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Finding the right box—innovation success is constraint-based

February 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some people are shoppers, some people are spendthrifts, and some people are hoarders. The same can be held true for companies. Some companies are acquisitive, some are profligate, and some hoard resources. There is a special breed of company that chooses to hoard intellectual property—whether they use it or not—or hoards data without thinking about its purpose. Information is only useful when used, and much of it has a surprisingly short shelf-life. A company that is demonstrably hoarding, Generate Company—an innovation-focused consulting firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota—has taken to hoarding innovation processes. Not happy with creating and disseminating their own processes, they are now collecting them on a grand scale and brokering them. The end result is an innovation database with the superlative title “The World Database of Innovation.” Thank goodness they are not driven to hyperbole.

Setting aside the relative value of such a database for the time being, one very interesting piece of information has bubbled to the surface as a result of this information hoard. It seems that among the 163 different processes for innovation that have been accounted for thus far, common to those that have verifiable data points is that constraints are a significant factor in success. Based on their analysis of the information in their database records, scarcity of resources shows up as the single strongest driver of innovation within organizations in general. The power of constraints raises its head yet again.

Not all constraints are the same
The problem is all inside your head
She said to me
The answer is easy if you
Take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle
To be free…
There must be fifty ways
To leave your lover
- Paul Simon “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”

For most organizations, the definition of constraints is usually confined to time, cost, and resources, but there are two other more powerful constraints to be considered at the outset of any innovation efforts: 1) constraint created when we define the challenge we will address, and 2) the constraint created when we define the opportunity we will target. These constraints are anchored in the strategic intent of our organization and in our will to achieve that intent. They lie at the intersection of what we want to do and what we will actually do. This intersection is often a gray area in organizations, filled with miscommunication, poor decisions, and limited attention spans.

Where most organizations get wrapped up in attempting to balance their competing operational constraints is in the direct management and enforcement of the imbalance among constraints, where much of innovation lies. The simple fact remains that if any one constraining factor changes, at least one other constraint will be affected. If the schedule for development is shortened, then the budget will likely need to be increased. If additional features are added, then the risks associated with releasing the product to market will increase, too. Each choice we make is a reflection of the associated constraints within which we manage. But a constraint is also something we can react against. A constraint can provide a foundation for pushing us in a new direction.

An artist faced with a blank canvas, access to all the materials and colors of paint she could possibly desire, and as much time as she wants, will likely find herself unhinged by the freedom if asked to paint whatever she chooses. The range of outcomes is infinite in this setting. If a single choice is made, however, such as a determination on who the painting is for, automatically provides the artist with a frame of reference within which to work. Regardless of the subsequent choices she makes, that first choice of constraint by the artist will directly inform all subsequent outcomes and her eventual success.

Powered by the right constraints
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clark

The same can be said in product or service development when there is an ill-defined customer or market. In this situation, the product development team, or innovation group, will find itself floundering. Without a clearly defined customer, there is no one to build for, no problem to define and design against, and no way to assess whether or not you have successfully addressed a need. Yet when you look out at the range of products and services available, you might find yourself asking, “Who the heck was this intended for?” The constraint of a specific customer need is missing in action. Design and development efforts disconnected from customer need leads to products in search of a buyer.

A poorly identified customer may wreak more havoc on an initiative than any lack of funds or resources ever could, because it leaves innovation efforts untethered. Without anything to anchor new concepts to, any and all concepts will be satisfactory (or correspondingly unsatisfactory) and the only measure of success will be whether or not the effort is validated in the marketplace through sales. Determining success will be hit or miss, because even the absence of sales doesn’t necessarily mean that the effort is not useful to someone—it simply means that the market was not discovered or defined before an effort was expended.

The absence of a clearly defined target customer also upends the usefulness of managing resource and time constraints. Why bother limiting use when the stakes are so low? Why spend at all? All of which leaves us in the unenviable position of defending the indefensible and delivering the useless. Not exactly the best way to add value, is it?

Joy of constraints
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.
- Igor Stravinsky

Rather than being dismayed by constraints, those determined to innovate must learn to, if not love, then at least embrace them. By embracing constraints and recognizing the value of limits, the effort to overcome them may yield surprising results. Consider the perennial favorite example of those who have a deep and abiding passion for innovation—Steve Jobs. His intense dislike of buttons (he finds them aesthetically unappealing) has driven consumer product innovation in surprising ways.

Four years ago, prior to the release of the iPhone, Mr. Jobs’ dislike of buttons became something of fetishistic side dish in the hoopla over the game-changing nature of that device. It was perhaps most clearly on display when Mr. Jobs unveiled the remote control for Front Row, the media center software for Apple TV, when he reveled in the simplicity of the Apple remote and compared it on a presentation slide to a large, ugly complex remote with more than 40 buttons. “I don’t know that there has ever been a slide that captures what Apple’s about as much as this one,” Mr. Jobs said at the time.

This dislike led to a design constraint, which then led to some remarkable changes in the accepted way we interact with our personal digital devices. We are moving from hunting and pecking on tiny, ill-formed keyboards to swiping, flicking, and wiping our way into and through the information available to us on our nearly buttonless devices. The contact we make today may disappear into the ether, too, with the fast-approaching wave of gestural input-controlled devices, if the most recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is any indication. All because one man with a love of black turtlenecks (if ever there was a design cliché) hates buttons.

Constraints are not our enemy. They are a fact. We can choose to endure them and use them for our purposes, or let them define our efforts in entirely negative ways. Define your purpose in relation to your intended customer and define your outcome in terms of their needs—in so doing, you can move the goalposts and change the nature of the competitive landscape. Make a sandbox of your own devising and discover the creativity inherent in constraints.

How are constraints defined in your organization? How might you make better use of your constraints?

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Resource Acquisition: beg, borrow, steal or bargain, rent, reuse—innovation resources are a matter of mindset

January 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For those coping with the annoyance or pain of resource scarcity, it is required that they go on the hunt. Some people think that in order to get a thing done any means necessary might be used. “By any means” usually causes more damage and heartache than success. Rather than begging, borrowing, or stealing, what if a more expansive approach was adopted? By avoiding zero sum or negative stakes game-playing, a more successful path to addressing the need for resources might be followed.

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
- William Shakespeare

Beg or bargain
I wish I could stand on a busy street corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours.
- Bernard Berenson

In its most simple form, begging is requesting a donation in a supplicating manner. It places the person requesting resources in a submissive position and creates an unhealthy power dynamic which is not conducive to the spirit of innovation. The issue with begging when seeking resources for innovation efforts is that it devalues both the effort and the outcome. The one-sided exchange that begging represents actually has a detrimental effect on the ability of the team working to produce an innovation, too. It can be demoralizing and can de-energize the pursuit of breakthrough ideas. A better alternative is to bargain, which may mean that the exchange will take on a much more dynamic quality.

Bargaining is an alternative strategy for acquiring needed resources. Optimally, if it costs the provider nothing to engage and allow bargaining, they can position themselves for either present service or future benefit. It allows for capturing hidden organizational or operational surplus as it allows value discrimination, a process whereby a provider can “charge” at a higher rate to those who are most eager (or more desperate) to use their resources. Haggling may be a part of the bargaining experience, but a better alternative is to use a bargaining approach that accounts for and supports common interests.

Integrative bargaining (also called “interest-based bargaining” or “win-win bargaining”) is a negotiation approach in which parties collaborate to find a win-win solution to their dispute. This strategy focuses on developing mutually beneficial agreements based on the interests of the parties providing and seeking resources. Interests include the needs, desires, concerns, and fears important to each side. They are the underlying reasons why people become involved in a conflict, and integrative bargaining seeks to neutralize them by balancing needs across a time continuum.

In this way a resource-poor innovation team can gain access to things that may have been previously unattainable. Another alternative is to “rent” the resource required.

Borrow or rent
A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent(ed).
- Seneca (rented to fit)

Those of you not on the East Coast of the United States the day after Christmas Day (aka Boxing Day) missed “Snowpocalypse 2010.” At least, that’s what the local news media wanted to call it after over a foot of snow (more in some places) was dropped. To say that it put a crimp in post-holiday plans, for example returning home, would be putting it mildly. And as someone, among many, who had to dig through a few feet of snow to clear footpaths and restore access to pedestrians and automobiles alike, I found myself wishing for a better way.

Regardless of the impacts of global climate change, we can expect to experience about one or two severe storms in a given season where I live. If I was foolish with my money (I try not to be) and in love with loud and expensive gadgets (I have weaned myself off them), I would have taken this storm as a sign that I need to purchase a snow blower. For those of you in warmer climes, a snow blower does exactly what its name suggests. It takes snow from one place and blows it someplace else, essentially making the snow someone else’s problem. Think of it like a wood chipper on wheels or a lawn mower without a bag—in its place is a spout that sounds the snow flying. All good fun.

Snow blower-less, I was left with limited alternatives: dig and keep digging, rely on the kindness of snow blower-owning neighbors to share, or go rent a snow blower for the day. Given that the rush on snow blower rentals was likely high (and I was a day late and a dollar short), the only options left to me were kind neighbors and my own brawn. Thank goodness the kindness of neighbors prevailed and my digging was somewhat lessened.

The choices we face as innovators are somewhat similar when our resources are tight. We can muscle our way through as best we are able. Often the end result is a longer effort and a poorer-quality output. Or we can rely on the kindness of others to provide support or material, but that usually is at their whim or disposition. Borrowing always leaves us open to question. A better choice is to plan for the resource shortfall and respond accordingly by scheduling your rental of the required resources.

More often than not, flexible, time-bound, contracted resources can meet our needs better than we might anticipate. An example of this is the abundance of application development in the App areas on the iPhone/iPad ecosystem, the Google Android Apps Market, or BlackBerry’s App World. There simply aren’t enough developers on these platforms to create the range of apps as fast as desired if they were all to reside as employees inside the companies who want their creative output. Instead, these developers have mostly formed cooperative project teams focused on delivering apps on a per contract basis for third-party clients. They are the quintessential “guns for hire.”

By using this kind of resource, what first appeared as limits are soon realized as assets. You now have access to the latest development methods, you can pick and choose from the best developers in your price point, and you can build new products and services without adding large overhead to your operation. Renting doesn’t seem like such a bad idea now, does it?

Steal or reuse
We won’t even begin to consider building a case for stealing. It is simply an inappropriate (and illegal) method for addressing your resource shortfalls. Instead, we should consider the concept of reuse.

Two recent books have made a compelling case for reuse as a worthwhile pursuit that can certainly fuel innovation. The case they make is not necessarily to address any shortage of resources; mostly it is to prevent the needless waste of resources by acquiring things for which we will have limited use. The first book is Mesh: Why the future of business is sharing by Lisa Gansky. The second is What’s Mine is Yours: The rise of collaborative consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers.

Gansky tackles the value of sharing as a way to supplant rampant consumerist tendencies, many of which fueled the recent global credit binge and subsequent (no so) Great Recession. In her view, “mesh” companies use social media, wireless networks, and the abundance of readily available data from a multitude of sources to create goods and services at the exact moment they are needed—and without needing to own them outright. For Gansky, it’s all about helping your customers buy less but use more. She cites Zipcar, the car share program, and Kickstarter, the artist and design funding network, as two models of the mesh principle at play.

In What’s Mine is Yours, Botsman and Rogers explore the changing face of consumerism (which may have profound consequences for those of us in the innovation space—but more on that another time). The authors see a growing dissatisfaction with people who perceive they are being treated as robotic consumers manipulated and made voracious by marketing. They see the beginning of people turning more and more to models of consumption that “emphasize usefulness over ownership, community over selfishness, and sustainability over novelty.” What drives this new behavior is the enabling technology of the internet and social media in particular to create networks of shared interests, a spin on the communities of practice model in learning organizations, and the establishment of trust in unknown people as a viable currency addition to simplify the logistics of collective use.

In both these books we see the early stages of ways in which we can release ourselves from the limits and restrictions forced on us by resource constraints. Reusing resources in new and meaningful ways after they have already had a useful life in another’s hands creates a remarkable abundance just waiting to be tapped.

Which brings us to the key questions: If resource constraints and scarcity are not the major impediments to innovation that we believe them to be, why do we treat them as such? And why beg, borrow, or steal when bargaining, renting, and reusing can get us just as far (or further) without the associated pain?

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Resource Poverty: cash-strapped bootstrapping your way to innovation success

January 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The concept of bootstrapping, to finance your company’s growth with the assistance of or input from others rather than a large capital outlay, has for years primarily referred to startups. Today, with economic pressures continuing unabated (see below), the concept of bootstrapping is being adopted by organizations of all sizes and structures. Resource poverty is the order of the day, and an austerity mindset is being incorporated into all facets of organizational life. The area of innovation is certainly no exception. But things certainly aren’t as dire as the dog’s fate in the old nursery rhyme:

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard,
To give the poor dog a bone:
When she came there,
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.
- From “Old Mother Hubbard”

Living in a world of hurt—some features and constraints of resource poor-systems and enterprises.
Characteristics of resource-poor enterprises:
- Meager holdings or access to physical assets
- Little or no capital
- Few market/customer opportunities
- Income strategies are varied and complex
- Complex and diverse systems in fragile environments

Constraints to which resource-poor enterprises are exposed:
- Heterogeneous and erratic environments
- Market failures
- Institutional gaps
- Public good biases
- Low access to land and other resources
- Inappropriate technologies

The challenge is not to conjure the new and improved by plucking elements out of thin air, but to endeavor to use all available resources, especially those previously unconsidered, to produce innovation. The bootstrapper’s mindset is a valid way for business leaders and employees to treat valuable resources at any stage of their business’s growth. Not having many resources also means using what is available in a careful and judicious manner. The measure of successful bootstrapping will be the value created. One of the key traits of this approach is to seemingly turn it on its head and seek ways to frame the current resource situation in terms of abundance.

What does that look like, I hear you ask?

Thinking of abundance
The appetites and passions of man are also modified, making them do and want what is more in conformity with their environing conditions. Each new want limits the field in which old appetites dominated, and the great variety of new impulses soon bring the old under control.
- Simon Patten

One of the earliest advocates for pursuing an attitude of abundance was Simon Patten, a professor of economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century. Patten sought to justify his conviction that men (and at that time he would almost certainly, unfortunately, only have considered men) could create and sustain an age of abundance by developing appropriate restraints. He was an early believer in the enforcement of contract laws that were pro-labor, in the limitation of consumer credit and in restraints on speculation.

Patten insisted that progress was hindered mainly by ignorance and prejudice, which could be overcome by a higher standard of living, by education, and by increased opportunity for everyone. This was landmark thinking in its day and went completely counter to the prevailing attitude that scarcity was enduring. For Patten, the basis of an abundant civilization required, in his view, new strategies and tactics for planning and implementing social change.

By thinking of opportunity and educating towards it, Patten highlighted that there might be new ways of conceiving present scarcity that would help transform it. For an innovator, the challenge of creating something new is often in direct response to what is perceived to be missing: a problem unsolved, or a challenge unmet. Accomplishing that end with limited resources means using every ounce of an available resource. Waste is criminal.

Bootstrap in innovation really begins and ends with your attention to careful management of all your resources. It demands that you remain aware of what you spend and keep your overhead low. If you need to buy premium resources or support, it is necessary to justify the expense either by longevity of use or savings elsewhere. It means bartering for goods and services when appropriate and buying items on promotion, to take advantage of better prices offered for a limited time, that will drive your innovation performance. Too many allow resource scarcity to impede their innovation efforts. The better capable innovators are better prepared, primarily because of the choices they make.

Making better choices
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
- J.K. Rowling

One of the greatest challenges innovators face is making choices about how to spend or deploy their limited resources. Often the reason for this is the uncertainty of the data informing those choices. Some of us make the most of the available data by sorting, organizing, and analyzing it, employing a bit of artful extrapolation to fill the gaps, and then make the leap. Others, not necessarily interested in slowing down for anything, being almost shark-like in their need for forward motion, pause only long enough to recoil and then jump. Often directly into hazards.

One such example of the latter instance was the founder of the company Ear Peace, which sells high-end earplugs for people in high audio volume environments for extended periods, such as band leaders or rock concert-goers. Jay Clark is the quintessential bootstrapper. He developed his designer ear plugs for looks, comfort, and sound quality himself. The only problem came when he needed to place his initial orders—that’s when he created an unnecessary financial scarcity:

Over-ordering inventory. This was the biggest mistake. As soon as you get your first run of product, you are already tweaking it and making it better. Bargain and promise the moon on future sales, and keep the inventory low. On the second order (the blister-packed EarPeace for venues), I over did it.

While Jay was able to quickly recover, and now controls his inventory levels much more stringently, he already knew that one of his greatest resource constraints was himself. He couldn’t be everywhere at all times. His course of action was to ask as many smart people for their opinions as he could. He noted that, “The forest quickly gets lost for the trees when you are in the thick of operational, distribution, creative, and financial decision-making.” He saw that there are so many decisions that make it impossible to do everything alone when you are trying to bring an innovation to market. So don’t go it alone if you can help it. Choose to let others help, and strangely enough, they likely will.

The first steps when faced with a resource-poor situation: Consider where you are abundant with resources and choose wisely how to maximize their use. Where do you have hidden assets that you could be exploiting, and how might you choose to use them differently?

Look for upcoming articles on resource creation and resource acquisition to round out your approach to innovation resource management.

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Resource Re-Creation: think less is more and make more innovation from less

December 30, 2010 By 1 Comment

Recycling is not a new concept. As long as people have had “stuff,” they’ve been figuring out ways to re-use and re-purpose it. We visited that topic when we explored bricolage—and dipped into the idea of innovating with what you have. At the time we explored four concepts that help to support a “can-do” attitude when it comes to finding breakthrough uses for existing materials and concepts. This time we are going to dig a little deeper on the first concept—the power of having an intimate knowledge of resources. The reason for this exploration is that increasingly, the notion of “doing more with less” has been replaced with “make do with what you have.”

Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.
- Teilhard de Chardin

As innovators I think we can reach beyond “making do,” can’t we? How might we push beyond our perceived limits? How might we use what we have to make things that are great?

Taking a different perspective
One of the simplest paths to take involves supporting your organization’s use of existing assets and leveraging them via technology. The application of technology to an existing product can transform it from functional tool to a necessary piece in a business model ecosystem. Consider the Velibe: the Velibe (a contraction of vélo libre or vélo liberté) is the bicycle-share program that was rolled out in Paris, France in 2007. It is a simple concept, offered at various places around the city: bicycles that might be shared among the people of the city, residents and visitors alike. These bicycles are available for rent by the hour or day.

Apart from the challenges involved with capacity management, and yes, the occasional “blue screen of death,” the Velibe program has created a service of value. At the intersection of a centuries-old transportation method and modern billing systems this bicycle share program enables a city to move. It helps reduce traffic for short distance errands, and it creates a ready and reasonable alternative to other forms of transportation. A simple innovation to an existing technology can transform a city.

Another bicycle company, Pi Mobility Systems, has begun to transform the way in which bicycles might serve a wider set of local and longer-distance transportation needs. Pi Mobility was struggling to realize prototypes of its electric bicycles, and the amount of time, effort, and money was exceeding the limits of their resources. It could not afford to build any more prototypes without having a product to sell to offset their costs. The whole enterprise was in a perilous state. Rather than seek additional funding they sought an alternative solution.

That solution was for Pi Mobility to strike a partnership with the AutoCAD software publisher Autodesk, through their sustainable design initiative. Where their previous six prototypes had been achieved at a very high cost due to their complex physical nature, Pi Mobility were now able to use $150,000 of Autodesk software for a nominal $50 fee. Using this, they were able to hold off a physical prototype until just before production, much in the same way that Boeing used the CATIA system (Computer-Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application) that it sourced from Dassault Systemes and IBM. In Pi Mobility’s case, they found that they could rapidly prototype their electric bicycle online in order to get it to market faster, minimizing the additional risk and cost of physical prototyping.

Using what you know and combining it with the technology or subject-matter expertise of others can help you take your resources further. The same resources, when combined with new thinking, might yield even greater returns. The challenge is to be flexible enough to recognize them.

Build on traditional knowledge—use measured destruction
Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.
- Pablo Picasso
Another essential trait for better exploitation of available resources is to build on the knowledge we already possess. In manufacturing, it might mean taking an existing product but conceiving of its construction in different forms or using different materials. This might require us to destroy the way we currently perceive the value we create for customers. For example, a team of designers rethought the Coke range of cans by eliminating the need for overly printed surfaces. They killed the flash. The newer designs stripped colors down to two (at the most). Less ink meant lower cost and also a more readily recyclable container. Some enterprising design students, such as Harc Lee, have done away with inks altogether, which may be a step too far for Coca Cola, but it does point to the ways in which an existing product can be transformed via design and innovation. Other beverage firms have begun to follow suit in terms of re-conceiving what they already bring to market.

Consider plastic bottles: like plastic shopping bags, they have become an environmental scourge. Bottle-making practices for years were bound by the need to emulate the hard container styles of glass and metal bottles. With the recognition of a need to produce a product with a reduced environmental impact, Poland Spring developed the Eco-Shape bottle. The recyclable Poland Spring Half Liter Eco-Shape bottle is not only less impactful on the environment, it’s purposely designed to be easy to carry and hold. It is lighter, requiring less energy to make—resulting in a reduction of CO2 emissions—and also requires less energy to recycle. Additionally, the flexibility of the plastic, initially a concern when the bottle was empty, became a non-issue when the bottle was filled. The contents provided the necessary pressure to make the bottle feel substantial.

The microcosm of sub-cultures within the social network in your organization can also yield unique ways to transform your limited resources into something unique and new and, perhaps, game-changing. As well as building on the explicit and tacit knowledge resident in the people within your organization, it pays to pay attention to the communities of practice they represent, too.

The tribe knows: know your tribe
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
- Jane Howard

One of the fastest ways to reveal and realize the hidden potential of resources you already have at hand is through the social networks that exist in your organization. The social relationships that comprise a present-day organization consist of a variety of subgroups, such as functional teams, project teams, new hires, managers, experts, or communities of practice. It is in the last subgroup that the most tribal aspects of organization life may be at work.

The cliques that form around communities of practice are created by a commonly held belief in a set of operational practices that create value in an organization. They usually comprise those subject matter experts (a core group) most interested in furthering their understanding of their knowledge, and who are often most interested in sharing that knowledge with newer members. Other members of a clique may be ad hoc or occasional members who engage when they have a specific need to address. The value of the tribe is their willingness to share information, knowledge, and collective wisdom that may be completely unrecognized by existing knowledge-management tools in the organization.

It is in their ability to serve as a knowledge-management repository that these tribes can provide significant value to the organization. Their experiences can improve decision-making about when and how to apply scarce resources for maximum value and minimal waste. They can connect needs expressed to potential solution-finders or problem-solvers faster and more effectively than most technology. Better yet, they may be a self-sustaining and self-governing source of ongoing innovation that requires very little in the way of “care and feeding.”

A wise innovator sees opportunities where others believe none exist. In times of severe economic constraint, it is a common practice to reduce the explorative and expansionist tendencies that innovation requires. Leaving little to chance or risk results in little innovation. By seeking to view existing resources with fresh eyes, taking the calculated risks to destroy existing products and services in the pursuit of breakthroughs, and leveraging the hidden knowledge residing in your people, you may find that making innovation with less is not as difficult as you first thought.

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Organization Structures for Innovation – Stop reorganizing deck chairs on the Titanic

November 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization.
- Harold S. Greene

Organization. It’s a noun and a verb. It’s a label applied to any collection of individuals pursuing a perceived common purpose, regardless of how organized they may be. It’s an act designed to bring structure out of chaos and meaning out of confusion. It’s a loaded word. So much rests on the shoulders of organization. This is especially the case when innovation is the desired result of organization’s application.

As its members work together, every group will evolve a structure over time, whether by design or not. Many of the performance deficiencies of a group will often be blamed on individuals, in spite of the fact that performance more often arises from the fitness of the organization structure and its cohesion. By paying attention to the structure of an organization and the roles within it, significant advantages may be created that enable increased group efficiency and effectiveness. Perhaps the most vital lesson for an organization that wishes to become more innovation-capable is that it should create a structure that enables it to flex in response to changing environmental conditions, modifications of tasks, and shifting circumstances.

A challenge arises when we acknowledge that organization design needs to be based on the unique strategy and situation of the organization itself. In the absence of a uniform approach to organizing organizations, what considerations are universal?

We don’t know what we don’t know
If you’re not serving the customer, you’d better be serving someone who is.
- Karl Albrecht

One of the most immediate concerns is that all aspects of the organization should be “fit for purpose.” Each business unit, department, group, team, and function should be aligned to the strategy of the organization and should have, if necessary a sub-strategy that directly supports and addresses the key attributes of the overarching enterprise strategy. That strategy should have as a primary target the customers the organization is designed to serve and a plan of how it will serve them. Without a clearly defined and universally understood strategy, an organization will grow haphazardly, accommodating distractions that come into view rather than focusing on specific goal completion.

Strategically focused organizations become useful backgrounds against which capability gaps and confused or absent roles may be identified in the context of the other enterprise variables necessary for innovation success. This might be knowledge management systems, business processes or even leadership attributes. If a clear strategy is in place, an organization’s leaders should ask some of the following questions to understand whether the organization should be modified or restructured:

  • What’s the nature and degree of innovation-related interaction among a group’s participants?
  • What is the geographic distribution of an innovation group?
  • Given the innovation objectives and limits, where does autonomy reside for the innovation group (internal, external, adjacent)?
  • How is coordination achieved?
  • What is the best structure for the present?
  • How can we best accommodate structure changes in the future?

    • The answers to these questions may determine clear next steps, which may include asking additional, deeper questions. This self-examination creates the capacity for an organization to create spaces into which sub-strategies, in support of the overarching strategy, can be embedded.

    The critical component in this exploration and the eventual decision-making around organization structure is communication. Communication is critical so that the front line is aligned with the bottom line. Without it, not only might chaos ensue but the effectiveness of the structure may be hampered from the outset. Yet this is one factor that many organization leaders fail to consider, or if they do, they pay it only cursory attention—to their eventual dismay.

    Moving deck chairs on the Titanic
    We believe we will be able to get the airline back during the reorganization process.
    - Jerry Murphy

    Reorganization is one trigger that’s often pulled, to the least effect. For many organization leaders, reorganization is the one thing they know that they can do and “implement” quickly, giving them both the satisfaction of taking action and the recognition that they are “doing something.” Unfortunately, the hair-trigger reorganization does little to improve an organization’s innovation performance. Instead, many organizations suffer through poorly planned transitions during which the need to “get it done” trumps “well done.”

    What these leaders demonstrate are the very worst aspects of impulse control. They desire visible evidence of something (anything) being done, and they want it now. Reorganization is often the first initiative of new leaders, even when it’s not clearly needed. An organization structure should represent a resolution of any number of enduring performance dilemmas, and it should not be tampered with unnecessarily or unthinkingly.

    Often in fast-growing or start-up organizations the desire to reorganize arises from the feeling of being out of control. Reorganization may be the most appropriate response in these circumstances. For a larger organization, multiple reorganizations in a short period of time are not only uncalled for, they may be detrimental in the long-term to the organization’s viability. The key is to think through the repercussions before taking action. By asking, “When we do this, what might go wrong?” it may clarify alternatives that won’t require the upheaval (and distraction) that reorganization represents.

    Yes, a leader seeking innovation may use a reorganization to challenge comfort zones, but unless they also take time to create organization resilience, they may deliver carnage instead of results. Not pretty.

    Impediment or enhancement
    It’s about bringing the structured and unstructured information in an organization together, analyzing the information and delivering it to the right people in the organization when they need it.
    - Michael Schroeck

    Organizations should focus on fostering implementation of plans and projects, delivering increased throughput and maintaining quality. Any organization that creates barriers, or blocks and impedes issue resolution, will kill innovation capability. The whole reason for (the verb) organization is to bring order so that information can flow and materials can be transformed into the services and goods necessary to meet customer needs in the cleanest and simplest manner. For innovation to thrive, an organization must also make accommodations for that information and for those materials to be used in unique and different ways. Rather than confining, it should promote expansive actions.

    At its most elemental, an organization structure represents a set of pre-made decisions about where, when, and how to deploy resources to greatest benefit. It should create a supporting performance environment that values and recognizes contributions of its members and keeps them focused on the achievement of the strategic intent. If innovation lies at the heart of your strategy, how you decide to organize can be a firm foundation for your future success. Just remember, a given organization structure may resolve present tensions, but it might not be appropriate for all times. Keep monitoring your organization structure—and when it impedes your ability to innovate, then and only then, you should consider change.

    Effective restructuring requires both a microscopic view of typical structural problems as well as an overall, topographical sense of structural options.
    - Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal

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    Innovation Tells – 12 signs innovation is alive and kicking in your culture

    November 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

    What are tells? A tell is an unwitting signal made by a player in a poker game. It is any clue, habit, behavior, or physical reaction that gives other players more information about your hand. Organizations have tells, too, signs, patterns, and behaviors that indicate what is going on across and within the organization without any explicit announcement. Reading tells is an essential skill for anyone looking to have a positive impact on an organization. Knowing how to read innovation tells can give you an idea of how well-disposed your organization is – or isn’t – to achieving its innovation goals.

    Why are tells important?…for the answer and more see the full article at Blogging Innovation

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    Smart People Sharing – Part 2: Snapshot of BarCampPhilly on November 13, 2010

    November 14, 2010 By 1 Comment

    First and foremost, the people who volunteer to organize and host unconferences and barcamps are heroes. Their reasons for doing what they do, creating positive environments in which smart, interested people are willing to share what they know, may be legion but the end results are unique experiences that reward and enrich in surprising ways. BarCampPhilly held on a bright shiny autumnal day in the heart of Philadelphia was no exception. A huge debt of thanks to JP Toto, Roz Duffy, Kelani Nichole and Sarah Feidt the four core organizers who managed to pull off this event.

    Here are the intrepid gang getting things started – lots of logistics and lots of people to thank, too. Please excuse the quality – the video was taken at the back of the very crowded room.

    For those of your who haven’t been to a barcamp, the core concept is that all the content on the day is participant generated and led. Anyone with an idea can share it, they do that by listing their topic with a brief description and their contact information on a card which is then placed on a large board. Everyone else gets to vote on the ideas that seem the most interesting to them by placing stickers (dots usually), and the available presentation spaces are divided up and scheduled according to the relative popularity of each topic. In the case of BarCampPhilly and The University of the Arts facility, if you pitched an idea you were presenting.

    The bottom line with barcamp: you throw yourself in – if you’re not learning or finding value in a session you employ the “rule of two feet” and use yours to move to something else. Simple stuff. Everyone owns the value they seek to get out of the experience; personal responsibility rules the day. If you don’t enjoy yourself, it really is your own fault. The great thing is, there was so much interesting stuff in play.

    Topics ranged from the commonplace, “How to hire and intern” to the esoteric, “Riot URLs: Gender, Feminism and Tech,” to the whimsical, “Gimme Hugs – it’s my birthday”. All of which sounded very interesting. However, I was on the hunt for learning about innovation and becoming smarter with the support of the fundamentals of by technology infrastructure. So here are some of the presentations I explored with my lovely wife Jo…

    Weaving a Regional Mesh For Open Innovation – Joe Raimondo
    The primary question driving this session was, “What are the structures that promote or create open innovation within a specific geographical region? In this case the exploration focused on the wider Philly region.”

    Participants ranged from students, to technology entrepreneurs, to innovation specialists, to community activists and the quality of openness established was a standard for the kind of participation we experienced throughout the day. The group found that focus is an essential ingredient. What are you trying to accomplish? Without that kind of focus innovation efforts are short-lived and inherently unsatisfying.

    Crowdsourcing was seen as an ingredient for open innovation. That said, social capacity was seen to be available but there were questions about how we tap into that. One participant talked about a lack of access to healthy local food in West Philly – the neighborhood responded with a healthy food coop which expanded into tool-sharing and five-six community gardens and community farm space. External ideas were introduced into a relatively stable community which ended raising concerns about the unintended consequences of gentrification.

    Another key concern expressed, was that, “If open innovation is the answer what is the question?” Which left the group wrestling with ways to better define the problems we want to address. All in all this was a great way to start on the session front.

    Service Design: Blueprint your biz idea – Nathan Gasser
    In this session Nathan Gasser was sharing some key learning he received as a result of his participation in World Usability Day and a presentation only two days earlier by Bob Cooper with Frontier Service Design. To get our brains firing Nathan dropped the simple question, “What is service design?” into our laps and we were off to the races!

    Service design is
    - 70-80% of GDP in the USA
    - The necessary ability to create unique experience every time
    - Primarily supported by European based thought leadership – it’s not well-considered elsewhere
    - An holistic view of all the parts involved in delivering a service

    He pointed us to a great site, Service Design Tools with which I was already familiar, but it was good to see someone else’s reason for liking what it has to offer. It offers simple, accessible ways of promoting structured thinking about service design. And it has a dead simple and fun UI, too.

    The elements to define services include:
    - Service processes
    - Points of customer contact
    - Evidence of the service from the customer’s POV

    A good lesson: walk a mile in the customer’s shoes so that you can see and feel and hear and smell and…live their experience or you will surely die by their experiences.

    Things to document when engaged in service design
    - Time that a process can take
    - Staff / expertise needed in an interaction or process
    - Costs, revenues, ROI, waste, etc.
    - Customer feedback, ratings, suggestions
    - Employee feedback, ratings, suggestions
    - 3rd Party feedback, ratings, suggestions
    - Competitive analysis

    Nathan then led the whole group through an exercise in service design around a brewery tour. No, lunch was not until after the next session, but yes, beer was on all our minds when we left this session.

    Missioneering: from idea to mission – Scott Hackman @My_ohi
    The last session of the day was with a trio of consultants led by Scott Hackman who focus on helping people unlock their ideas so that they can become a reality. They employed a tool called Theory U for their session and it underpins their collaborative and co-design consulting model. This was a user generated session to activate our ideas and we ended up working on one of the participants ideas to help unlock it’s potential.

    The facilitators had been looking at how to get the message about a particular project, or company, or mission “out” and into the world. They saw people struggling to get an idea from their heads into the world. They are looking to build tribes about how to make early ideas into sustainable growing missions. Their approach was newly formed as a concept and sharing it at barcamp was their first public “outing.” Which is one of the other great things about these kinds of events. People can fearlessly test their ideas and receive feedback in a relatively safe manner.

    In groups of 3 we each were asked to share an idea that we were passionate about. One of these was then selected by each trio and shared in full group which then dot voted on a whiteboard for the one that seemed most engaging. Ideas included:
    • Opening a new office in London
    • Social Orienteering using social networks to drive innovations to market faster
    • Cars.com for bicycles (the group picked this one)
    • Creating a space for open innovation creation of medical devices
    • Designing a platform to “kill Facebook”
    • Connecting ideas via design translation
    • Developing a business development tool for artists (artist entrepreneurs)

    Then the facilitators shared the trigger question for the remainder of the session: “If there were no fears what would you be doing today?” Based on that we had a great time sharing stories and ideas, exploring the Car.com model for bicycles and the owner of the idea left with a catalog of things to try and resources to tap. A very cool model that warrants additional exploration.

    WordPress Works – Aryon Hose Hon and updatecontent.com
    This was a great session for users of WordPress. Aryon was a wealth of knowledge regarding ways to improve site performance, including ways to improve ongoing maintenance, design, hosting and content management. I’ll be exploring many of his links in the coming days and weeks ahead.

    Which brings into focus another great realization from barcamp; often people share with each other the very things that make them successful in the business world. They give away best practices, hard-earned shortcuts and tips and highlight personal missteps that they want others to avoid. This spirit of generosity is pervasive. And it is all done in the spirit of a complete absence of selling.

    Traffic - Stephen Gill, Leadnomics
    The last session we attended had a highly technical focus on ways to manage and drive traffic on websites. Again it was filled with tips and trips. (Did you know that the image of a padlock on your website can improve click-through performance by as much as 50%? Neither did I!) Stephen shared widely and openly about ways to improve website performance. It was a mix of usability design, social psychology and technical expertise, and while the room in which he presented wasn’t very conducive to group discussion there were a lot of gems shared.

    All in all, a great day. We can’t wait for the next one and look forward to being able to fully participate in the pre and post barcamp activities which, strangely enough, involved bars.

    Finally, big thanks to the sponsors of the day: The University of the Arts, Independents Hall, Microsoft, CapTech, Yahoo Developmer Network, Sumo Heavy Industries, Comcast Interactive Media, Chariot Solutions, DuckDuck Go, Postmark, LessAccounting, CAOS – Technology at Wharton, Stickermule, PopChips, Chaikin Power Tools, A View From My Seat, MIssionStaff, Mashion, Wondergy, MonkoPhoto, Vacoro, PhillyMagic, BigRedTank, Old City Coffee, Food in Jars, South Street Philly Bagels, Inc., Monetate, Leadnomics, Rightaction,and National Mechanics. (Here are links to all the sponsors)

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    Smart People Sharing – Part 1: Snapshot of ProductCampNYC on November 6, 2010

    November 14, 2010 By 2 Comments

    Early one November Saturday morning a group of 200+ people gathered at the Microsoft offices on Avenue of the Americas in mid-town Manhattan to participate in ProductCampNYC, a user-generated conference based on the barcamp model.

    Here’s a great presentation providing an overview of ProductCampNYC.

    For those of us who attended the inaugural one in 2009 we were excited to see another one come together and the prospects for a learning-and-networking-packed day were quite high. We had an exciting group of product, marketing and entrepreneurial professionals in attendance from various industries and diverse disciplines speaking at this year’s event. Jeff Stewart, serial entrepreneur, inventor and investor, kicked the day off as keynote speaker for the conference and he spoke to the need to manage a new enterprise like a new product.

    The range of topics over the course of the day included:
    • Making product development agile
    • Pitfalls in trying to figure out what consumers really want
    • Do you really have a product strategy?
    • Beyond brainstorming
    • Lean communications for product management

    Several of the presentations are available for review here.

    I presented on the topic, “Forget the organization chart, it’s the network that matters” and apart from the challenge of presenting without the projector and laptop being able to connect (thank goodness for the acres of whiteboards in the conference rooms of the Microsoft conference facility) it was actually a rewarding experience. One participant was kind enough to respond, “thanks for the PPT deck from #pcampnyc – great slides, but great job even without ‘em!” So, I’m happy some benefit was gained. Here’s a brief overview:

    Navigating an organization to bring a new product or service to market is no easy task. Often the very things designed to improve an organization’s operational performance are the things that serve as the greatest impediment to realizing an innovation’s potential. In this session we will explore the ways in which you can overcome tyranny of functional silos and navigate your ideas to success more effectively and efficiently.

    Rather than give you a comprehensive overview of what I experienced at ProductCampNYC, I’ll do that in an upcoming post on BarCampPhilly during which I was able to take more comprehensive notes, I’d like to make a pitch for why I think this kind of learing is valuable for those focused on innovation. A barcamp learning program is easy to organize, you simply need spaces in which people can present and projectors (if you are going to have people give presentations). Food and drink should either be provided or you can more easily have people “brown bag it,” i.e., bring their own or go out for food and drinks. Another great aspect of this model, the content is user generated. People who are passionate about their subjects often make good presenters and if they don’t present well, their information usually serves as a solid catalyst for learning. Participants “own” the event and their personal experience.

    Finally, the opportunity to be truly surprised and delighted is always a factor in the barcamp experience. If you don’t want to throw yourself in to the deep end and run one yourself I highly recommend you find someone in your community or in a nearby city who is already running one. When you go looking for them you’ll be surprised at how many you find.

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    ProductCamp NYC – Saturday November 6, 2010

    November 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

    ProductCamp NYC is here! There are more than 300 people registered and more than 25 fantastic prospective speakers!

    An exciting group of product, marketing and entrepreneurial professionals from various industries and diverse disciplines speaking at this year’s event. Jeff Stewart, serial entrepreneur, inventor and investor, will lead the day as keynote speaker for the conference. Potential session speakers will include former IBM VP Jon Prial, Healthcare Brand Manager Marty Coyne, and consumer expert, and former member of Nissan product development team, Joetta Gobell; for those in attendance, you get to vote and choose who you want to hear.

    Look for live blogging and tweeting.

    Brought to you by the good people at…

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    Influencers – social networks in action

    November 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

    For those interested in the way in which social networks can be used to foster and diffuse innovations, this recent short documentary speaks volumes about the role of one key member: The Influencer.

    INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.

    Written and Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, the film is a snapshot of New York influential creatives (advertising, design, fashion and entertainment) who are shaping today’s pop culture. While focused on one city it seems to reveal the essential traits necessary to influence, regardless of in which social network you reside.

    See the website for the documentary here.

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