Brain storming and divergent thinking is paramount to creating great solutions.  It insures that numerous rather than just a few possibilities are considered and that different variations of core ideas are vetted.  However, too often there is not enough time and effort given to this phase of the innovation sequence.  The tendency is to come up to a seemingly great idea and quickly jump to the convergent phase and lock in on a solution but by doing this too soon you sabotage the eventual solution launch. The often overlooked benefit of staying in the divergent/idea generation phase longer, is that it builds the energy that is so vital for the successful launch that comes from the convergent, focused phase of the innovation sequence.  It’s like blowing more air into the balloon before you let it go flying around the room.  So stay in the divergent ideation phase longer and your time and energy won’t be wasted, it will actually be captured and harnessed!

By: Kevin Minne
InnovationGrowthSystems.com
720-354-0291

One of the most common practices in a majority of businesses is to just pair the new hire with a fellow employee (who hopefully has more job experience) to provide on the job training (OJT) to get them going.  This practice is expected to provide the necessary technical skills and company procedures to ensure that the employees work practices are in line with their co-workers and it is usually just a one way conversation.  Often this is all a new hire gets along with a brief orientation from HR.  When in reality, technical skills and company procedures aren’t even close to what makes a business thrive.  Day one, is the most important day for any new hire and how employers spend that day will send the most powerful message if what matters most.  The only truly sustainable competitive advantage any business can have is a culture of trust and collaboration that will in turn inspire worker productivity, continuous improvement and innovation.  Culture comes first and if you don’t get that right the productivity and innovation will always be lacking.  Take for instance, what one company, “Cliff Bar,” considers their core responsibility to their workers.

Employer Responsibilities:

1. Invest in peoples lives beyond their desk or jobs.
2. Create a safe and inspiring work environment where people can be themselves so community can flourish.
3. Help people live healthy active lives.
4. Put our companies in service to things that matter to our communities and our people.

With goals like that you have to ask how a day or two or even a week of OJT with a co-worker could ever accomplish them.  Starbucks employees receive a minimum of 50 hours of class room training as well as much home work in addition to their OJT in just the first year of employment.  Other great companies with great cultures invest even more to onboard and instill the right values.  OJT cannot ensure a consistent portrayal of company culture and values nor does it serve as proof of the company’s investment in and commitment to building value into each workers career and home life.  If people are truly a company’s most valuable resource then treat them like an investment that will give more with the more you give!!

“Focus on the core” is the management fad that has been around now for quite awhile but what does it really mean and is it really the silver bullet some think it is?  Focusing on your core strength might actually be the wrong strategy for many businesses and here’s why.  There are times when your core might become obsolete, like in the case of Kodak film.  They focused on their core right into bankruptcy.  Another disadvantage of focusing just on your core is that it limits the new learning that comes from trying something totally different.  Often great insights come from something way outside your normal circle.  Trying new things is what keeps business and life fresh and exciting.  A never ending quest for market share can dull a business quicker than just about anything.  And last but not least, we are capable of having more than one strength, we just need to develop them.  

When Apple opened their first Apple store in 2001 there were many skeptics that thought, with so few products it is too narrow of an appeal, it just won't work.  It also happened when electronics retailers were on the decline and after all what did Apple know about retail stores?  But somehow Apple pulled off a big win and approximately 14 years into the “experiment” they have the most profitable retail space per square foot in America!  Not only that but it has magnified and promoted their brand in ways that were unimaginable before the Apple store. 

It might seem logical to outsource something that is not your core strength but not if it needs to be.  For instance, retail sales was not Apples strength and it may not be yours but it may provide an opportunity for you to clarify product differentiation and promote brand value better than any other way and therefore it needs to be in-house and not outsourced.  Think of all your business processes and determine if you know of a unique product or process that is more effective, cheaper and/or faster than what subcontractors can or are willing to produce.  If you do have an insight on some part of the business you don’t currently control, it might be a big innovation game changer to bring it in house and make it one of your strengths. 

It’s pretty obvious that every industry is a little bit and sometimes a lot different.  What works in one may not work in another and so on.  But sometimes there really are universal truths about certain aspects of business that can be applied across a wide spectrum of industries and produce very similar outcomes.  Having a template or a theory that can organize and focus learning rather than step by step answers can be very useful to help simplify the design and implementation process and eliminate the time and expense of reinventing the wheel for each business and industry.   Knowing the the right questions to ask can be far more useful than trying to implement a set of answers that may not work in your business or industry or be obsolete.  Former General Electric CEO says that learning faster is the key to staying ahead of the competition.  So, if you can accelerate and focus your learning you are going to be able to get better answers for your business and take action quicker.  Just remember that the answers for any business are temporary. Markets change, technology changes workers change and customers change so don’t fall in love with your answers.  There is one element that just about every business and industry has in common and that is people.  People are still the most valuable asset in any business but there are no easy answers about working with people.  However, there are some universal truths that need to be learned about the people that work in any organization in order for there to be an effective allocation of those resources and maximum development and output.   Business leaders need to be constantly learning about their workers needs and desired rewards for their work and where they will be the best fit within the organization in order to gain the most engagement and professional development.  Too often we look to incentivize workers to do what we want rather than finding out where their intrinsic motivation lies and finding the work that aligns with that.  That is when the organization will truly benefit the most from their workers and when the workers will likewise be the most fulfilled and developed.  

So, the “plug and play” is to plug into a learning template about your unique workforce and pretty soon you will have far more resources and talents to play with than you would ever have if you just dictate what you want from each.

There are so many benefits to being small in business.  You can respond faster, change faster, less overhead, more personal so that workers feel needed, You are closer to the customer and the list goes on and on.  However, the down side can be that small businesses are less likely to innovate and here are some of the reasons why:  

1. Small  business owners are notorious for being so busy and focused on production that they don’t have time or inclination to innovate.  It’s hard to break away from production to focus on innovation especially when you are a team of one or two.  

2. Innovation works best when there is lots of input from many diverse perspectives.  Most small business owners only see those on their payroll as possible sources of innovative input rather than including business partners and customers in the mix. 

3. Innovation is not a direct path to cash.  It takes vision, intuition,  patience and discipline to take time away from what is currently paying the bills and give it to a “maybe” in the future.  This is especially true if there isn’t much extra cash available for that kind of investment.  However, even great cash rich companies like General Electric don’t just plunk down the cash for investing in innovation first and ask questions later.  The current head of General Electric Jeff Immelt worked very hard to streamline company operations and simplify back office processes so that he would have cash available for “Imagination Break Throughs” (his term for innovation focus).  

So, there is certainly an order to being able to create break through innovation in a business.  It starts with scheduling time to get innovative input from your now enlarged team and being specific about where you are looking for improvement ideas.  Again, a great area to start zeroing in your teams innovative input is greater simplicity of operations so that time and mental capacity is freed up for bigger innovation.  Once you begin to focus on the goal of making innovation a consistent source of products and profits your process will become normal and even habit forming.  So, for you reluctant small business owners, think like a big company and remember innovation can improve production.

4. Have an easter egg style innovation hunt where members or employees hunt for innovative ideas outside your business or industry that might be brought back and applied within.

Opening the blinds.  The difference between this step and the 1st step is that it brings focus to ideas outside your industry not just outside your company.  There is an arrogance in some industries about where ideas need to come from, in essence they have closed the blinds to the outside world.  If it’s not invented inside their industry or company then it doesn’t apply or isn’t good enough.  Some people wrongly believe that you must have lots of experience in one industry to really understand its problems.  That belief has been proven false over and over.  In fact it is exactly the opposite.  If all you have experienced is one industry, your vision and perspective will be limited.  Over time our mind creates boundaries and rules for thinking and the longer we operate within those boundaries the more  permanent they become until eventually we cannot see outside those boarders.  Since our mind creates connections and associations from our personal experiences to form new perspectives, it is to our benefit to have a broad range of perspectives to draw from.  The larger and more diverse your mental warehouse of experiences, the higher the number of potential associations and new ideas you will have.

So, the key to this step is to cultivate curiosities outside your industry, open the blinds and go hunting for ideas that you can bring back into your industry.  This is not a best practices or bench marking within your industry exercise!

And of course, make it fun and make it focused on solving real challenges.  Happy hunting!

Step 3.  Set aside a time in each meeting for innovation focus.  

There are few tools more powerful and effective than a razor sharp focus.  Many businesses and individuals have lots of capabilities and talents but they are spread too thin with too many agendas to truly accomplish much.  Distractions weaken and dissipate our energy whereas focus concentrates our energy.  When executives make it clear what they are focused on it directs the energies and creativity of the entire organization.  If over half of the meeting is spent on innovation it will be clear what the company priorities are.  With constant focus and attention on one thing a company can create habits and habits create a company culture.  Former CEO of Alcoa, Paul O'Neill showed us the transformational power of focus when safety became his number one priority.  The company wide habits formed through that one priority influenced and improved so many other business systems.  Laser and dogmatic focus and on innovation will ignite your teams.