-equipped to deal with challenges that don't
mirror the past. Cultural
change: Culture is the very embodiment of an organization's
resistance to change. By definition culture resists change in order to
maintain shared beliefs, customs, and behaviors.
But in a changing marketplace, cultural rigidity suppresses an
organization’s ability to innovate. Fear
of Failure: If failure is threatening to ones
career, workers will avoid taking risks and consequently innovation will be
rejected. Short
Term Rewards: Rewards are generally based on achieving
short-term results (metrics). But, innovation is a short-term cost with a long-term reward. Hence, innovation is
less rewarded. Innovation
by Luck or Design Do
you want to gamble on your future? Leaders define and
create the organization in which innovation thrives. From a cultural
perspective, the innovation leader simply needs to model the behaviors s/he
wants their workers to possess. Without the right leadership, companies
rarely innovate … and at best get lucky. As a gambler knows, on any given occasion you can get lucky … but the
odds are against you. Effective leaders recognize that relying on intermittent
innovation efforts is putting their company’s success in the hands of chance. Continuous
innovation is a matter of habit. Leaders also realize
that there must be a shift from lucky innovation to a predictable innovation
that is a matter of strategy and habit.
These leaders embrace innovation as a core value, and ensure that the right
tools and methodology are in place to produce innovation as a routine part of
everyone’s job. Without the right innovation
methodology and infrastructure you’re risking far too much - you’re risking
your future. Scripted Thinking vs. Facilitated Thinking The
# 1 challenge in innovation is scripted thinking When we think, our minds
default to using dominant thinking patterns, called scripts, which have been
acquired through education and our life/work experiences. Over the past 100 years we have been in an era of
scientific thinking and problem solving. Knowledge-workers were educated to
thinking analytically and do problem solving. While scripted thinking
works well for doing routine tasks, the danger of using routine thinking
patterns is that it can prevent us from seeing anything other than what is
revealed by that script. Scripted thinking prevents us from gaining
innovative insights and shapes thinking performance in an unproductive
fashion. It’s like using the same hammer for every job. 5. The Innovation Infrastructure Solution –
Systems Framework (TOC) Less than 20 years ago, the typical
Innovation Infrastructure was an individual
creative genius shouting Eureka
… and a corporate innovation hero jumping over internal hurdles to bring
revolutionary products and services to market To succeed today, it is necessary to move
beyond an ad hoc or unstructured approach to innovation. Organizations need
to intentionally and deliberately foster innovation through instituting
appropriate processes, methodologies and supporting technologies. Organizations
need to take a systems approach to innovation in the same way they once
approached efficiency and quality and deploy an Innovation Infrastructure, which
becomes the foundation for ongoing organizational
genius. In
a nutshell: An Innovation Infrastructure “simply”
applies systematic questioning and cognitive tools to: acquire relevant information … promote
individual creativity … facilitate collective thinking and intelligence … all
within a precise innovation process … to produce a steady stream of valuable
incremental and radical innovations. Individual
Knowledge-worker (Creative Mind) There are some gifted people who have
rare creative and innovative talents, and combined with a photographic memory
can do great things. For the rest of us we need help to be innovative and a
set of tools to help overcome mental frailties like the following:
While mankind will continue to benefit from individual genius, many more
innovations will become possible through technologies like the following
which assist humans to collaborate, think and probe the nature of the
universe in more detail than our natural senses allow.
Information (Knowledge
Management Technology) There is a correlation
between people who develop more innovative ideas, with people that have a
wide range of available and relevant background knowledge. Effective thinking can only occur if a
person/team acquires the right “critical masses” of data and information to
think upon. Today, a key to
innovation is not how much you remember but how effectively you can find and
access the relevant information to think upon with tools like the following
Connectivity
(Collaboration Technology) Less than 300 years ago
most individuals collaborated with people within 20 miles of where they were
born. Now of course we can collaborate with virtually anyone in the world. Working collaboratively
brings forth a synergy that raises each person’s level of thinking. Collaboration helps to create a shared
understanding and fosters the co-creation of new ideas that no one person
could develop alone. The integration of collaborative technologies like the
following becomes essential.
Thinking
(Facilitation Technology) The
evolution of Tools reflects the evolution of Civilization While the deepest workings of the human
mind remain beyond our comprehension, we know quite well that we can readily
improve thinking by using tools. “If
you want to teach people a new way of thinking, give them a tool, ...” - Buckminster Fuller And as Don Norman puts it; “The power of the unaided mind is greatly
exaggerated. It is "tools" that make us smart, the cognitive
artifacts that allow human beings to overcome the limitations of human memory
and conscious reasoning. “ Facilitation
Technology … The missing piece of the Innovation Infrastructure puzzle. Rarely
can people bring to mind all the right mental tools and questions to ask at
the exact moment to improve innovative thinking. Instead of relying on human memory,
Facilitation Technology takes a different approach. Its goal is to function
like a skilled consultant, teacher or mentor who is always available and
ready to support your thinking needs at the exact moment you need it. Nth
Degree Software is the first to develop Facilitation Technology, and as
Gartner Research put it: “Facilitation Technology is a BIG idea, one the
world needs!” It is without peer. Not Oracle, SAP nor even Microsoft is
better prepared to improve the effectiveness of knowledge-workers." Note:
Facilitation Technology is Not AI (Artificial Intelligence) Facilitation Technology
is not a substitute for human thinking, and is actually just the opposite of
Artificial Intelligence. The purpose of AI is to automate human thinking in
ways that lead to deterministic answers.
This works well for “routine thinking” that follows a script. Facilitation
Technology uses questions to enhance natural human intelligence by taking the
mind out of scripted thinking patterns and leading to new associations, ideas
and innovations. 6. Full Spectrum Innovation – Eight types of
innovations (TOC) Today, companies need to
think differently about the practice of innovation. It's not just about conceiving the next
breakthrough innovation but rather building an innovation portfolio that
constitutes a full spectrum of all the following 8 types of innovation
opportunities. Each type of innovation
requires its own specific set of processes, tools, and teams who are
systematically engaged in developing that type of innovation. 1. Incremental Productivity
Improvements:
Continuously
find new ways to maximize efficiency. 2. Cost Reduction Innovation:
Eliminate work that is no longer needed. 3. Product & Service Extensions: Add more quality
with minimal or no additional cost. 4. Applied Technology Innovations:
Use existing technologies in different ways to create more value. 5. Next Generation Products &
Services: Develop innovations that leapfrog your
competition. 6. Disruptive innovation:
Find new technologies that supersede established business products and
services 7. Business Process Innovations:
Re-design business processes to reduce costs and add customer value. 8. Sustainable Futures Innovations:
Innovations that balance nature’s resources with consumer demand.
7. Innovation Applications – Putting Theory into Practice (TOC) “The synergy between theory, methods, and
tools lies at the heart of any field of human endeavor that truly builds
knowledge.” - Peter Senge Facilitated
Thinking Environment – Applications. Putting the theory of Facilitation
Technology into practice creates innovative new applications called
Facilitated Thinking Environments (FTEs). FTE applications put in place a
comprehensive environment that surrounds knowledge-workers with the mental
frameworks that delivers within a precise thought process the cognitive tools
needed to boost Knowledge-worker productivity of thought. FTEs can help make
the average worker good, the good become excellent, and the excellent can
attain exceptional levels of innovative thinking. The schematic below depicts a Facilitated
Thinking Innovation Environment (FTE). The FTE is
comprised of the three applications that are designed to systematically
harness creative ideas and support the entire spectrum of
an organization’s innovation needs.
Personal Innovation Application
(TOC) The
personal innovation imperative While Innovation
articles have been telling organizations to “innovate or die”, there has been very little written about the
need for personal innovation. The fact is, sitting
at the very heart of innovation is the individual. And it’s those individuals
who acquire the skills and the companies who encourage individual innovation
who will gain significant competitive advantages. In the new book, The Game Changer,
Procter and Gamble’s CEO A.G.
Lafley warns that if managers and knowledge workers don't make a
commitment to support and practice innovation, they will be left behind by a
world becoming much more innovative. So … whether you like it
or not, innovation is coming to your organization and you might as well get
ahead of the curve instead of playing catch-up. This application helps you do this in the
following ways: Developing an innovation mindset The first step is to acquire an innovation mind-set where you come to
work and ask questions like; "Is there a better way to do things around
here? How can we improve on our products, processes and services?" It's
a mind-set that encourages you to share new ideas and embrace the belief that
you only win as an organization when everyone's brain is engaged. Improving
your job and advancing your career – Learn by doing One of the best ways to
get ahead in your career is to do great work on your current job. An objective is for you to learn innovation by doing
it. The application is designed for
you to take control and make your own job better. It’s not about you suggesting ideas for
others to do something about, but focuses on implementing ideas that you can
do yourself. The application works by guiding your thinking
with a personal innovation process and tools that enables you to find ways
to: improve customer satisfaction, improve quality, reduce costs, and speed
the time it takes to deliver products and services to your customers. In
many respects, it is much like Toyota’s TPS system. Power-up Your
Creativity and Innovation Skills We
all have creative and innovation abilities. For most of us, they either have
not been fully developed or have been lost and need to be reacquired. This application helps you build these
innovation skills.
·
Personal innovation process skills: Just as important as
acquiring innovation skills is knowing how to use
the innovation process. When innovation skills are productively guided, the
results can yield powerful creative and breakthrough ideas. Collaborative
Innovation Application (TOC) In today’s
complex world, no one person is going to have all the answers. Innovation works best like a network, with internal and external
people working together. Like Google’s innovation policy, this application approaches innovation through
self-organizing teams who collaborate directly with each other, rather than
through traditional structures and hierarchies. Workers come together with a
shared vision and goals because they are intrinsically motivated to do so and
seek to collaborate in ways that advance their shared idea. The application
promotes a diverse,
information and interaction rich environment in
the following ways. Focused Innovation: Successful innovation is focused innovation
that directly supports personal or organizational goals. This
application focuses creative thinking on a specific topic or question. It overcomes the inherent problems with
Employee Suggestion Box applications or its modern equivalents: “Idea
Management Systems” that start with great fanfare and communication but run
into problems like these:
Systems
Viewpoint & Knowledge Sharing: Developing innovative solutions in one area that
causes problems in another is NOT innovation … it’s just bad business. Effective
innovation now needs to look at the
whole. But because everything is becoming more interconnected, there are
fewer individuals who are complete experts on any given area. With this informal team approach, people
bring a variety of perspectives and expert knowledge that enables
understanding the whole situation.
This increases the likelihood that multiple ideas will be generated
that considers the situation systematically. It also promotes learning experiences, another advantage of a
collaborative innovation process. Experimentation: Every company’s ability to innovate depends on a series
of experiments [successful or not], that help create new products and
services or improve old ones.
Experimentation to find out what works and doesn’t is now essential
for successful innovation. Within a formal setting these experiments can get very complex and
costly. And, pilot programs for new innovations set the path in stone too
early thus increasing the costs of failure. Informal groups can do quick and
simple experiments that are faster
and less complex. Entrepreneurial spirit: The creation of anything new involves risk and the possibility
of failure. Working on a voluntary informal team makes people
believe in themselves enough to take the prospect of failure head-on and
develops an entrepreneurial spirit that inspires people to become the best
they can be. Collaboration
Skills: The prevailing work in companies is now favoring
collaboration, which means knowledge workers now need collaboration skills.
The application of these skills promotes collaborative thinking tools,
techniques and methods to leverage
people’s collective knowledge, ideas, and wisdom to produce results that
could not be achieved by any one person alone. Collaborative
Innovation Process: Facilitated collaboration helps people
understand the nuances of complex systems by structuring the innovation
process in a way that encompasses all relevant factors, not just the obvious
or convenient ones. Carefully designed and facilitated collaborative
processes leads to much more comprehensive solutions, and in much less time. Organization
Innovation Application (TOC) Ask company executives
how important Innovation is to their company’s success, and you will
generally get a quick positive answer. Ask them to describe what innovation
methods and tools they are using, and you are likely
to get silence or talk about their “innovation culture.” What
are the enterprise innovation Methodologies and Tools in use today? There is a lot of noise in the
marketplace with virtually every consulting company touting everything from
PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) to TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem
Solving) as an enterprise innovation methodology or tool. Internet research
also found the following commonly discussed methods and tools for enterprise
innovation. Methods & Tools used in Innovation
So which of these are the right methods
and tools to use? The answer is ALL of them and NONE of them. NONE of them
because each was designed to address a specific purpose, and it wasn’t innovation. And, ALL of them
because each has parts that are essential for successful innovation. The
solution is a comprehensive Facilitated Thinking Environment (FTE)
specifically designed for enterprise innovation. What
kind of Innovative Thinking is done today? Many people believe that
innovation is simply about creative thinking. But, innovation is a
deceptively complex process that uses many different types of thinking skills
that are generally not found in one person. It goes far beyond creative
thinking and conducting brainstorming sessions. In addition to creative thinking,
innovative thinking uses skills such as the following: Innovative Thinking
Skills Examples
What
is the standard Innovation Process in use today? There
is NONE! While a search of the internet found lots of
hits on the words “Innovation Process”, there was no clear definition. Even
Wikipedia did not have a definition for Innovation Process. And Wikipedia has
become a fairly reliable source of current definitions and thinking about
virtually all topics. What was found in Wikipedia, however, was a definition
for a six step creative Problem Solving Process. So
what are people using? For lack of anything else, many
people simply apply a problem solving process to innovation. This is quite normal because problem
solving is what we have been taught to do. However, as mentioned earlier,
innovation is not about solving problems but about embracing change. Using
problem solving is like using the wrong hammer, but until now it’s been the
only hammer. Bringing
it all together in the Enterprise Innovation Application (FTE). Enterprise innovation is most effective when it's coupled with an institutionalized processes (e.g. GE’s workout sessions) that draws together employees from
different levels and functions. With this application
companies can separate innovation from day-to-day concerns, putting their
best people on it, and ensuring the lines of reporting lead to the chief
executive. The purpose of this
application is to guide “formal” innovation teams using the following 12
steps (task) innovation process to create and turn “quality” ideas into
something of value to customers and profit for the organization. Innovation Process
Note: Each of these process steps (Tasks) has the methods, tools and
questions associated with them. For more information go to www.nthdegreesoft.com/inovation.html. Dennis Heindl is President of Nth Degree Software, Inc. and can be contacted at dj@nthdegreesoft.com or at 414-529-1878.
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