What does innovation look like?
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
innovate
Make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products: ‘the company's failure to diversify and innovate competitively’
Introduce (something new, especially a product): ‘we continue to innovate new products’
innovation
The action or process of innovating: ‘innovation is crucial to the continuing success of any organization’
A new method, idea, product, etc.: ‘technological innovations designed to save energy’
Source: Oxford English dictionary
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So, senior management team has asked all staff to think of things that are "innovative" and submit them. I'm skeptical. Do they really want innovative ideas or are they seeking a new shiny? Quick wins from not too much work that look and make everybody feel good?
I don't give a hoot about shiny. I'm surrounded by shiny. I have more shiny innovative products in my pocket, my backpack, and on my desk than I know what to do with. (But don't you dare take any away! Plus the new *** is out next week…). A quick coat of paint is easy. I'm interested in real change, structural innovation.
Real innovation is about solving problems, not having ideas. Solve inconvenience, the things people complain about every day, the little annoyances all around. Solve ineffeciency, the corporate credit card keeps an accurate record of all purchases, but we still have to save paper receipts for expense reports [and print the only-digital ones]. Solve your own [deep] problems. Talk to people about what’s bothering them – trust me, they’ll tell you, but be sure to question what they say in order to truly understand them. Sometimes what people say they want is only a small part of what they really need.
Paraphrased from <http://www.hugeinc.com/ideas/perspective/real-innovation-is-about-solving-problems>
That article is about entrepreneurial innovation, selling new products and services. We're not a company, the suggestions are a loose fit, though still good thoughts to reflect on. So what does real innovation at the organizational level look like?
A real company, manifesting real innovation. Operating with thousands of people, hundreds of million dollars, and lots of divisions in many offices and cities. A few quotes from their journey, which began in 1982:
…look at retirement, the whole issue of how we distribute our graph of life. Instead of going mountain climbing when you're 82, why don't you do it next week?
…we'll sell you back your Wednesdays for 10 percent of your salary [we sort of due this with flex time, so +1]
…we don't want anyone to be a leader in the company if they haven't been interviewed and approved by their future subordinates. Every six months, everyone gets evaluated, anonymously, as a leader. This determines whether they should continue in that leadership position ….if they don't have 70, 80 percent of a grade, they don't stay
…why can't people set their own salaries? What do they need to know? There's only three things you need to know: how much people make inside the company, how much people make somewhere else in a similar business and how much we make in general to see whether we can afford it. So let's give people these three pieces of information. … in the cafeteria, a computer where you could ask what someone spent, how much someone makes, what they make in benefits, what the company makes, what the margins are, and so forth
…we don't want to see your expense report, we don't want to know how many holidays you're taking, we don't want to know where you work. … go to the office that's closest to your house, to the customer that you're going to visit today. Don't tell us where you are. And more, even when we had thousands of people, 5,000 people, we had two people in the H.R. department
…how can we be taking care of people? People are the only thing we have. We can't have a department that runs after people and looks after people
…How we design, how do we organize, for more wisdom?
…let's agree that you're going to sell 57 widgets per week. If you sell them by Wednesday, please go to the beach. Don't create a problem for us … because you sold too many widgets. Go to the beach and start again on Monday.
…we wanted to be truly democratic about the way we ran things. So our board had two seats open with the same voting rights, for the first two people who showed up. …so we had cleaning ladies voting on a board meeting, which had a lot of other very important people in suits and ties. And the fact is that they kept us honest.
…the fact is that it takes a leap of faith about losing control. And almost nobody who is in control is ready to take leaps of faith.
… "why do we exist?" There is no other question. Nobody has any other question. We have variations of this one question, from three onwards. …how many people do you know who on their death beds said, boy, I wish I had spent more time at the office? So there's a whole thing of having the courage now -- not in a week, not in two months, not when you find out you have something -- to say, no, what am I doing this for? Stop everything. Let me do something else. And it will be okay, it will be much better than what you're doing, if you're stuck in a process.
So ask me again about innovation.
Know what I want? People who listen to the story of my work-life annoyances, the myriad inconveniences and inefficiencies and problems we wend our way through and around every week and then do something about it. That's what I want. Actually I don't even want a big vague them to do something about it. I just want to be empowered to enact and work on the things I already know that can improve things around here.