GUEST POST from Paul Hobcraft

It seems so simple doesn’t it – “bringing final ideas to market”. So easy to say, yet it does seem so very hard to achieve.

Everything we should be aiming towards boils down to the judgement of a ‘successful execution’ or not. It is this last, hard five yards of all the work that went into something, which can make or break so much of the efforts that have gone into this emerging ‘commercial life’ of our new innovation activities.

We should regard the back-end of innovation as the rugged part

I love the association of the “fuzzy front end” with ideas, brainstorming and all those creative energies bringing ideas to life, but sadly unless that final ‘rugged terrain’ at the back-end is not travelled, we never see the innovation come to life in the market place.

To travel the final ‘rugged terrain’ of innovation execution I believe requires fortitude, stamina, belief, a healthy dose of courage and as much commitment from the whole organization engaged in the innovation process as any ‘front end’ or driving it through the pipeline, yet we often fail to recognize that.

Yet resources seem to be peeled away when we get to the final Execution

Resources get pulled away, repositioned back at the front or in the middle to push others through the pipeline, leaving a dwindling, sometimes scarce resource to push that last five yards. The R&D group feel their role is complete, the new development team finalize the official ‘hand over’ and the leadership for development and growth begins to get distracted away to push more through the pipeline, taking experienced resources with them. Suddenly it is down to a small team to tackle this execution stage and all it means.

Dealing with many conflicting internal wants and needs is complex

When you get into the final stages you really have to take into account all the individual demands such as “why my country is special”, or “we can’t agree the final selling price due to a different market (evolution)” or “our major client cycle for approval is not for another six months” or the final design disappoints when you are well passed the discussion stage, all can drive you ‘up the wall’ but need carefully handling. Effective execution gets very complicated and the skill of the project coordinator comes really to the fore.

You can suddenly you become ‘stretched’ in catering to those often conflicting needs if you have not constantly engaged or consulted. If you leave these essential conversations late in the development process as you look around for additional help there seems a lack of clear leadership on who determines final execution, it seems to have gone ‘missing in action’.

It becomes tough and complicated to execute well, you sense a feeling of growing exposure and increasing frustrations. The great idea within the product might remain but the execution pains undermine much of the pleasure or sense of satisfaction.

Engage early but be crystal clear on what can be accommodated and what can’t. Get all stakeholders involved but seek the clarity of the ‘red lines’ from the senior person responsible and be prepared to escalate issues up the decision chain for the earliest resolution as you can

So what is needed at the execution end?

There are a number of thoughts here but three big ones stand out for me:

1). An overriding bias for action, irrespective of the challenge, problem or issue to be resolved – don’t let it fester. Take them head on. Keep the execution pedal flat to the floor, so others understand the sense of commitment and personal passion. Let it become infectious, in a positive way.

2) Really tap into all the knowledge out there in the market place, face the client, sell the product, explain the story, hone that value proposition and keep ‘pivoting’ until you get it right. You unblock the roadblocks, you unlock the mind, and you change the dynamics.

3) No pathway of execution is smooth; it is a rough and rugged road. Recognizing and valuing any breakthrough solutions to move them forward is critical. Forward momentum in any execution plan is essential; as issues come in (and sure they will) you will meet them with a commitment and passion to get them resolved. You offer the ‘waves of support’ to others.

Standing in the deployment zone focused simply on ‘executing away’

Offer true leadership that is leading from the front. Be ready to set and live the expectations; you define the critical deliverables, establish accountability and resolve the conflicts quickly. You influence and install the metrics that are execution specific.

You actively seek commitments from the wider team of stakeholders, vested in a good result. You never forget to share all the news, both the good and the bad parts, of the progress back into the organization.

You set out clearly to communicate accurately and frequently, keeping on top of issues, breaking down problems, reaching back into the organization for help when help is needed. You offer true execution leadership, from the front.

Those known to be good execution people are a valuable resource, they bring the results in and that is highly prized as so few have the resolve or ability to do this.

Remember new innovations replace something of the existing, build on it.

Innovation does not stop when it goes out of the organizations doors, it actually only just begins, and it has to prove itself, it needs to justify all the hard work that went into it. It got to here because it was seen as worthwhile, expected to make a contribution.

To make innovation work, it is only when it is in the market place – judged by customers sufficiently enough to stump up their cash – that we have a successful innovation.

Organizations are constantly lamenting their lack of implementation capabilities.

To get to this point, is often travelling over some rough, tough terrain and the more you are exposed, the more you learn, really learn, and that is invaluable. When you execute you need to deploy a significant skill set and dedicated resource to bring home the results.

Go blaze the path as you are actually making and leading the changes. It is how you set about the execution of innovation that will separate you from the pack. Good execution skills are highly valued and separate you from the majority if these are ‘honed’ and developed well. The real winner pushes the hardest over that last five yards.

This blog post was originally written on behalf of Hype and with their permission I have republished here.

image credit: John Martinez Pavliga

Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST from Paul Hobcraft

A little while back I was reading somewhere an academic paper and it triggered a thought, so I set about capturing it for this post, then it somehow got filed away.

So this is the reworked opening thought to record the idea to ‘capture’ it, so I can reflect later on, about how I should build on this further. I show a number of hyperlinks to help in pulling this together.

Linking capability through interlocking platforms

We are in need of a different “sustaining” capacity build around innovation as its continuous core, constantly evolving, adapting, learning and adjusting, in perpetual motion.

How? Innovation has many ‘touch points’, a myriad of dimensions that need to be aligned and integrated. How can we achieve this more holistic view, so innovation management can make a significant advancement on where we are today?

Making the business case for innovation to change is not easy but essential

Innovation management is today, mostly standing outside organizations operating structures. Due to this, innovation is often missing the critical line-of-sight from top management and it often suffers accordingly. The numerous resource constrains, a lack of cohesion, alignment and seen creation value are becoming a real performance drag against rising expectations and needs. Capabilities, capacity to innovate well, and the competences are sub-optimal. We need to achieve a greater line-of-sight into the make up of these for raising the potential from our innovation activities.

Innovation needs to be more central in core process thinking or we are in danger of staying with the same as it seems sort of comfortable. We actually do need much to shift, a more radical thinking in our future innovation design, all getting possible through technology and the wonders of the cloud.

Do we grab this shift in incremental bits or push for a more radical redesign of the innovation process? I would argue we can grasp the opportunity to redesign it through our understandings of what we have learnt about innovation to date, bring in the solutions through technology that offers innovation so much and find solutions that can deliver innovation into the core of organizations, so it becomes seamless and the critical enabler or driving ‘engine’ of the business going forward.

One critical design thought I have been having is having three mutually supporting capability building platforms interlocking.

Within an organizational setting you need to have in place three supporting building platforms: 1) organizational supporting, 2) knowledge and competency gathering abilities and 3) a clear innovation process to channel themselves through, as final products or new services. All three need to be in place. They stack together.

If you have these three platforms in place you can begin to move from more of an ad hoc set of capabilities through to a more integrated, synergistic and interlocking set of capabilities.

A complete picture of where you can see and exploit differently, a holistic view of capabilities so when you are needing existing capabilities to be brought  together differently, you can explore  combine different combinations that are unique, constantly evolving as new ways to build capability. Well that’s the theory.

Organizational support platform is made of proving clear leadership and commitment to building capabilities, set in place an infrastructure that accesses, anchors and diffuses capacity so it not just flows but is constantly creating and exploiting for new economic and social value. You need to make sure the conditions for a trusting environment and climate are actively worked on and supported, and finally provide the resources and ways to measure this to support and re-enforce the value of each corporate initiative. You should take a look at a earlier blog here: https://bit.ly/mV7zjP.

Knowledge & competency platform is where you permit time to discover and absorb what is being made available. The key absorptive capacities mentioned above. Deliberately allowing the time to explore both the external world and the internal world, and then setting about to capturing this ‘new’ knowledge through clear consolidation techniques and technology is vital. Knowledge should focus on a given core and context of what the organization is looking to achieve and want to learn from/about. You need to explore explicit and tacit knowledge. See my recent blog on value of tacit knowledge: https://bit.ly/sthlG1)

Innovation Process platform lies at the heart of your innovation capability needs. This I have called the Innovation Business Architecture within work I completed with Jeffrey Phillips of OVO and can be viewed here https://bit.ly/ggKQCs . The process needs to have in place the capability to explore, to converge, to keep moving through the innovation pipeline a portfolio and be able to consistently consolidate and further exploit the ‘raw’ material of ideas and concepts by designing in some controls and risk management. Other thoughts for thinking through the innovation process are discussed here https://bit.ly/ikgR4f as well.

Moving from ad hoc to an integrated, synergistic and unique state

It is not just simply having in place the three platforms outlined above; each is a building block on top of one another, dependent for the ‘strength’ of the interlocking structure, to achieve a ongoing momentum that reduce many of todays ad hoc capabilities, often hidden and undervalued into to this integrated state where the flow and connecting can enable a much higher level of performance through greater line of sight and then applying more the appropriate resource inputs and training.

The need is to recognize that you do move, over time and dedicated effort, from ad hoc availability into a more formalised and recognized capability building process, it covers a more broad-based structure where the three building platforms become tightly integrated to gain a more synergistic effect. Then those that participate can see and to learn from this growing innovation capacity feeding into the three platforms. It over time will also provide increasing self-governance as it becomes visible to all.

This growing capability for increased innovation maturity can offer much.

I need to think what makes up each of these platforms in greater detail and understand all the points where they interlock and feed into each other. That is another stage of thinking to be undertaken to validate what seems a ‘good idea’ into something that will work.

If you want to find out more, keep tuned in or simply track me down. This is some of my early thoughts so as I said previously stated, as a work-in-progress.

I keep looking to finding the ways and the means for building innovation capabilities and capacities. It is my passion and focus within what I like to do across my innovation activities.

What triggered this thought was based from an academic paper from H E Essmann & N D du Preez advancing the view of maturity application and innovation models.

image credit: Miguel Virkkunen Carvalho

Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST from Paul Hobcraft

Achieving innovation alignment always needs clear framing

I would argue most problems or disappointment within our innovation efforts can be attributed to a lack of alignment to the organizations strategy and/or its poor governance with the end results that undermine all the ‘noble’ efforts put into the process of innovation.

Here I am suggesting a way to overcome this constant frustration

Poor strategic alignment can be overcome by working through a comprehensive approach to addressing all areas that impact innovation. One such framework I believe can help, as explained here, through the work mat approach.

I believe this work mat approach does moderate and organize innovation for greater alignment.  It allows for the senior management to become engaged and shape the direction as it takes a more holistic approach. The work mat contains governance as specifically part of its framing as this can do far more in driving the conditions to innovate.

The intent with developing this work mat approach has been to clearly set out that much-needed ‘greater’ strategic connection through engagement at a senior level, they drive the outcomes, they provide understanding beyond the vision to make the necessary connections, they fuel the engine and ignite the energy that innovation needs.

The work mat seeks out separate conversations on the different domain areas shown above and then combines them. Senior leadership should be articulating what they expect and want from each of the critical parts and then communicate these throughout the organization. The end result of this thinking through provides for a greater ‘common language’, setting innovation in context.

Structuring this well can achieve much towards reducing the multiple interpretations, and the variety of initiatives often described or justified as innovative but definitely missing the strategic mark. Alignment of an organizations strategy and innovation approach is essential and this needs to flow from the top, but I feel there has not been a suitable engagement platform to gather around and work through, the work mat is aimed at filling that gap.

Many organizations seem to have alignment problems

A majority of people within the organization seem to struggle to connect innovation with their own place and contribution and this often both ‘contains and constrains’ innovation, they lack a mindset for it. This reinforces innovation as staying locked within its own silo of dedicated people, broader identification can break down. Far too much time is spent in communication and breaking down barriers and pockets of resistance. We lack broader alignment as well as strategic innovation alignment. Both need resolving. We need to understand the innovation journey.

This framework mechanism becomes the innovation strategic foundation document that articulates innovation and provides the guiding aspects of innovation for others to work through. Designing a new strategic innovation framework at the top of organizations can help close the many gaps we see today in innovation, especially in the need to achieve a growing alignment to an organizations strategy. You are embedding innovation into the organization core.

Exploring the thinking behind the work mat framework – making the connections

In a series of previous articles you can explore the thinking and make up of this work mat approach. I would encourage you to explore these, if you want to delve a little deeper. These covers the strategic innovation framework to set the context of the work mat approach for planning the innovation direction. I have also suggested using the innovation conversation framework discussed in a recent post for deepening your innovation dialogues. Also covered are the principles to cascade effect for better choices throughout the organization for a greater identification and relationship.

Often we don’t give the necessary thinking time for aligning innovation across the organization, we fail to develop the innovation and strategic alignment conversations the way we should, we are sometimes far too impatient to simply get on with innovation.

The components of the Executive Innovation Work Mat, can promote a common language and set innovation in context, promoting  this “cascading effect for better choices” to flow both ways and move closer to a well-aligned organization that marks a successful business. Its intended deliverables:

The necessary Alignment linkage within the use of the Executive Innovation Work Mat

1. Provide an overarching proposition for aligning innovation within the organization to the strategic needs
2. Offer the critical parts of this framework and the ‘essential bones’ that ‘direct and inform’ for the innovation activities.
3. Suggest this growing recognition that all the component parts making up innovation do need this clear articulating.
4. Offer through the work mat framework presented that this can become the vehicle for meaningful innovation exchanges, it guides and promotes dialogue. It aligns intent with activity
5. The work mat builds the common language to allow the innovation conversations to flow and ‘cascade’

One of the most pressing needs today is a real alignment of strategy and innovation

The use of any good innovation / strategic framework should aim to achieve a number of key objectives, including:

– A greater cohesion and consistency of purpose in your innovation activities
– A framework that raises the visibility of innovation as well as reduces risk and misalignment.
– Provide the mechanism for improving the work flow making innovation more dynamic and interconnected throughout the organization
– Deliver a greater connection & confidence that builds for lasting identification
– The use of frames becomes the organizing point for alignment of activities, measurement, compensation and recognition from its inspiration, clarity and connecting and becomes a real sustaining source of impact.

The work mat delivers a more holistic innovation alignment

Covering innovation in a comprehensive and strategic aligned and connected manner does take away much of the guesswork, disconnects and often the poor leadership buy-in for investments needed to support innovation. Giving our leadership the ownership of the Work Mat does establish innovation far more into the core of organizational design, something that is often missing.

I believe this can be well resolved by adopting this Executive Innovation Work Mat framework as a well thought-through approach. Designing innovation needs to have this ‘connected’ understanding and some specialized external facilitation would greatly help the senior leadership to work through this, to help them connect many of the ‘dots’ they have limited opportunity to complete themselves, without their significant investment in time and efforts.

I am happy to discuss this further as I believe this has real value within your innovation needs.

image credit: hardwoodhustle.com

Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST from Paul Hobcraft

Every now and then, a book comes along that completely surprises me in terms of my own reactions to it, forcing me to unglue some of my preconceived ideas. Then I have to stick them back together again into a whole new pattern. It is this book actually threw me into a loop, trying to figure this reaction out.

To be honest, I still have not fully figured out why I keep pondering over Rowan Gibson’s The Four Lenses of Innovation: a power tool for creative thinking, which was published March 2nd, and why it is forcing me to reconcile different thoughts in my mind.

Rowan Gibson’s previous book was Innovation to the Core- a blueprint for transforming the way your company innovates, which he co-authored with Peter Skarzynski. It has been one of my favourites since it came out in 2008. I often dip into this book, refer to some of its thinking and frames that have emerged following its publication.

One of those frames was the “The Four Lenses of Innovation”, outlined in Chapter Three, which became the basis for Rowan’s new book.

One big thing that threw me

Rowan decided not to do a sequel to “Innovation to the Core”. In many ways he wanted to step away from what he calls “enterprise innovation” and make this new book simply a very different kind of book, delving a little deeper into the front end of the innovation process.

The “four lenses” tackles the subject of creativity far more than its predecessor; it explores how the human mind works and encourages readers to recognize their own creative genius. Rowan takes the reader on a significant journey, even going back in time to consider historical examples that show how we all can discover great opportunities.

The four lenses is a tool to provide us the ability to find and explore fresh perspectives. He calls these “four perceptual lenses” and when he went back and studied successful innovation it uncovered and reinforced his belief in this tool for each of us to uncover insights and opportunities.

Without doubt this book reflects Rowan’s current focus

I decided to ask him a number of questions to clarify some of my thinking after I had been through the manuscript he sent to me for providing a review. He states “writing a book is an expression of what interests you personally at a certain point of time in your life and career” He believes he is “baring his soul a little bit” and looking to help people understand creativity and innovation a little better, by joining the dots between a few things. I certainly think he helps us understand him and how he has gone about this ‘creative process’ himself.

Rowan sets out to unpack the creative process more

Ideas are built within our minds. We collect many thoughts that initially may be random, but as these connect they become the kernel of a new idea. Rowan defines an idea as a “new pattern of thoughts”. The book is about exploring and explaining the thought processes that lead to new ideas by mapping them through these four lenses back in history, from ancient times, through the Renaissance period, telling some stories of Edison, Einstein and bringing us more up to date with a host of contemporary ones of Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in this exploration journey of how big ideas are actually built.

He is embarking to take us on a journey, a quest to discover the creative genius that is inside us all.

So what are the four lenses that the book is built around?

Four particular perspectives or patterns of thinking make up the lenses and they get fully explored in part one of the book – “the Mind of the Innovator”:

1. Challenging Orthodoxies: Questioning deeply entrenched beliefs and assumptions, and exploring new and highly unconventional answers
2. Harnessing Trends: Recognizing the future potential of emerging developments, and using these trends to open up new opportunities
3. Leveraging Resources: Understanding our limitless capacity for redeploying skills and assets in new ways, combinations or contexts
4. Understanding Needs: Paying attention to issues and frustrations others have ignored, and experimenting with new solutions to problems

Part Two of the book turns towards the “Power of Patterns”

Here Rowan really starts to explore the neuroscience stuff as the place for us to understand some of the many mental barriers to innovation. It looks at why most of us are not using those innate creative skills that we were born with but seem to file away after childhood. The way we think – as “pattern recognizers” – often holds us back. We are taught certain patterns of thought and behaviour as we grow up, and we recognize these patterns all the time, but we often don’t question them anymore. We become blind to the changes, the new patterns and the new opportunities that are all around us.

Part Three takes us into “Looking through each of the Four Lenses”

This is the part that takes you through each of the four lenses of challenging orthodoxies, harnessing trends, leveraging resources and understanding needs. Each has brief “lessons to take away” within their dedicated chapters to help distil each of the framing messages.

This part of the book does really climb into current examples to reinforce the lenses and their value. Rowan introduces the 3R in the “leveraging resources” section but in many ways the question to keep asking throughout the book is “how can we repurpose, redeploy or recombine our skills and assets in order to open up to new growth opportunities?” and “how can we extend the boundaries of our businesses?”

Part Four is all about “How Big Ideas Are Built”

There is a definite thinking process involved in constructing a breakthrough. Rowan provides views on Archimedes, and suggests that Einstein provides us with an excellent model of the master idea-builder as he used his creativity to rethink the universe.

Then he considers Thomas Edison – perhaps the most prolific innovator of all time – describing his approach and then suggesting that in each of these cases “their genius seems to have followed a formula” and layers on many more examples to underpin this, bringing us back through the four lenses and describing Rowan’s eight-step model of the creative process.

The book keeps asking and raising questions about this creative process

As I suggested earlier, this is a personal journey of looking at creative genius through this four lenses framework. Rowan wanted to write a very different kind of book, and he wanted to project some of his own vibrancy, passion and excitement about innovation.

The finished book is in itself very creative in its layout, design and presentation

It contains 304 pages of full colour illustrations, really bringing the whole subject of creativity and innovation to life. I firstly read the manuscript, and then I received a copy of one of the finished chapters and went “Wow!” What a transformation. The book’s design made that creative distinction. It complimented and really helped to break down this amazing journey in pursuit of creative genius.

It is a book I certainly recommend

It took me on my personal journey. It did its job. It challenged my thinking patterns. It broke some. It reinforced others. It helped describe the creative journey we all need to travel, which can be full of surprises and we do need to stay open to rethink everything.

Reflecting back through history does often open up the future. Can we have another Innovation Renaissance period please, this book reminded me of our constant need to be creative and keep pushing for breakthrough ideas to advance and renew?

This is a shorten review. The longer version, published on 17^th February 2015, on where I outline all my reactions is here.

** the book was released on March 2nd, 2015.

image credit: wiley.com

Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST from Paul Hobcraft

I simply enjoy writing blogs or posts around innovation. They enable me to describe much of what I do in my work, or think, or believe in, when it comes to innovation.

Firstly for me, my incentive to write and post blogs on innovation

I decided when I started blogging seriously that I did need to have a “blogging intent”. As I focus 100% on innovation for my living I treat blogging as part of my brand. As my knowledge grows I made up my mind that I’d like to share this with you,

My innovation intent shown below can be simply seen as ‘just’ a list of topics, but for me, and I hope for the reader who chose to read these, it puts the “stakes” into the innovation ground to keep guiding me and then along a journey of personal discovery.

For the reader who has to suffer my ideas and thinking.

Equally and hopefully, dragging those that want to read what I write about as equally committed and interested in the “long walk” of innovation to be by my side, whispering in my ear, even shouting at times. They continually offer encouragement to what and why I write about, it seems to hold others interest- thankfully.

Then you have a community of incredibly knowledgeable people

It is often the constant feedback that does keep me encouraged. So many others are feeding me ideas of interest, getting my thinking about issues and challenges or simply inspiring me by so many great contributions around innovation that trigger thoughts that I relate too, that make really good sense that I sometimes feel I can then be built upon and add additional value or simply wish “I wish I’d written that.” I equally enjoy the community feeling that continues to build around innovation.

Innovation is broad, deep and often complex.

There are of course, an incredible number of areas that could be discussed in a blog concerning innovation. I have constantly tried to modify my list of interest as time goes on, often with no luck as that subject sneaks back into my thinking and I’m off again on a further thought. It is never ending. When you intentionally want to try to cover a broad view of innovation it forces you to read broadly, research constantly and gather the knowledge that comes from others that contribute much in the continued advancement of innovation. Yes it is advancing, more significantly than you realise.

My blog is perhaps also my diary.

So why I call my blog under  https://paul4innovating.com “building the DNA of innovation” is because it is a living, evolving area of management, discipline and knowledge. Many contributors I do think are attempting to encode the instructions in innovations development, its functioning needs, and in its construction.

The multiple strands need constantly pulling together to build theories, build on the patterns, the strands, the interactions and extracting from all the different cells of knowledge we all possess that makes the application of innovation often highly unique to each of us.

This is constant, ongoing, shaping and evolving.

Also what shapes my blogs is the feedback or reactions to these posts. These partly shape and determine the better ones, but my opening thoughts still revolve around these intents. I resolve to write on these aspects of innovation, as they hold my interest and give me clues:

1. Identifying the drivers and focal areas of innovation change

2. Exploring the dynamics and intensity needed for innovation and the fitness landscape.

3. The need for greater collaboration- where, what and why and even a how or two.

4. The building of a sustaining innovation model or its business architecture

5. Exploring different capabilities and competencies that need to abound

6. Making a better (business) case for innovation so it actually happens!

7. My BHAGS (big hairy audacious goals) for innovation understanding

8. “Heads of Steam” that simply get me going, happy (or mad!)

9. The seeming ‘lemming race’ for innovation and the jumping off search for ‘instant’ alternatives

10. Different types of innovation require different thinking and application.

11. Hunting for new hunting ground through seeing those intersections for innovation.

12 The dogma, mindsets and inertia that dominate thinking and constrain progress.

13. The pressures to innovate- wasted energy, busted guts and broken promises.

14. Often the hidden human dimensions of innovation that make a real difference not often appreciated or valued.

15. Innovation jobs-to-be-done and challenges to overcome

16. The Three Horizon Methodology for Innovation

17. Seeking Innovation alignment to Strategic intent

18. Business Model Design for Larger Organizations

19. Knowing the Capabilities and Competencies needed for Innovation

20. Working towards a Common Framework and Language for Innovation

So in laying out my personal agenda I have hoisted my innovation flag, laid out my themes and put that proverbial ‘stakes’ in the ground on my blogging intent. Let the battles of understanding or insights continue, they forge my intent and resolve.

Let’s hope I can meet my own ideals in the coming weeks, months and even years, so as to achieve a certain ‘resonate’ with you, the reader, critic or fellow traveler on this innovation road.

Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST from Paul Hobcraft

Arriving- the Digital Monsoon for Significant Innovation

If you ever have lived in the tropics you know of the arrival of the monsoons.

Skies darken, clouds gather, often thunder and lightning combine, the wind picks up and the rain ‘announces’ its arrival in sheer torrents of heavy, drenching, wave-upon-wave of unrelenting force.

It is hard to stand upright or know what to do. Everything around you transforms. Dry, often parched land quickly turns to rivers of water, seeking out everything to shift and move along and eventually going everywhere to transform the landscape.

We’re caught in a digital revolution

The changes being wrought have by many, been likened to a tsunami in its eventual (devastating) effect on our organizations and by inference, the impact it will have on each of our lives.

I certainly agree, through technology much of our innovation activities will be potentially transformed, but as we often see technology is presently running ahead of our organizing to receive it. Then in translating the understanding of what it can provide, both in its real value to transform these ‘insights’ into powerful new business models, products and services.

Of course the ‘hype’ is running well ahead, just like the initial water flooding in, it is often just passing over the land and not being fully absorbed, it will be. Absorption takes time, it begins to sink in and its effect begins to ‘reveal’ themselves at different ‘rates of exchange’ for each of us.

Struggling with the effects of the digital economy

Digital does matter, in its raw power and potential impact; I think it will be truly transformational. The real opening questions all centre around our mind-set, preparation and willingness to make the changes. Or will we all be sucked up in the void, choked by ever-increasing data?

If it is likened as a “digital tsunami” then ‘all within its path’ can be potentially swept away or altered forever.

Three clear prospects from transforming for digital

1. The new prospects in Customer Experience

The immediate areas of new growth prospects and different engagement lie in changing the ‘Customer Experience’. Growing digital knowledge will enable greater customer understanding. We can begin to build new analytic-based market and customer segmentation; we can become more involved and informed about socially- influencing knowledge.

These can lead to a new top-line growth, more targeted marketing and the potential for streamlining or altering the customer engagement process. We can expand the ‘touch-points’ in new services, cross-channel experiences and coherence and in providing greater self-service and ’empowerment’ for our customers.

2. The transformation of Operational Processes

The second one is Operational Processes. Digitization will radically alter the design of the processes and especially the flow of data, to information, to knowledge, to move informed opportunity. Will it improve processes or collide with already outdated systems, tightly integrated and create a build-up and eventual crash?

Unbundling the integrated systems and replacing these with more of distributed application environments is going to be a major challenge. Completely new features, new approaches and ways to draw down the ‘appropriate’ application needed, will require the use of the cloud, of modular systems, plenty of apps but still locked away in a secure environment of approved applications to be used.

This will give a significant workforce enablement that wants to work anywhere and at different more flexible times, expecting high levels of response in what they use, to do the job on hand and enable them to build and communicate into ever changing and evolving knowledge sharing communities.

Knowing what, where and how, will need to be distributed down to the individual. These changes will be far more data-driven in insights and decision-making techniques, many unknown but necessary to allow performance to be timely, relevant and transparent.

3. The era of the new Business Model

We have been ‘grappling’ with the concept of business model designing for some time. To a large degree the economic situations in Europe and America has held this back to be fully embraced in large organizations. They focused on ‘risk containment’, extracting the final juices out of effectiveness and efficiencies but that ‘well’ of opportunity is finally running dry and extracted.

Facing a digitally modified business landscape will need very different business models. The shift of resources, the transitioning and blending of the physical with the digital, the way digital will shape the structures, provide the ‘driving forces and insights,’ all will demand changing the business model.

We will see multiple business models that combine and blend product and service in very different ways, more tailored to new customer understanding and their demand and need. What digital products will move alongside physical product, different services and how will that set of radical organization redesigns alter existing organization boundaries or established turf?

Business models will not stand alone; they will interlock in intelligent ways, to benefit from scale that essential need of a greater appreciation of sharing services that will open up different partnerships, opportunities for shared cost of new channel developments, separate value propositions driven through common back office services and increasing platform management, to manage this

The human organizing aspects  – we must catch up

Will we be able to build defences to warn of future ‘waves’ or take the opportunity to tear down much that has been left standing and rebuild, to take advantage and equip themselves in new ways? How will we cope? What resources do we commit to learning and dealing with all this change flooding into the organization as raw data? How can we reorganize and attract the skills needed in interpretating big data and all its necessary analytics?

The unique combining of the cloud, big data, social streaming, the internet of things, mobility, the industrial internet, are all making this the time for new growth opportunities through this digital economy and the radical overhaul of the activities to realize the benefits.

Believe me, this is not going to be easy or a quick and painless change, it is going to radically alter much within our entities to receive, translate and transform this digital knowledge into impactful outcomes.

Agility and adaptability more essential than ever

The enterprise integration will need to be constantly evolving, adapting and become highly agile, it will totally redistributed, decision authority will move more rapidly towards evolving business models and distributive decision-making, to seize breaking opportunities quickly.

Those that quickly go through piloting, pivoting through digital and physical learning into scalable models to capitalize on rapidly shifting trends, disrupting the existing and focusing on this agile and adaptable skill capability will be in perhaps much better shape to cope..

The immediate challenge of ‘getting organized’

The engagement within this needs real top management attention. Digital has the potential to destroy or change your organization. The existing landscape of business will change forever as this digital deluge or tsunami will alter our structures significantly, offering the promise of radically different innovation opportunities.

image credit: wikimedia.org

Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST from Paul Hobcraft

We all need to recognize the type of innovation leadership personality within our organization, the ones we are working for, as this might help you manage the innovation work a whole lot better and attract in the resources you need.

So can you recognize the traits of your innovation leader?

Are they a front-end or back-end innovation leader? Here’s how you can begin to spot the difference.The thinking about this came from this book. A book recently published “Innovation Governance- how top management organizes and mobilizes for innovation”, written by Jean-Philippe Deschamps and Beebe Nelson is one I can totally recommend it as it is so rich in thinking around managing innovation.

The authors view argues that organizations are traditionally tribal and often each group possesses its own rules, its own judgement of what is important and this ‘creates’ the absolute need to have a mechanism or strong personalities that can ‘cut’ across these potential barriers.

One suggestion coming from this book is recognizing your innovation leaders

According to the authors of “Innovation Governance”, you need the right combination of front-end and back-end leaders, since the two types are complementary. They are able to lead and manage these tribes.

The best way to identify these two types of leaders is often their functional orientation, possible background disciplines and their general management interest and attitudes.

A good example of this ‘divide’ is between Steve Jobs and Tim Cook of Apple, as highly visible and well cited in personality, backgrounds and interests, in what we read. As described well within the book this difference is best illustrated by this Apple leadership comparison.

The front-end leader

Steve Jobs was clearly a front-end leader. He constantly sought out a more radical creativity in design and end product result.

• He had a real passion for new ideas, exploring and combining different thinking and designs, searching for solutions to customers un-articulated needs to improve their product experience.
• He was constantly questioning the status quo and challenging (extremely hard) and confronting the team around him with constant how, what if, what else and why not type of questions.
• He had a more entrepreneurial flair and more of a venture capital mentality regarding returns and risks; he kept focusing on ‘big win’ promises, instinct often drove him.
• He had this belief to constantly experiment, to open up new paths and different thinking and he looked to accept risk and tolerate failure by moving through the ‘dwelling stage’ into the ‘learning from’ set of insights.
• He encouraged individuals to have a degree of freedom, he challenged them constantly, and he expected a climate of mental adventure and excitement to attract others into the organization but these were made up of a diversity of backgrounds. Yet he was, by all accounts a control freak. Nothing passed without his agreement
• His own background was rich in diversity and inquiry and he draw often from this and he portrayed himself as a rebel
• He held onto his vision, yet was prepared to adjust the pathway towards one that responded to meet breaking opportunities.
• Finally his tolerance levels were often ‘explosive’ but he generated the level of commitment to produce some of the stand out products of recent years.

The back-end innovation leader

It is often questioned on why Tim Cook took over when Steve Jobs died. He is seemingly the archetypal back-end guy. He was credited with managing the Apple supply chain, manufacturing and logistics, thus freeing up Jobs to focus on his front end pursuits. Tim Cook comes with more of an operational discipline. He certainly manages a much bigger, more mature Apple.

• He focuses on getting products to market flawlessly in cost-effective ways, mastering all the complexity of putting in place the operational foundations necessary to go from concept to launch and roll-out.
• He has that insistence on achieving higher planning quality and expects the process discipline and standardization to make innovation replicable.
• He understands the demand for speed to market through a high level of cross-functional integration and a ‘first-time right’ philosophy in implementation.
• Would have without doubt flexibility in execution decisions, based on detailed operational knowledge and pragmatic risk management.
• That ability to motivate staff for product battles and promotion of ‘launch and learn’ approach, leading to adapting quickly to improvements, re-launch cycles and even recalls.
• Tim seems to ‘think’ strategically, considers the investment community, amassing cash and systematically picking off areas that maintain Apple’s present higher end approach.
• He seems to continue to encourage higher value incremental steps, holding on to accepted Apple philosophies and perhaps struggles to ‘go’ for the bold new breakthroughs.
• Tim strikes me as more ‘grounded’, providing for greater stability and managing a maturing organization.

Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook have strong leadership skills, they both have ‘got’ innovation but their approaches and acceptance levels would have been coming from their different approaches, personalities and backgrounds. They both got detail.

Strong leaders with distinct personalities need understanding. Otherwise you are often forced back to the ‘drawing board’ for deeper reasons than you initially consider. Consider the personality and what ‘makes-up’ their set of experiences and risk profiles to help ‘advance’ your innovation thinking

Balancing the respective innovation clout always needed.

If you have a front-end leader at the helm of your innovation activities then you need to find the balance of who manages the disciplined operational side, then if you have a back-end leader, who will defend an aggressive front-end agenda?

The appointing of any innovation leader has significant implications, sometimes huge.

This ‘style’ can determine what generates innovation and can determine the passion, commitment and the emphasis points that your organizations innovation will possibly give preference too, and then provide those necessary resources you are needing.

It is well worth understanding where your innovation leaders  personality, background and functional orientation might lie. It might make your task a little easier to attract the funds and resources you need. So much of our innovation concepts die within the organization, often sadly, as they lack sponsorship appeal and simply does not get them excited.

So by appealing to their basic instincts of their personality traits you can perhaps ‘hook them’ into your innovation concept. Once you have their attention you can then ‘open it up’ for why it makes sense to explore further for taking it out into the big wide world.

Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST from Paul Hobcraft

Framing the business model needs a compelling story so that it can be quickly and well understood by others. This is absolutely core. So, how do we go about it?

We really need to learn how to craft a story, to tell the narrative around why your business model idea stands out and is worth other people’s time and consideration.

This business model narrative along with your business model you are potentially better placed to test it, to talk about it, to validate it, to make it ‘sing for others’.

You are out to get engagement and contributions everywhere, from everyone, as you tell the story, describe your potential new business model you gain from their reaction and improve your understanding of the real need for your idea.

We need to think about the art of narratives and storytelling

So first things first, with setting about building your business narrative, we need to get comfortable, as each of us, in our own way are unique in how we would set about the initial thinking through of the business story.

We can certainly brainstorm, or free write, and it is certainly worth to complete some essential brain warming up exercises. All of these get that brain whirling again around your new business model but in a distinctly different way, as you are focusing this on the best way to communicate your story to others. You do need to really think about this, as it needs to appeal to them, even if you feel it is the best thing ever!

We need to find our own ways of doing this warming up. We are not warming up to figure out the business model, we have completed that; we are priming our brain to start structuring our thoughts to turn them into our narrative (about our business model story).

This can take as long as you feel it is useful. For me I take my time, I like to gather around me lots of my reference papers, all sorts of scribble notes and triggers to make a fairly exhaustive first ‘cut’. Then I set about circling or highlighting them with a yellow highlighter all the main themes, the important parts of what, why and how my business model came about.

Working through useful but measured steps is the key

The question you need to ask is: “I certainly have to find within these notes a range of critical aspects that will make my business model story stand out”

Let’s go through these seven steps:

Firstly 1) you have to describe what your business model will do – even if this is still at this stage where it needs to be truly tested, what is it all about. You need to allow for action words that can be understood, keep it simple but on ‘message’ for others to quickly grasp the big idea.

2) What makes this business model special – I mean so special that it can resonate with others; they can see what it is going to do to change or challenge something they know. It needs to address identified needs but all the parts are seen as connected.

Then we move to the customer side

3) Who is it for?– who are those customers that will show initial interest, the potential market place you see this addresses and listen to the reaction back- does it resonate with those listening?

4) What does your business model resolve – those famous pain points or jobs-to-be-done you feel that need resolving or will be valued to overcome existing constraints you feel there is within existing offerings. Are you getting that nod of agreement, that confirming back or increasing questioning?

So far so good we are building our story, we are telling our story, we are getting valuable feedback and identification. Now we need to reflect on the part that gives the real growing confidence

5) Why you are thinking beyond the immediate– some of your longer term goals and ambitions and the way you are setting about this and what the listener can do to help.

6) What do you envisage are the resources and actions needed that will get this going and led you beyond just the idea and turning this into something real and valued by others.

If these remains unclear to the listener then you are beginning to flounder, you might be losing their attention. Maybe your business model or narrative is missing some important learning points.

You are testing your initial hypothesis in the real market place and getting the feedback you need to stop and rethink or it validates your original thinking.

Then there is one final part, our No.7

As you search through your notes, full of highlighted points being ticked off as you go.

That is the most important one, our number 7) you are looking to summarize why you will succeed

This summary ‘wraps-up’ your solution; it provides the story behind your thinking, the final piece, it brings it all together. It is conveying why the business model you see, is valuable. It transmits the value of your idea, sitting on your one sheet of paper.

Now this is not the easy part, it is the ‘call to action’, the real identification you are asking of others to value and invest into your business model, to identify with it.

The tighter the story, the faster you get feedback and identification

This narrative needs to be a really compact synopsis, the real kernel of your business model, it forms the basis for the narrative and why your story is valuable to the one listening.

Irrespective your business narrative need to spark action

It is the story that makes the sense of your business model. It conveys its value, its sense of mission, your personal visions, it offers the place where you communicate and connect the business model with the listener.

By talking about it you are generating and testing a market-making narrative, to hone your thinking, to win over others to your solutions and ideas. You are testing your business model in the real world.

Your story narrative will be significantly tested and will change I am sure.

Each step or new iteration is a ‘smart’ step forward, if it builds and learns from the last one. It becomes more and more compelling until it resonates and translates into a new, valuable business.

Your business model is closer to filling a real market need from this consistent telling of your evolving story. The business narrative is essential to your thinking.

image credit: exchange.smarttech.com

Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.