Category: - Kevin Minne

No Experts Please!

2/24/2017

It turns out the experts are too often not the experts after all. Or if they are really experts, their expertise is often masked by their disruptive delivery! In any innovation exercise there needs to be expertise but no experts, since what you are trying to create is something totally new. Experts tend to require that they get to showcase themselves rather than defer to the synergistic collaboration of the whole group. If something is truly new and novel it would be impossible for anyone to have the experience required to be an expert. Even architects who are the “experts” of building and design are just creating variations of what they already know and operating inside very clearly defined parameters. The most exciting innovation happens when each participant is keenly aware of the need for passion and input from others in order to build something truly unique!
So, when building an innovation team or facilitating one make sure you leave out the experts and bring in expertise!

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

Stop Listening to your Customers!

11/4/2016

Stop listening to your customers and start observing. Paco Underhill's brilliant book “Why We Buy," is filled with hard evidence of shoppers doing the opposite of what they say. And employees often think that more money is a major key to job satisfaction when in reality it’s way down the list. So, just listening without observing can be very misleading! It’s only when you take the time to observe and ask questions in order to really understand the problems customers are trying to solve (rather than the solutions they think they need) that you can invent some really great new solutions!
It’s the innovators job to see through the noise and come up with the innovative solution rather than just produce what the customer says they want. It’s very much like Henry Ford when he said, “if I had asked people what they wanted they would've asked for a faster horse.” But instead of listening to their demands he solved their speed problems and much, much more! Even the late Steve Jobs of Apple fame said “customers don't know what they want until you show them.” (I think most of us can agree with that, since we didn't know we needed an iPad or iPhone until we saw all the great solutions embedded in the device.) Getting to know the problems your customers are facing intimately (both inside and outside your company) will help you do that. There is a reason focus groups flop, many would-be customers think they know what they want but it's the actual shopping experience and the surprises they encounter while in the store that account for the additional sixty percent of purchases that were unplanned. According to Paco we begin to buy when we have an experience with the product as a solution in our minds, then when we touch it we begin to own it even more, long before the monetary transaction takes place.
If you can create a way for customers to try before they buy (begin the experience of owning) before plunking down money you will find you are able to close a lot more sales. Like the car dealership that lets you take home the new car without buying, it's a lot harder to give it up when it's been parked in your garage. The same goes for managers trying to inspire or induce employees to buy in to a new program or system change. Employees who have a chance to experiment with change or new systems before the mandatory rollout are far more likely to embrace and own the change than those who are just asked to trust management and make big leaps of faith.
Again, real research and observation is the key to break through innovation!

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

Machines Don’t Complain….Enough!

8/26/2016

Office politics, infighting, turf wars, they can take up more time and energy than the actual work in the work place! Humans have lots of variables, sometimes we have good days and sometimes not, sometimes we work smart and are very productive other days we barely think at all. These are all reasons that replacing humans with machines can seem so appealing. Machines don't complain they do their work no matter what's going on around them and if you don't like them you can throw them away or sell them. But machines don’t complain enough and that can be a problem!! As painful as complaints can be (I am not talking about whining) they are actually a great source of innovation ideas! Without a complaint or a problem there is nothing for us to fix and we wouldn't know where to start to look for improvement opportunities. Machines are very appealing to those who believe they have reached the pinnacle of process perfection but if your processes need to be flexible and constantly adapt and if you are looking for help with improvement ideas then don’t hire a machine.

In Tom Kelly's book “The Art of Innovation” he shares a brilliant IDEO success tool that is available to all would be innovators, it is just a simple “BUG” list. The IDEO team meticulously add to their long list of things that “BUG” them and this treasure is the spawning ground for many ideas and solutions that have developed into great new innovations. So, as much as we might despise or dislike complainers we need to be grateful for those who are willing to bring attention to the things that bug them because they can be a real boon for innovation. (Try to get that out of a machine!) If we think back through life just about everyone can recall some difficult times that brought about great new learning and insights and the solutions that came from those times are usually some of our most creative moments.

The workplace isn’t just about work it is also about connecting and learning and overcoming adversity and growing and influencing. There’s been many a futurist who has predicted the obsolescence of the modern city because it is so costly and inefficient to bring workers to where the work is. In the information age it's much more cost-effective and efficient to move information (work), with modern communication technologies, to the worker but most of us still spend lots of time and money traveling to and from work. However the social aspect of work is often ignored in these predictions. Machines don't communicate and we humans (in spite of all of our flaws and infighting) are still fascinated with each other and energized and influenced by our interactions. Next time there is disagreement and complaint, bring out your bug list and look for opportunities to improve and innovate!! Start a complaint box and visit it weekly with your team, mining for opportunity!

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

Don't Outsource your Resource!

8/19/2016

"People are your most valuable resource." True or false?? That quote can be found in just about every business text book in print. The problem is, not everyone in business believes it and unfortunately, in many cases there is good reason they don’t. Some managers have even expressed the view that we would be better off if we could replace all workers with machines. Ouch! I don't think machines are the answer but if we really get candid it would read “some people are a company’s most valuable resource…. others, not so much.” The question is, why are some people so valuable and others are not?

To put it quite simply, with the right influences and guidelines people can learn, adapt and grow and their value to the company appreciates over time, whereas machines cannot do any of the above and only depreciate overtime. Also, machines can become obsolete but people can just be retrained and develop new skills.

Quite frankly if a task can be produced mindlessly without any or very little human thought it probably should and eventually will be automated. However, a machine will never imagine new methods that can enhance performance or ways to eliminate work. So, before we go outsourcing all our “automated looking tasks,” think carefully about the potential for innovation in cost savings, process improvement and new product ideas that you're removing from your asset column.

Too often we make the mistake of thinking profits come from production (the more we can produce more money we will make). However, the late great management authority, Peter Drucker contends in his book “Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” that all true profit comes from innovation (production is a part of profit but not the root cause). If that is true, then developing your workforce with innovation tools and skills and redesigning work scopes to include accountability for value adding innovation will have a far greater impact than just eliminating some payroll and adding machines. There’s hardly a task in business that cannot be improved and with consistent focus from people and overtime results can be spectacular.

Now for the “not so valuable worker,” if we only look for production from workers then overtime decline sets in and performance deteriorates. Let’s face it, there is a little lazy in all of us and without a consistent (not once a year) emphasis = (training and development) on growth and improvement we are far more likely to work on auto pilot, get bored and coast.

So, instead of “people are your most important resource,” it should more accurately read, “learning focused and productive innovators are a company’s most valuable resource!”

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

Rocket Boost Redesign! Bring work scope redesign and innovation expertise to your organization and rocket boost your profits!! Click this link to set up a free consultation today!

Home Building Innovation or Motivation?

8/5/2016

Thanks to all of you who gave feedback on the “Housing Identity Crisis” post last week!! The feedback included:

This is good information but doesn’t seem like affordability is a very big problem yet.
The way trades are paid should incentivized them to innovate.
It is the automation that gives auto manufacturing such an enormous advantage.
With all the human pieces from so many different skills it is harder to innovate.

Here is some thoughts to help expand on this feedback.
1. The problem with “not being a big problem yet” is that innovation success is inversely proportional to the urgency (according to Scott D. Anthony, author of “the Little Black Book of Innovation”). Meaning, we think and create better when we are not in a crisis and we may not have the resources available to innovate in a crisis. So, when everything seems to be going well is the best time to try to cannibalize your product or process.

2. Unfortunately, pay incentives have enormous limitations, they have their place but if a person already believes they know the best way to do something or are satisfied with the way things are, they will rarely take a new look. Also, incentives do not create skills, innovation is a learned skill set and unless you have that set of skills on the team the chances of real game changing break throughs are minimal. I am not aware of anyone in the home building industry that is focused on innovation learning and training, especially since builders are depending on the trades to come up with any innovation. Almost all trades are small blue collar contract labor that don’t have an innovation focus or even the ability to produce innovation training. (Whereas Toyota invests heavily in vendor and supplier training.)

3. Certainly automation can and has improved manufacturing productivity but according to Jeffrey K. Liker in his book “the Toyota Way” the biggest improvements have not come from automated machines but from a systematic process of eliminating waste in all aspects of the manufacturing process. Such as, no wasted movements, eliminating defects, minimizing material transport, minimizing inventory, minimizing waiting and maybe most important not wasting worker creativity. We lose time, improvement ideas and learning opportunities when we don’t engage and listen to workers. To my knowledge not one builder has tried to adapt a proven, efficient manufacturing system (such as the Toyota Production System) to building. One successful home builder suggested that some of it might be a matter of more motivation rather than innovation that is needed. He pointed out that shortly after the down turn workers were so hungry that a model home was built in just 6 weeks!!! Wow, that is a 330% improvement in the average cycle time!!! So, it is possible to turn inventory much faster than the average but that was a sprint not a marathon and a sustainable work pace over time is a critical factor. Even an automobile engine can run above red line for a short time with little chance of damage but it isn’t designed to operate safely and effectively at that speed. Motivation is certainly a factor but it might have more to do with managers and builders having the motivation to engage workers, gather valuable ideas and input in order to eliminate waste and design breakthrough products and processes.

4. Innovation is truly a uniquely human capability, machines are incapable of innovation at this time in human history. On the other hand humans are not designed to operate as a machine, with continuous uninterrupted production, we are actually more productive when we stop periodically to create and innovate. Henry Ford learned over a century ago that anything over an eight hour work day brought a decline in productivity and quality, yet very few builders emphasize working hour restraint or encourage family and recreation time.

I would love to hear your ideas on how to solve this problem??? Just click the “comments” right below the “like” or “tweet” icons to add you thoughts.

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

Innovating on the Fringes

7/22/2016

It’s not your mainstream customers that test your processes and help you innovate but those that operate on the fringes of your market. They are the ones that have the new ideas and requirements that will force you to come up with better products and more efficient processes! (If you’re smart enough not to ignore them.)
   Have you ever noticed how much money large corporations waste? It seems like their operations are to big to notice the little things, they can ignore so much waste in one area of the company and yet squeeze huge and painful volume discounts out of their vendors in another. Some mammoth corporations are notorious bully’s who use their size to make extreme pricing demands to stay competitive but do nothing to improve processes. Now certainly there are advantages to scale and volume business models but many times in life and in business being a bully is not the most efficient or the most effective way to do things and it leaves a bad feeling. Being the biggest can be an excuse for not getting better!
   If you follow the history of the big auto manufactures in the world, GM, Ford and Chrysler, all emphasized size and scale as their big advantage, whereas Toyota didn’t have that option especially after World War II. Toyota was essentially operating on the fringes at that stage and since they didn’t have lots of demand they needed lots of product variation and efficiency in order to profitably meet the requirements of the few customers they did have. So scale was not available to them as an advantage and rather than being the bully, like the american manufactures, they focused on learning and creating more efficient and flexible processes and eliminating waste. Which, is what really makes a company profitable. Once they created a speedy quick manufacturing process (two days to mfg. a car) they turned to design, then sales and so on. Meanwhile as the american auto manufacturers continued to focus on cost cutting and moving their manufacturing off shore to find cheaper labor, the Toyota corporation was moving manufacturing to the US and operating profitably here. They could do this because the Toyota Production System (TPS), not price bullying was winning.
   Just remember there’s freedom on the fringe. You know, out there on the edge, where you are in touch with the customer and the little details and can work away from the central command and control. It’s where you can get things done without anybody noticing or meddling before your idea is ready. It is where success hasn’t made you and your processes rigid. The advantage of being small and operating on the fringe only comes when you are willing to continuously learn and innovate and not just copy the big guys. Focus on the small details that the big guys just ignore or can’t see. If you can do that then you will eventually be really ready to take on the big guys!

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

Brexit the Biggest Strategic Spinoff in History

7/8/2016

More lessons for business from Brexit. The British exit from the European Union is still headline news but soon it won’t be and then only time and many new strategic decisions will tell if it was a good choice. Anyone who has left the safety and security of a large corporate paycheck to launch out on their own knows it’s scary but also invigorating to jump, yet that doesn’t make leaving a good choice. It is only a good choice to jump if there is a real vision and strategy to create new value. If the European Union is just a sinking ship and the Brits were just the first to jump it doesn’t make them much safer. In the corporate world it's not unusual to hear about great new product ideas that flounder and never really get off the ground until they are spun off from the mother ship and then there is an explosion of growth and value. Think of the Bell telephone breakup and how it unlocked an explosion of new products, services and market value or when Pepsi divested itself of it’s restaurant chains to form Yum Brands. The question for business and Britain is how do spin off’s unlock the value that is somehow hidden or stifled by the mother ship?
      One opportunity to unleash value independently is just a simple matter of sales. By “sales” I mean trying to sell the same executive team on giving your valuable product or marketing idea the scarce human and/or capital resources it needs to really take off. While under the control of the mother ship there is only one place to shop for resources and if the top brass just don’t share the value vision there’s no where else to go. Independently, ideas have options and they don’t have to be sold to one person or team. If it really is a great idea you can usually find a champion.
   Another opportunity comes in the form of accountability, the old saying of together we can do more isn’t always accurate, lots of small boats make more captains than one giant ship and captains get credit for capturing the loot. More small boat captains also can make better micro decisions and adapt quicker to market changes in their pond. There is certainly something energizing and focusing about being completely accountable and not under the protective umbrella of HQ. There is also something very suffocating about having someone up three levels get all the credit.
   Another advantage of independence is identity. The term “European Union” doesn’t bring up pictures of the Union Jack waving from the top sail or tea time or London Tower, it is too convoluted to bring up any inspirational image. A product like a computer is an empty identity but an Apple computer has an inspiring image and character. Having a unique identity and reputation that people really own is actually really, really BIG.
   So, if you want to unlock your value think like a spin off… after the spin off (think outside the box ship) and create a strategy for unfettered growth in turbulent times. With markets and demand becoming far more fickle it makes less sense to be big.

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

Brexit, What it Means for Your Business

7/1/2016

It's hard to read anything about finance or international politics without bumping into the British exit from the European Union. Contrary to what some believed it certainly did have an immediate impact on financial markets and very likely will continue to have an impact long term. It may even have ignited a trend in the EU and elsewhere. Even though it might seem far away and irrelevant to your business (after all it's just international politics and global finance) it's not, and there might be valuable lessons for innovators.
The Big lesson is that bigger is not always better, as unelected officials made decisions from a distance it seems that they lost touch with their real customer, the British people! The citizens wanted a government that was more responsive to their input and to have a bigger voice in how they were governed. In other words, they wanted more product features that met their specific needs. In government as with business one size rarely fits all. Eliminating service options might be more efficient and cost effective but it may also cause us to underserve or lose key customers, since the one size product offering often doesn’t fit anyone very well. We can see this tendency in numerous industries and maybe none are more noticeable than banking. Studies have shown that small banks are far more effective at meeting niche needs than big, yet we have seen a massive consolidation of banks to where now there are just a few who get labeled “too big to fail”. This move is not about safer banking or serving the customer better. Tom Peters, the author of “the Pursuit of Wow” once said, big isn’t always bad, it’s just highly suspect.
Toyota fights big by acting small, they work extremely hard to increase manufacturing capabilities so they can offer more product features without losing efficiencies in order to satisfy more specific customer needs. The closer we get to customers the more detail we will see and understand about their needs and that is what enables, nimble adaptation and innovation. Stay close to your people (customers and employees) so they won’t vote a Brexit on you!

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

Innovator Differentiator

6/24/2016

No one pays a premium for something common. Commodities are priced the same all over the world and usually we can buy them anywhere. So, if we are content (or resigned) to always be a commodity producer we will have to compete on price and live with lower profit margins. If however, we are obsessed with gaining a premium for our commodity product then we have find a way to differentiate it so much, that it becomes uncommon. Nike turned sneakers into a fashion accessory, Fedex turned package delivery into overnight speedy fast delivery, Dominos turned pizza into pizza delivered to your door, Burger King gave us special order hamburgers, Toyota engineered their process to cut cycle time and simultaneously allow for specialization and order flexibility and Starbucks gave coffee with bling and a smile.
Even if most of what you deliver to customers is intangible products such as a service like security or information or insight then your process can still be a differentiator. Google certainly has a unique product but how they continue to build new value into their business has a lot to do with their differentiated work process. Their on campus cafe’s make networking and collaboration much more automatic, on campus exercise and sports facilitate better employee health and more focused and creative brain function and of course fun actually increases blood flow to the brain and that is when we perform at our best. Atlassian Software has “Ship It days”(click for link), where you have 24 hours to gather a team and collaborate to solve a big hairy problem or create a new product that will be ready to ship…..in 24 hours. Every quarter this contest happens and it generates incredible ideas, energy and collaboration. Even though there is one winner, everyone feels like they win and the company certainly does. The number of company products and projects that come from these events is astounding!

Things to ask when evaluating the effectiveness of your internal processes as a differentiator:

Do our work process include events that ignite creativity and collaboration?
Is there a spirit of enthusiastic team problem solving and ideation?
Are people trained and empowered to take initiative or do they wait on centralized command?
Are your processes gaining new flexibilities and capabilities to adapt to changing customer demand?

If you are not able to answer yes to at least three of these questions you are probably using an undifferentiated commodity process.

All of these companies mentioned entered commodity markets with a twist on commodity products and services that commanded a premium profit. What these companies have in common is that they made “Process Innovation” their key differentiating strategy. In other words HOW they created and delivered was more important than WHAT they created and delivered.
What’s your twist?

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

Great Leaders are Innovators

6/17/2016

Innovation isn't limited to large lumpy stuff you can touch, it’s a drive to improve and that applies even to leadership. It may be that all you do is lead and direct operations, sales teams, company strategy, training etc. and you are driven to improve the effectiveness or your communication, direction and collaboration, then you my friend are a leadership innovator. Great leaders are always looking for ways to improve what they do and who they are and not just reactively respond to the events of the day and and be satisfied with the status quo. Abraham Lincoln once said “I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”
   One of the key characteristics of “Leadership Innovators” is that they are very aware of their own flaws first and start improvements there, they even solicit feedback from their direct reports for help, whereas managers are oblivious to their flaws and more concerned with the control or micro-management of others. Leadership innovators are aware of and immersed in the study of what inspires and what discourages individuals and groups, they are constantly learning about and experimenting with ways to help teams work more effectively together and to serve customers better.
   For example: the human tendency is to respond to the loudest complaint, (as in "the squeaking wheel gets the grease”) even though those that complain first rarely represent the crowd. Our reactive tendency is to give credibility to the loudest rather than the silent majority. Knowing this human tendency can help us improve our leadership by soliciting more input from a wider audience before responding. When leading and directing from a distance (one of the most difficult roles to be in) it is absolutely imperative that leaders be even more thorough in gathering a broad range of input in order to form a more accurate picture, since there is no visual and physical interaction with the project, the team or the individuals. For example: if we haven't been to a remote job site to observe what is going on and the customer (or disgruntled co-worker) calls to complain, we are more likely to give the complaint complete credibility rather than do the work and have a conversation with our crew (or other co-workers).
   The absolute greatest way to lead is still though example! If leaders are constantly innovating and improving their own methods and interactions it will have a far greater impact on their followers than any set of detailed instructions or innovation memo or threats of discipline. If leaders leave a glaring personal or professional process flaw unresolved it will discourage an entire company of followers. We still listen with our eyes and follow what we see not what we hear. So, the next time we need to inspire co-workers or followers or customers…..be that consistent example of continuous improvement and be a Leadership Innovator! And get your ducks in a row!

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