Category Archives: Strategy

3 Innovation Types Not What You Think They Are

But They Do Determine Your Success

3 Innovation Types Not What You Think They Are

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

The Official Story

When discussing innovation, you must be specific so people know what you expect. This is why so many thought leaders, consultants, and practitioners preach the importance of defining different types of innovation.

Clayton Christensen encourages focusing on WHY innovation is happening – improve performance, improve efficiency, or create markets – in his 2014 HBR article.
The classic Core/Adjacent/Transformational model focuses on WHAT is changing – target customer, offering, financial model, and resources and processes.
McKinsey’s 3 Horizons focus on WHEN the results are achieved – this year, 2-3 years, 3-6 years.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the options and worry about which approach is “best.” But, like all frameworks, they’re all a little bit right and a little bit wrong, and the best one is the one that will be used and get results in your organization.

The REAL story

Everything in the official story is true, but not the whole truth.

“Innovation” is not peanut butter.

You can’t smear it all over everything and expect deliciousness.

When doing innovation, you must remember your customer – the executives who make decisions, allocate resources, and can accelerate or decimate your efforts.

More importantly, you need to remember their Jobs to be Done (JTBD) – keep my job, feel safe and respected, and be perceived as competent/a rising star – because these jobs define the innovations that will get to market.

Three (3) REAL types of innovation

SAFE – The delightful solution to decision-makers’ JTBD

Most closely aligned with Core innovation, improving performance or efficiency, and Horizon 1 because the focus is on improving what exists in a way that will generate revenue this year or next. Decision-makers feel confident because they’ve “been there and done that” (heck, doing “that” is probably what got them promoted in the first place). In fact, they’re more likely to get in trouble for NOT investing in these types of innovations than they are for investing in them.

STRETCH – The Good Enough solution

Most like Adjacent innovation because they allow decision-makers to keep one foot in the known while “stretching” their other foot into a new (to them) area. This type of innovation makes decision-makers nervous because they don’t have all the answers, but they feel like they at least know what questions to ask. Progress will require more data, and decisions will take longer than most intrapreneurs want. But eventually, enough time and resources (and ego/reputation) will be invested that, unless the team recommends killing it, the project will launch.

SPLATTER – The Terrible solution

No matter what you call them – transformational, radical, breakthrough, disruptive, or moonshots – these innovations make everyone’s eyes light up before reality kicks in and crushes our dreams. These innovations “define the next chapter of our business” and “disrupt ourselves before we’re disrupted.” These innovations also require decision-makers to let go of everything they know and wander entirely into the unknown. To invest resources in the hope of seeing the return (and reward) come back to their successor (or successor’s successor). To defend their decisions, their team, and themselves when things don’t go exactly as planned.

How to find the REAL type that will get real results.

“You said you want X. Would you describe that for me?” (you may need to give examples). When I worked at Clayton Christensen’s firm, executives would always call and ask for our help to create a disruptive innovation. When I would explain what they were actually asking for (something with “good enough” performance and a low selling price that appeals to non-consumers), they would back away from the table, wave their hands, and say, “Oh, not that. We don’t want that.”
“How much are you willing to risk?” If they’re willing to go to their boss to ask for resources, they’re willing to Stretch. If they’re willing to get fired, they’re willing to Splatter. If everything needs to stay within their signing authority, it’s all about staying Safe.
“What would you need to see to risk more?” As an innovator, you’ll always want more freedom to push boundaries and feel confident that you can convince others to see things your way. But before you pitch Stretch to a boss that wants Safe, or Splatter to a boss barely willing to Stretch, learn what they need to change their minds. Maybe it will be worth your effort, maybe it won’t. Better to know sooner rather than later.

Image credits: Pixabay

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8 Strategies to Future-Proofing Your Business & Gaining Competitive Advantage

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The Power of Harnessing Strategic Foresight

8 Strategies to Future-Proofing Your Business & Gaining Competitive Advantage

GUEST POST from Teresa Spangler

“Patience and foresight are the two most important qualities in business.” — Henry Ford

In the dynamic business landscape of the 21st century, strategic foresight stands as the beacon that lights the path toward future-proofing businesses and gaining a competitive advantage. More than a mere tool for predicting trends, it is a sophisticated compass that allows businesses to navigate the turbulence of change, seize emerging opportunities, and ensure long-term sustainability.

Below are eight key strategies that form the backbone of strategic foresight. These strategies will enable you to effectively navigate the future, transforming uncertainties into opportunities, and driving your business towards lasting success:

1. Leveraging the “Got You There Shuffle”

Adapting to the future begins with understanding the past. Grounded in the wisdom of renowned leadership thinker Marshall Goldsmith’s philosophy, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” businesses are urged to reflect on their past successes. Unpack what led to your success and how it can be reshaped to meet future demands. The key here is not merely sticking to what has worked before but reshuffling and reimagining these elements to adapt to new realities.

2. Embrace the Power of Imagination

Building a resilient business requires thinking beyond the constraints of the present. Push the boundaries of your team’s creative thinking, considering the possibilities and the seemingly impossible. Encourage a culture where imagination is not restricted but nurtured. Remember, today’s unimaginable can become tomorrow’s reality. Your next breakthrough idea might just be hidden in the peripheries of your imagination.

3. Mastering the Anticipation Game

The future, by its nature, is laden with ‘what-ifs.’ Anticipate all possible scenarios – from the most optimistic to the most challenging. Proactively playing the anticipation game enables you to create effective plans to navigate potential pitfalls and seize emerging opportunities. With a well-thought-out contingency plan in place, you ensure the resilience of your business no matter the scenario.

4. Celebrating Success and Embracing failure

Understanding each scenario’s potential outcomes- success and failure – provides crucial insights for your business strategy. Create detailed visualizations of success and failure: identify potential pitfalls, anticipate customer challenges, and plan for various market dynamics. This allows you to monitor progress and adjust your course as necessary, ensuring you remain on the path to success.

As the world evolves, competitive advantage will increasingly belong to those who can anticipate change, adapt swiftly, and reinvent themselves. Through strategic foresight, you can build a future-proof business that doesn’t merely survive change but leverages it for continued success. Remember, resilience isn’t just about bouncing back; it’s about bouncing forward.

5. Encouraging Cross-Pollination of Ideas

In an interconnected business world, fostering a culture of cross-pollination of ideas can help companies anticipate future trends and devise innovative solutions. Encourage your team members to collaborate, blend insights from different industries, and develop fresh perspectives. Not only does this approach boost creativity, but it also leads to more robust strategies capable of weathering future uncertainties.

6. Regular Horizon Scanning

Horizon scanning is a strategic foresight tool that systematically explores and interprets the business landscape to identify emerging trends, opportunities, and threats. Regular horizon scanning enables businesses to keep their finger on the pulse of change and stay ahead of the curve.

7. Building Learning Organizations

An organization that learns from its past, observes the present, and uses that knowledge to inform the future has a significant competitive advantage. Promote a culture of continuous learning within your organization, where failures are seen as opportunities for improvement and successes as steppingstones towards greater innovation.

8. Implementing Backcasting Techniques

Backcasting is a strategic planning method that starts with defining a desirable future and then works backward to identify the steps necessary to achieve that future. It enables businesses to establish a clear vision and map a path aligning with their long-term strategic objectives.

Shaping the Future through Strategic Foresight

Navigating the future may seem daunting, given its inherent unpredictability. However, with strategic foresight, businesses can convert uncertainty into an opportunity-filled landscape. Implementing these strategies equips your organization with the agility and resilience needed to respond to change and shape the future.

The crux of strategic foresight lies in understanding that the future isn’t something that happens to us – it’s something we can influence. As business leaders, we can turn our visions for the future into reality. By embracing strategic foresight, we gain the ability to foresee, adapt, innovate, and ultimately lead in an evolving business landscape. It’s not about predicting the future but about making informed decisions today that will shape the future of our organizations.

Additional Insights from Teresa Spangler:

Breaking Boundaries and Embracing the Future with Braden Kelley

Podcast links:

FutureForward on Linkedin | Plazabridge Group | Spotify

Image credit: Unsplash

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Moneyball and the Beginning, Middle, and End of Innovation

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Moneyball and the Beginning, Middle, and End of Innovation

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

Recently, pitchers and catchers reported to MLB Spring Training facilities in Florida and Arizona. For baseball fans, this is the first sign of Spring, an occasion that heralds months of warmth and sunshine, ballparks filled (hopefully) with cheering fans, dinners of beers and brats, and the undying belief that this year will be the year.

Of course, there was still a lot of dark, dreary cold between then and Opening Day. Perfect weather for watching baseball movies – Bull Durham, Major League, The Natural, Field of Dreams, and, of course, Moneyball.

Moneyball is based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis and chronicles the 2002 Oakland Athletics season. The ’02 Oakland A’s, led by General Manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt), forever changed baseball by adopting an approach that valued rigorous statistical analysis over the collective wisdom of baseball insiders (coaches, scouts, front office personnel) when building a team. This approach, termed “Moneyball,” enabled the A’s to reach the postseason with a team that cost only $44M in salary, compared to the NY Yankees that spent $125M to achieve the same outcome.

While the whole movie (and book) is a testament to the courage and perseverance required to challenge and change the status quo, time and again I come back to three lines that perfectly sum up the journey of every successful intrapreneur I’ve ever met.

The Beginning

“I know you’ve taken it in the teeth out there, but the first guy through the wall…he always gets bloody…always always gets bloody. This is threatening not just a way of doing business… but in their minds, it’s threatening the game. Really what it’s threatening is their livelihood, their jobs. It’s threatening the way they do things… and every time that happens, whether it’s the government, a way of doing business, whatever, the people who are holding the reins – they have their hands on the switch – they go batshit crazy.”

John Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox

Context

The 2002 season is over, and the A’s were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. John Henry, an owner of the Boston Red Sox, has invited Bill Beane to Boston to offer him the Red Sox GM job.

Lesson

This is what you sign up for when you decide to be an Intrapreneur. The more you challenge the status quo, the more you question how business is done, the more you ask Why and demand an answer, the closer you get to “tak(ing) it in the teeth.”

This is why courage, perseverance, and an unshakeable belief that things can and should be better are absolutely essential for intrapreneurs. Your job is to run at the wall over and over until you get through it.

People will follow. The Red Sox did. They won the World Series in 2004, breaking an 84-year-old curse.

The Middle

“It’s a process, it’s a process, it’s a process”

Bill Beane

Context

Billy has to convince the ballplayers to forget all the habits that made them great and embrace the philosophy of Moneyball. To stop stealing bases, turning double plays on bunts, and swinging for the fences and to start taking walks, throwing to first for the easy out, and prioritize getting on base over hitting a home run.

The players are confused and frustrated. Suddenly, everything that they once did right is wrong and what was not valued is deeply prized.

Lesson

Innovation is something new that creates value. Something new doesn’t just require change, it requires people to stop doing things that work and start doing things that seem strange or even wrong.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not a switch to be flipped. It’s a process to be learned. It takes time, practice, reminders, and patience.

The End

“When you get an answer you’re looking for, hang up.”

Billy Beane

Context

In this scene, Billy has offered one of his players to multiple teams, searching for the best deal. When the phone rings with a deal he likes, he and the other General Manager (GM) agree to it, Billy hangs up. Even though the other GM was in the middle of a sentence. When Peter Brand, the Assistant GM played by Jonah Hill, points out that Billy had just hung up on the other GM, Billy responds with this nugget of wisdom.

Lesson

It’s advice intrapreneurs should take very much to heart. I often see Innovation teams walk into management presentations with long presentations, full of data and projections, anxious to share their progress, and hoping for continued funding and support. When the meeting starts, a senior exec will say something like, “We’re excited by the progress we’re hearing about and what it will take to continue.”

That’s the cue to “hang up.”

Instead of starting the presentation from the beginning, start with “what it will take to continue.” You got the answer you’re looking for – they’re excited about the progress you’ve made – don’t spend time giving them the info they already have or, worse, could raise questions and dim their enthusiasm. Hang up on the conversation you want to have and have the conversation they want to have.

In closing

Moneyball was an innovation that fundamentally changed one of the most tradition-bound businesses in sports. To be successful, it required someone willing to take it in the teeth, to coach people through a process, and to hang up when they got the answer they wanted. It wasn’t easy but real change rarely is.

The same is true in corporations. They need their own Bill Beanes.

Are you willing to step up to the plate?

Image credits: Pixabay

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A Shortcut to Making Strategic Trade-Offs

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A Shortcut to Making Strategic Trade-Offs

GUEST POST from Geoffrey A. Moore

I read with interest the following article posted on hbr.org. It highlights the challenge facing every Executive Leadership Team in securing alignment around what they should prioritize, short versus long-term gains, high versus low-risk initiatives, and disruptive versus sustaining innovation. The article notes that conflicts requiring sacrifices are common across industries, and that to handle them better, CEOs should introduce a “calculus of sacrifice” to ensure greater alignment in decision-making:

“By making the degree of sacrifice explicit among such conflicting objectives and quantifying it, CEOs can reframe decision-making and give executives the tools to make decisions aligned with their vision. Instead of advocacy-based deliberations, in which proponents of different courses of action make affirmative cases, discussion focuses on sacrifice: How much of one thing are we willing to give up in order to get more of something else?”

I take this to be a very reasonable point of departure, but from here the article goes on to propose a lengthy set of dialogs between the CEO and every member of the ELT digging into their personal approach to these issues and working toward a collaborative consensus about the best course of action. I don’t think this is either realistic or efficient. Instead, let me advocate for a zone-based approach.

As readers of this blog will be aware, the zone management model identifies four “zones of interest” within any enterprise, each with its own mission, metrics, and governance model, as follows:

Performance Zone: Focus on executing this year’s annual plan with particular emphasis on meeting or beating the financial guidance given to investors.
Productivity Zone: Focus on supporting the Performance Zone by attending to all the processes required to operate the enterprise efficiently, effectively, and in compliance with regulations.
Incubation Zone: Focus on disruptive innovations that could have substantial impact on the enterprise’s future success, and develop real options for incorporating them into a future portfolio.
Transformation Zone: Focus on taking a single disruptive innovation to scale, thereby changing the overall valuation of the enterprise’s portfolio.

Each of these four zones entails a different “calculus of sacrifice,” one that is built into the mission and metrics of that zone. Rather than ask the Executive Leadership Team to chart a path forward by keeping all four in mind, a simpler way forward is to use the annual budgeting process to allocate a percentage of the total available resources of the enterprise to each one of the four zones. The question is not, in other words, what should we do with this specific situation, but rather, how much of our operating budget do we want to spend in each of the four areas? It is still a tough question to answer, but it is bounded, and you can reach closure on it at any given point in time simply by having the CEO say, this is what it is going to be.

Once the allocations are settled, then decision-making can go much faster, because each member of the ELT is making calls in one, and only one, zone, using the calculus of that zone and ignoring those of the other three. In other words, stop trying to make your colleagues more or less innovative or risk-averse, and instead, let them play to their strengths in whatever zone represents their best fit.

That’s what I think. What do you think?

Image Credit: Geoffrey Moore

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‘Innovation’ is Killing Innovation. How Do We Save It?

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'Innovation' is Killing Innovation. How Do We Save It?

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

How do people react when you say “innovation?”

Lean forward, eyes glittering, eager to hear more
Stare blankly and nod slowly
Roll their eyes and sigh
Wave their hands dismissively and tell you to focus on other, more urgent priorities.

If you answered C, you’re in good company.

Innovation is a buzzword. Quick searches of Amazon and Google Scholar result in 100,000+ books and 200,000+ articles on the topic, while a scan of the SEC’s database yields 8,000 K-1 filings with the word “innovation” in 2020 alone.

“Innovation” is meaningless, like all buzzwords. There’s a reason that practitioners and consultants insist on establishing a common definition before starting innovation work. I’ve been in meetings with ten people, asked each person to define “innovation,” and heard 12 different answers.

But all this pales in comparison to the emotional response it elicits. Some people get incredibly excited, bouncing out of their seats, ready to bring their latest idea to life (whether it should be brought to life is a different story.). Some nod solemnly as if confronted by a necessary evil, accepting a fate beyond their control. Most roll their eyes because they’ve been through this before and, like all management “flavors of the month,” this too shall pass.

“Innovation” is killing Innovation

The emotions and opinions we tie to “innovation” overwhelm the dictionary definition, making it difficult to believe that the process and, more importantly, the result will be different this time.

We need a different word.

One that has the same meaning and none of the baggage.

This may feel impossible, but if “literally” can mean “figuratively” (do NOT get me started on this 2013 decision) and the Oxford English Dictionary can add 700 new words in 2022, surely we can figure this out.

10 alternatives to ‘Innovation’

The following options are sourced primarily from conversations with other experts and practitioners.

Invention
Ideation
Incubation
Improvement
Creation
Design
Growth
Transformation
Business R&D*

Yes, #10 is intentionally missing because…

What do you think?

Finding a new word (or maybe changing how “innovation” is perceived, understood, and pursued) is a group effort. One person alone can’t do it, and a few people on a call complaining about the state of things certainly won’t (we’ve tried).

What do you think?

Do we need a different word for “innovation,” or should we keep it and deal with the baggage?

If we need a different word, what could it be? What do YOU use?

If we keep it, how do you combat the misunderstanding, eye rolls, and emotional baggage?

Let us know in the comments.

* This option came directly from a conversation with a client last week, and I kinda love it.

We discussed the challenge of getting engineers to stay in a discovery mindset rather than jumping immediately to solutions. Even though they work in R&D (the function), he observed that 99.9% of their work (and, honestly, their careers) is spent on the D in R&D (development).

That’s when it clicked.

Research begins with investigation and inquiry to understand a broad problem and then uses the resulting insights to solve a specific problem. It is a learning process, just like the early stages of Innovation. And, just like in the early days of Innovation, you can’t predict the result or routinize the work.

Development focuses on bringing the “new or modified product or process to production,” Just like the later phases of Innovation when prototyping and experimentation are required, and risk is driven out of the proposition.

Traditional R&D focuses on technical and scientific exploration and solutioning,

Innovation focuses on market, consumer/customer, and business model exploration and solutioning.

It is R&D for the business.

Business R&D.

Image credits: Pixabay

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Innovation Is Driving Away Your Top Talent

INNOVATION!

Your best people are full of ideas and have the confidence and energy to make things happen. So, you unleash them. You host hackathons and shark tanks. You install idea collection software and run contests. You offer training on how to be more innovative. You encourage employees to spend 20% of their time on passion projects.

And they quit.

They quit participating in all the opportunities you offer.

They quit sharing ideas.

They quit your company,

Not because they are ungrateful.

Or because they don’t want to innovate.

Or because they don’t have ideas.

They quit because they realize one of the following “truths”

They’re not “Innovators”

High performers believe they need to work on an innovation project to progress (because management explicitly or implicitly communicates this). But when they finally get their chance, they struggle. The project falls behind schedule, struggles to meet objectives, and is quietly canceled. They see this as a failure. They believe they failed.

But they didn’t fail. They learned something very uncomfortable – they’re not good at everything.

Innovation is different than Operation. When you’re operating, you’re working in a world full of knowledge, where cause and effect are predictable and “better” is easily defined. When you’re innovating, you’re working in a world full of assumptions, where things are unpredictable, patterns emerge slowly, and few things are defined. Most people are great at operating. Some people are great at innovating. Extraordinarily few are great at both.

Innovation is a hobby, not an imperative

The problem with innovation efforts like hackathons, shark tanks, and “20% Time” is that people pour their hearts and souls into them and get nothing in return. Sure, an award, a photo with the CEO, and bragging rights motivate them for a few weeks. But when their hard work isn’t nurtured, developed, and brought to a conclusion (either launched or shelved), they realize it was all a ruse.

They are disappointed but hope the next time will be different. It isn’t.

They stop participating to spend time on “more important” things (their “real” work). But they still care, so they keep tabs on other people’s efforts, quietly hoping this time will be different. It isn’t.

They grow cynical.

They choose to stay and accept that innovation isn’t valued or resign and go somewhere it is.

Their potential is bigger than your box

“I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Before the training, the world was black and white. After, it was full color. I don’t want to go back to black and white.”

For this person, the training had gone wonderfully awry.

The training built their innovation skills but motivated them to find another job because it opened their eyes. They realized that while they loved the uncertainty and creativity of innovation, their place in the organization wouldn’t allow them to innovate. They were in a box on an org chart. They no longer wanted to be in that box, but the company expected them to stay.

But are these “truths” true?

As Mom always said, actions speak louder than words.

Who does your company value more – innovators or operators? The answer lies in who you promote.
Is innovation a strategic priority? The answer lies in where and how you allocate resources (people, money, and time).
Do you want to retain the person or the resource? The answer lies in your willingness to support the person’s growth.

Speak the truth early and often

If a top performer struggles in an innovation role, don’t wait until the project “fails” to reassure them that operators are as (or more) important and loved as innovators. Connect them with senior execs who faced the same challenges. Make sure their next role is as desirable as their current one.

(Or, if innovators are truly valued more than operators, tell them that, too.)

If innovation is an imperative, commit as much time and effort to planning what happens after the event as you do planning the event itself. Have answers to how people will be freed up to continue to work on their projects, money will be allocated, and decisions will be made.

(Or, if innovation really is a corporate hobby, follow the model of top universities and let people participate f they want and give everyone else time off to pursue their hobbies).

If you want to retain the person more than the resource, work with them to plot a path to the next role. Be honest about the time and challenge of moving between boxes and the effects on their career. And if they still want to break out of the box, help them.

(Or, if you want them to stay in the box, tell them that, too.)

Don’t let Innovation! drive away your top talent. Use honesty to keep them.

Image credits: Pixabay

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Instant Revenue

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Instant Revenue

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

If you want to grow the top line right now, create a hard constraint – the product cannot change – and force the team to look for growth outside the product. Since all the easy changes to the product have been made, without a breakthrough the small improvements bring diminishing returns. There’s nothing left here. Make them look elsewhere.

If you want to grow the top line without changing the product, make it easier for customers to buy the products you already have.

If you want to make it easier for customers to buy what you have, eliminate all things that make buying difficult. Though this sounds obvious and trivial, it’s neither. It’s exceptionally difficult to see the waste in your processes from the customers’ perspective. The blackbelts know how to eliminate waste from the company’s perspective, but they’ve not been taught to see waste from the customers’ perspective. Don’t believe me? Look at the last three improvements you made to the customers’ buying process and ask yourself who benefitted from those changes. Odds are, the changes you made reduced the number of people you need to process the transactions by pushing the work back into the customers’ laps. This is the opposite of making it easier for your customers to buy.

Have you ever run a project to make it easier for customers to buy from you?

If you want to make it easier for customers to buy the products you have, pretend you are a customer and map their buying process. What you’ll likely learn is that it’s not easy to buy from you.

1. How can you make it easier for the customer to choose the right product to buy?

Please don’t confuse this with eliminating the knowledgeable people who talk on the phone with customers. And, fight the urge to display all your products all at once. Minimize their choices, don’t maximize them.

2. How can you make it easier for customers to buy what they bought last time?

A hint: when an existing customer hits your website, the first thing they should see is what they bought last time. Or, maybe, a big button that says – click here to buy [whatever they bought last time]. This, of course, assumes you can recognize them and can quickly match them to their buying history.

3. How can you make it easier for customers to pay for your product?

Here’s a rule to live by: if they don’t pay, you don’t sell. And here’s another: you get no partial credit when a customer almost pays.

As you make these improvements, customers will buy more. You can use the incremental profits to fund the breakthrough work to obsolete your best products.

Image credit: Pixabay

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3 Examples of Why Innovation is a Leadership Problem

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Through the Looking Glass

3 Examples of Why Innovation is a Leadership Problem

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

Do you sometimes feel like you’re living in an alternate reality?

If so, you’re not alone. Most innovators feel that way at some point.

After all, you see things that others don’t.

Question things that seem inevitable and true.

Make connections where others only see differences.

Do things that seem impossible.

It’s easy to believe that you’re the crazy one, the Mad Hatter and permanent resident of Wonderland.

But what if you’re not the crazy one?

What if you’re Alice?

And you’re stepping through the looking glass every time you go to work?

In Lewis Carroll’s book, the other side of the looking glass is a chessboard, and all its inhabitants are chess pieces that move in defined and prescribed ways, follow specific rules, and achieve defined goals. Sound familiar?

Here are a few other things that may sound familiar, too

“The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today.” – The White Queen

In this scene, the White Queen offers to hire Alice as her lady’s maid and pay her “twopence a week and jam every other day.” When Alice explains that she doesn’t want the job, doesn’t like jam, and certainly doesn’t want jam today, the queen scoffs and explains the rule.

The problem, Alice points out, is that it’s always today, and that means there’s never jam.

Replace “jam” with “innovation,” and this hits a little too close to home for most innovators.

How often do you hear about the “good old days” when the company was more entrepreneurial, willing to experiment and take risks, and encouraged everyone to innovate?

Innovation yesterday.

How often do you hear that the company will invest in innovation, restart its radical innovation efforts, and disrupt itself as soon as the economy rebounds, business improves, and things settle down a bit? Innovation tomorrow.

But never innovation today. After all, “it’s [innovation] every other day: today isn’t any other day, you know.”

“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more, not less.” – Humpty Dumpty

In this scene, poor Alice tries to converse with Humpty Dumpty, but he keeps using the “wrong” words. Except they’re not the wrong words because they mean exactly what he chooses them to mean.

Even worse, when Alice asks Humpty to define confusing terms, he gets angry, speaks in a “scornful tone,” and smiles “contemptuously” before “wagging his head gravely from side to side.

We all know what the words we use mean, but we too often think others share our definitions. We use “innovation” and “growth,” assuming people know what we mean. But they don’t. They know what the words mean to them. And that may or may not be what we mean.

When managers encourage people to share ideas, challenge the status quo, and take risks, things get even trickier. People listen, share ideas, challenge the status quo, and take risks. Then they are confused when management doesn’t acknowledge their efforts. No one realizes that those requests meant one thing to the managers who gave them and a different thing to the people who did them.

“It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to go somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” – The Red Queen

In this scene, the Red Queen introduces life on the other side of the looking glass and explains Alice’s new role as a pawn. Of course, the explanation comes after a long sprint that seems to get them nowhere and only confuses Alice more.

When “tomorrow” finally comes, and it’s time for innovation, it often comes with a mandate to “act with urgency” to avoid falling behind. I’ve seen managers set goals of creating and launching a business with $250M revenue in 3 years and leadership teams scrambling to develop a portfolio of businesses that would generate $16B in 10 years.

Yes, the world is moving faster, so companies need to increase the pace at which they operate and innovate. But if you’re doing all you can, you can’t do twice as much. You need help – more people and more funding, not more meetings or oversight.

“Life, what is it but a dream?”

Managers and executives, like the kings and queens, have roles to play. They live in a defined space, an org chart rather than a chessboard, and they do their best to navigate it following rules set by tradition, culture, and HR.

But you are like Alice. You see things differently. You question what’s taken as given. And, every now and then, you probably want to shake someone until they grow “shorter – and fatter – and softer – and rounder – and…[into] a kitten, after all.”

So how do you get back to reality and bring everyone with you? You talk to people. You ask questions and listen to the answers. You seek to understand their point of view and then share yours.

Some will choose to stay where they are.

Some will choose to follow you back through the looking glass.

They will be the ones who transform a leadership problem into a leadership triumph.

Image credits: Pixabay

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Don’t Confuse Culture with Strategy

Culture is the Who and How We Work; Strategy is What We Do

Don't Confuse Culture with Strategy

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Culture is quite different from strategy. It’s what a company is and stands for. Peter Drucker, the legendary management guru, once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s not that strategy isn’t important. It absolutely is. However, culture must come first. Then strategy must align with the culture.

One of several definitions of culture by Merriam-Webster is:

“The set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution or organization.”

That is exactly what culture should be. However, there can be problems.

Some companies state their culture in mission, vision and/or values statements. However, those are just words—they are meaningless if not lived. And they can’t be aspirational. They must be true in the moment. A culture that is not actively practiced by leadership and employees is just a dream—just words on paper that are somewhat meaningless, regardless of how well-written and aspirational they are.

For a culture to be successful, leadership must live it and be the role model for others to emulate. And while most people think of leadership as the executives who sit in the C-suite, it is really anyone of authority. It could be anyone in management, in a supervisory position, or anyone who has direct reports. And while leaders must be role models, everyone must know and understand the culture. In the “perfect” organization, everyone is in alignment.

That is why Target is a great case study for how the right culture works. The title of this article is a quote from Christina Hennington, chief growth officer of Target, who sat on a panel at the recent 2023 National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show. Hennington says, “We use culture as a guidepost, as a set of filters for the decisions we make in the business, both big and small. That’s all in the pursuit of our purpose, which is to help all families discover the joy of everyday life.”

Just last year, Target was No. 2 in Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Retail. It was also No. 1 in People’s Companies that Care, and No. 12 in Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. Those are some fine accolades, and with good reason. A RetailWire article noted that in 2021, when most companies were struggling to hire and keep employees, Target had its lowest turnover rate in five years. A good paycheck is a start. Good benefits are also important, and they go beyond medical benefits. For example, Target has a debt-free college program in which all full-time and part-time employees can participate. Another benefit is that Target likes to promote from within. Employees starting on hourly wages can become leaders. They take care of their people, and in turn their people take care of their customers.

Mark Ryski, founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation, says, “Target continues to set the standard for driving up worker pay. I can only believe there is one key reason why—because a well-compensated, appreciated, happy workforce delivers better results. Imagine how it must feel to work for a company like Target that continues to look for ways to enrich employees.”

Melissa Kremer, EVP and chief human resources officer at Target, said, “Our team is at the heart of our strategy and success, and their energy and resilience keep us at the forefront of meeting the changing needs of our guests year after year.”

So, Target has nailed a big part of the culture, in that it has taken the words on paper to the people who work there. The message from Target’s leadership is clear. Build a culture that starts with a focus on your own people. Take care of them, and they will in turn, take care of the company, which includes the company’s customers.

Does that sound familiar? If you’ve been following my work for any length of time, it probably reminds you of my Employee Golden Rule: Do unto employees as you want done unto your customers. And it looks like it’s working.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credit: Pexels

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How Has Innovation Changed Since the Pandemic?

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The Answer in Three Charts

How Has Innovation Changed Since the Pandemic?

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

“Everything changed since the pandemic.”

At this point, my husband, a Navy veteran, is very likely to moo (yes, like a cow). It’s a habit he picked up as a submarine officer, something the crew would do whenever someone said something blindingly obvious because “moo” is not just a noise. It’s an acronym – Master Of the Obvious.

But HOW did things change?

From what, to what?

So what?

It can be hard to see the changes when you’re living and working in the midst of them. This is why I found “Benchmarking Innovation Impact, from InnoLead,” a new report from InnoLead and KPMG US, so interesting, insightful, and helpful.

There’s lots of great stuff in the report (and no, this is not a sponsored post though I am a member), so I limited myself to the three charts that answer executives’ most frequently asked innovation questions.

Innovation Leader Research 2023 Chart 1

Question #1: What type of innovation should I pursue?

2023 Answer: Companies are investing more than half of their resources in incremental innovation

So What?: I may very well be alone in this opinion, but I think this is great news for several reasons:

Some innovation is better than none – Companies shifting their innovation spending to safer, shorter-term bets is infinitely better than shutting down all innovation, which is what usually happens during economic uncertainty
Play to your strengths – Established companies are, on average, better at incremental and adjacent innovation because they have the experience, expertise, resources, and culture required to do those well and other ways (e.g., corporate venture capital, joint ventures) to pursue Transformational innovation.
Adjacent Innovation is increasing –This is the sweet spot for corporate innovation (I may also be biased because Swiffer is an adjacent innovation) because it stretches the business into new customers, offerings, and/or business models without breaking the company or executives’ identities.

Innovation Leader Research 2023 Chart 2

Question #2: Is innovation really a leadership problem (or do you just have issues with authority)?

2023 Answer: Yes (and it depends on the situation). “Lack of Executive Support” is the #6 biggest challenge to innovation, up from #8 in 2020.

So What?: This is a good news/bad news chart.

The good news is that fewer companies are experiencing the top 5 challenges to innovation. Of course, leadership is central to fostering/eliminating turf wars, setting culture, acting on signals, allocating budgets, and setting strategy. Hence, leadership has a role in resolving these issues, too.

The bad news is that MORE innovators are experiencing a lack of executive support (24.3% vs. 19.7% in 2020) and “Other” challenges (17.3% vs. 16.4%), including:

“Different agendas held by certain leadership as to how to measure innovation and therefore how we go after innovation. Also, the time it takes to ‘sell’ an innovative idea or opportunity into the business; corporate bureaucracy.”
“Lack of actual strategy. Often, goals or visions are treated as strategy, which results in frustration with the organization’s ability to advance viable work and creates an unnecessary churn, resulting in confused decision-making.”
“Innovations are stalling after piloting due to lack of funding and executive support in order to shift to scaling. Many are just happy with PR innovation.”

Innovation Leader Research 2023 Chart 3

Question #3: How much should I invest in innovation?

2023 Answer: Most companies are maintaining past years’ budgets and team sizes.

So What?: This is another good news/bad news set of charts.

The good news is that investment is staying steady. Companies that cut back or kill innovation investments due to economic uncertainty often find that they are behind competitors when the economy improves. Even worse, it takes longer than expected to catch up because they are starting from scratch regarding talent, strategy, and a pipeline.

The bad news is that investment is staying steady. If you want different results, you need to take different actions. And I don’t know any company that is thrilled with the results of its innovation efforts. Indeed, companies can do different things with existing budgets and teams, but there needs to be flexibility and a willingness to grow the budget and the team as projects progress closer to launch and scale-up.

Not MOO

Yes, everything has changed since the pandemic, but not as much as we think.

Companies are still investing in incremental, adjacent, and transformational innovation. They’re just investing more in incremental innovation.

Innovation is still a leadership problem, but leadership is less of a problem (congrats!)

Investment is still happening, but it’s holding steady rather than increasing.

And that is nothing to “moo” at.

Image credits: Pixabay, InnoLead

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