It’s a very, very common dialogue in the work I do as a strategic advisor. The discussion usually starts with a firm citing all the new tools they have purchased and implemented into their firm to “solve the innovation problem.”
It’s clear that the firm has invested and worked hard to build in some strong new ways to accelerate one of the key phases of the cycle, be it idea capture, refinement, testing or scale. The reason I’m involved is that, for a host of reasons, their innovation work has not resulted in the promised increase in core business measurements of revenue, margin and market share.
Why Does This Happen (More Often Than you Might Think)?
These shortfalls have their roots deep in the way we as humans are wired to think: we are drawn to solving the first symptom that presents itself, rather than stepping back and establishing what the specific item is that we need to work on with precision. This shows up in all phases of our lives: who hasn’t been tempted to buy a new bicycle when we really just want some exercise? Or new golf clubs when we want to improve our game?.
The danger in this for our businesses, is that while those one time sporting goods purchases soon collect dust, our investment in business tools and processes consume time, money and resources from the day we make the choice to bring them on board. Without a systems approach to getting results, we move in a direction that actually leaves us further from our goal.
A really interesting quote from the Apollo 13 documentary that led to a blockbuster movie hit was this:
Let’s look at this thing from a… um, from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that’s good? – Gene Kranz
This was in response to the “vapor lock” that the Apollo ground team had early in the crisis. Gene needed to reframe the team’s thinking and push them into systems thinking and diagnosis so they could determine what they had available to them that would work.
Then they moved to solution finding.
Hypothesis-Based Business Process Work
Just as in the Apollo example above, the key to avoiding the investment in otherwise good tools that don’t move the needle is to invest in a good solid diagnostic. When done well, this will provide clarity and span the full set of issues presented by looking at people, process and technology in the system under test. Anchoring your process work with a strong, “if we do x, x, and x we will see y,” will give you the confidence that the hard work of process change is going to be seen on the balance sheet. By using solid and efficient experimentation, you’ll be able to lock in like a laser on the key variables.
The challenging bit to this is that while the initial impulse can seem like it’s obvious and will lead us to exactly what we are looking for, it’s actually taking us in the wrong direction. One common practice that became nearly universal during the quality revolution was a system that would encourage every member of the production floor to submit their ideas to “management” with the promise that they would be reviewed and decided on in a short amount of time. To assure a healthy supply of ideas, a financial incentive was applied for making a recommendation.
It seemed like a great idea – and exactly what we needed in the moment.
In short order, the tech ops support team was swamped with mounds of fragmented ideas that came from hundreds of line technicians. For the line techs, it felt like promises were broken. And for the tech ops staff trying to keep up, it felt like an unending river of distraction.
The solution was to take a step back and have the group get on the same page for a win/win. When we divided the group into collaborative work teams and aligned the work around the short list of joint goals, progress was made and frustration was removed. In fact, these joint teams laid the foundation for huge progress – including the foundation of tools we use in software processes like AGILE.
Getting to a Hypothesis
You probably have already gleaned that the hard part of this is finding the right perspective to unpack the presenting issues and find a suitable framework that will allow the group to make progress. This perspective then forms a platform for the full team to engage and unlocks substantial value. These returns are usually long lasting, since once the team is productively collaborating, they are able to move down the list of items that has been holding back performance for some time.
Getting to these platforms is usually accelerated when you are able to bring an outside viewpoint to the group that can offer insight from other applications and industries. By doing this work collaboratively with the team, there is mutual buy in and the path to implementation is organic and smooth.
I’ve been privileged to work as a right-hand advisor to innovators and their firms for more than 15 years across 20 countries and a dozen business models. If you’d like to discuss you application, please call me at 847-651-1014 or use this link to set up a short call.
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