Tag Archives: Google X

You Are Probably Not Prepared to Innovate

1 Reply

You Are Probably Not Prepared to Innovate

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

Becoming a successful executive is a fairly linear path. You start at the bottom and learn to solve basic problems in your field or industry. As you gain experience and improve your skills you are given more responsibility, begin to manage teams and work diligently to set up the practices and processes to help your team succeed.

The best executives make those around them better, by fostering a positive work environment, minimizing drama and providing strategy and direction that will enable the team meet its objectives. That’s how you deliver consistent results and continue to rise up through the ranks to the top of your profession.

At some point, however, you need to do more than just plan and execute strategy, you have to innovate. Every business model is disrupted eventually. Changes in technology, competitive landscape and customer needs make that inevitable and, unfortunately, executive experience doesn’t equip your for it. Here’s four things that will help you make the shift from operations to innovation.

1. Learn How To Be The Dumbest Guy In The Room

Good executives are often the smartest guys in the room. Through years of experience solving tough problems, they learn to be masters of their craft and are able to mentor those around them. A great operational manager is a great coach, guiding others around them to achieve more than they thought they could.

Unfortunately, innovation isn’t about what you know, but what you don’t. It requires you to explore, push boundaries and venture into uncharted areas in which there often are no true experts. You’re basically flying blind, which can be incredibly uncomfortable, especially to those who have had a strong track record of success in a structured environment.

That’s why the first step to making the shift from operations to innovation is to learn how to become the dumbest guy in the room instead of the smartest. Admit to yourself that you don’t know what you need to succeed and begin to explore. Actively seek out those who know and understand things that you don’t.

Being the smartest guy in the room helps you operate smoothly, but being the dumbest guy in the room helps you learn. The best way to start is by seeking out new rooms to spend time in.

2. Create A Bias For Action

Operations thrive on predictability. People need to know what to expect and what’s expected of them so that things can run smoothly. Every great operation needs to coordinate activities between a diverse set of stakeholders, including team members, partners and customers. That level of interoperability doesn’t just happen by itself.

Over the years, a variety of methods, such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma have arisen that use rigorous statistical methods to optimize for established metrics. The idea is to hone processes continuously in order to elevate them to paragons of efficiency.

When you seek to innovate, however, established metrics are often of little use, because you are trying to do something new and change the basis of competition. Again, you are venturing into the unknown, doing things you and your organization have not developed the knowledge and skills to do well. Instead of seeking excellence, you need to dare to be crap.

The key to making this work is not to abandon all sense of restraint and accountability, but to manage risk by reducing scale. In an operational setting you always want to look for the largest addressable market you can find, but when you are trying to do something truly new, you need to find a hair on fire use case — a customer who needs a problem solved so badly that they are willing to work through the inevitable glitches and snafus with you.

3. Solve The Monkey First

Every good operational project has a roadmap, whether that is an ordinary budget, a project plan or a defined strategy. The early stages of a plan are usually the easiest. You want to get everybody on board, build momentum and then begin to tackle tougher problems. When you are trying to do something new and different, however, you often want to do exactly the opposite.

Every significant innovation involves something that’s never been done before, so you can’t be sure how long it will take or even if the core objectives can be achieved at all. So it’s best to get started working on the toughest problems early, because until you resolve those unknowns, the whole project is unworkable.

At Google’s X division, the company’s “moonshot factory,” the mantra is #MonkeyFirst. The idea is that if you want to get a monkey to recite Shakespeare on a pedestal, you’d better start by training the monkey, not building the pedestal, because training the monkey is the hard part. Anyone can build a pedestal.

Operational executives like to build pedestals so that they can show early progress against a timeline. Unfortunately, when you are striking out into the unknown, building a pedestal gets you nowhere. Unless you can actually train the monkey, working on the pedestal is wasted effort. You have to learn how to train monkeys.

4. Move from Metrics To Mission

Good operational executives sweat the numbers. They work within existing frameworks and hone operations to improve performance against established metrics. Yet when you are trying to do something truly new, established metrics often tell you little. The goal isn’t to play the game better, but to change it entirely.

In fact, established businesses often get disrupted precisely because they are focusing on outdated metrics. For example, when digital cameras first came out, they performed poorly by traditional standards of quality. They did, however, perform much better in terms of convenience and, as the quality of the pictures improved, replaced the earlier technology.

In a similar vein, while traditional brokerages focused on service, Charles Schwab offered minimal service at a far lower price. At first, it didn’t seem like a threat to incumbents, but as technology improved, it was able to improve service and keep the low flat fees. The model ended up transforming the industry.

So it’s important to not get blinded by metrics and focus on your mission. True innovation never happens in a straight line or proceeds at a measured pace. That’s why there is a basic tradeoff between innovation and optimization and very few people can do both. The best executives, however, learn how to bridge that gap.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog and previously appeared on Inc.com
— Image credits: Pexels

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to join 17,000+ leaders getting Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to their inbox every week.

Four Hidden Secrets of Innovation

1 Reply

Four Hidden Secrets of Innovation

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

Every enterprise needs to innovate. It doesn’t matter whether you are a profit-seeking business, a nonprofit organization or a government entity, the simple truth is that every business model fails eventually, because things change over time. We have to manage not for stability, but for disruption or face irrelevance.

There is no shortage of advice for how to go about it. In fact, there is far too much advice. Design thinkers will tell you to focus on the end user, but Harvard’s Clayton Christensen says that listening too much to customers is how good business fail. Then there’s open innovation, lean startups and on and on it goes.

The truth is that there is no one path to innovation. Everybody has to find their own way. Just because someone had success with one strategy, doesn’t mean that it’s right for the problem you need to solve. So the best advice is to gather as many tools for your toolbox as you can. Here are four things about innovation you rarely hear, but are crucially important.

1. Your Success Often Works Against You

For the most part, managers aren’t responsible for innovation, but as the name implies, to manage operations. That involves hiring and empowering strong employees, optimizing practices and processes and reducing errors and mistakes. You’re generally not trying to build a better mousetrap, you are trying to run things smoothly and efficiently.

It’s easy for someone to stand up on stage at a conference and paint operational managers as dimwits with their heads in the sand, but the truth is that managing a quality operation is a very tough job and requires a lot of talent, dedication and skill. So unless you’ve actually done the job, don’t be too quick to judge.

However, managers do need to realize that there is a fundamental tradeoff between innovation and optimizing operations. Running efficient operations requires standardization and control to yield predictable outcomes. Innovation, on the other hand requires experimentation. You need to try a lot of new things, most of which are going to fail.

That’s why success so often leads to failure. What makes you successful in one competitive environment will likely be a hindrance when things change. So you need to work to find a healthy balance between squeezing everything you can out of the present, while still leaving room to create and build for the future.

2. Don’t Look For A Large Addressable Market, Look For A Hair-On-Fire Use Case

Good operational managers learn to identify large addressable markets. Bigger markets help you scale your business, drive revenues and allow you invest back into operations to create more efficiency. Greater efficiencies lead to fatter profit margins, which allow you to invest even more on improvements, creating a virtuous cycle.

Yet when you are trying something to do something truly new and different, trying to scale too fast can kill your business even before it’s really gotten started. A truly revolutionary product is unpredictable because, by its very nature, it’s not well understood. Charging boldly into the unknown is a sure way to run into unanticipated problems that are expensive to fix at scale.

A better strategy is to identify a hair on fire use case — someone who needs a problem fixed so badly that they are willing to overlook the inevitable glitches. They will help you identify shortcomings early and correct them. Once you get things ironed out, you can begin to scale for more ordinary use cases.

For example, developing a self-driving car is a risky proposition with a dizzying amount of variables you can’t account for. However, a remote mine in Western Australia, where drivers are scarce and traffic nonexistent, is an ideal place to test and improve the technology. In a similar vein, Google Glass failed utterly as a mass product, but is getting a second life as an industrial tool. Sometimes it’s better to build for the few than the many.

3. Start With The Monkey First

When I work with executives, they often have a breakthrough idea they are excited about. They begin to tell me what a great opportunity it is and how they are perfectly positioned to capitalize on it. However, when I begin to dig a little deeper it appears that there is some big barrier to making it happen. When I try to ask about that, they just shut down.

Make no mistake. Innovation isn’t about ideas, it’s about solving problems. The truth is that nobody cares about what ideas you have, they care about the problems you can solve for them. The reason that most people can’t innovate isn’t because they don’t have ideas, but because they lack the perseverance needed to stick with a really tough problem until it’s cracked.

At Google X, the tech giant’s “moonshot factory,” the mantra is #MonkeyFirst. The idea is that if you want to get a monkey to recite Shakespeare on a pedestal, you start by training the monkey, not building the pedestal, because training the monkey is the hard part. Anyone can build a pedestal.

The problem is that most people start with the pedestal, because it’s what they know and by building it, they can show early progress against a timeline. Unfortunately, building a pedestal gets you nowhere. Unless you can actually train the monkey, working on the pedestal is wasted effort.

4. The Next Big Thing Always Starts Out Looking Like Nothing At All

When Alexander Fleming first published his discovery of penicillin, no one really noticed. When Xerox executives first got a look at the Alto — the machine that would become the model for the Macintosh seven years later — they didn’t see what the big deal was. When Jim Allison first showed pharmaceutical executives his idea for cancer immunotherapy, not one would invest in it.

We always think that when we see the next big thing it will be obvious, but the truth is that it always starts out looking like nothing at all. The problem is that when something truly has the power to change the world, the world isn’t ready for it yet. It needs to build advocacy, gain traction among a particular industry or field and combine with other innovations before it can make an impact.

But no one ever tells you that. We are conditioned to think that someone like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk just stands up on stage, announces that the world has changed and everybody just goes along. It never really happens that way because innovation is never a single event. It is a long process of discovery, engineering and transformation that usually takes about 30 years to fully complete.

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas,” said the computing pioneer Howard Aiken. “If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats” and never were truer words spoken. Great innovators aren’t just people with ideas, they are people who are willing to stick it out, take the shots from people who ridicule them and, eventually, if they are lucky, they really do change the world.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog and previously appeared on Inc.com
— Image credits: Pixabay

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to join 17,000+ leaders getting Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to their inbox every week.

The Power of Collaboration

Leave a reply

Creating Cross-Functional Teams for Innovative Ideas

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

In today’s fast-paced and rapidly changing business environment, collaboration has become more important than ever. No longer can organizations survive by staying siloed in their respective departments. Instead, successful companies are embracing the power of cross-functional teams to foster innovative ideas and drive growth.

What is a cross-functional team?

A cross-functional team consists of individuals from different departments or areas of expertise within an organization who come together to work on a specific project or problem. These teams are typically diverse, with members bringing a range of perspectives, skills, and knowledge to the table. By blending expertise from various disciplines, cross-functional teams are able to tackle complex challenges and drive creative solutions.

The Benefits of Cross-Functional Teams

One of the key benefits of cross-functional teams is their ability to break down communication barriers within an organization. By bringing together individuals from different departments, teams are able to bridge gaps and foster a culture of openness and collaboration. This can lead to increased productivity, improved decision-making, and more innovative ideas.

Additionally, cross-functional teams are better equipped to tackle complex problems that require diverse skill sets. By leveraging the expertise of team members from different areas, organizations can develop more comprehensive solutions that take into account a variety of perspectives.

Case Study 1: Apple Inc.

A prime example of the power of cross-functional teams can be seen at tech giant Apple Inc. Known for its innovation and sleek design, Apple relies heavily on cross-functional teams to drive product development. For example, the development of the iPhone involved collaboration between engineers, designers, marketers, and supply chain experts. By bringing together individuals with different backgrounds and expertise, Apple was able to create a groundbreaking product that revolutionized the smartphone industry.

Case Study 2: Google X

Another example of successful cross-functional team collaboration can be found at Google X, the company’s secretive research and development lab. Google X is home to some of the company’s most ambitious projects, including self-driving cars and internet-beaming balloons. These projects are the result of cross-functional teams composed of engineers, scientists, designers, and business experts working together to push the boundaries of technology and innovation.

Conclusion

The power of collaboration through cross-functional teams cannot be understated. By breaking down traditional departmental barriers and fostering a culture of openness and collaboration, organizations can drive innovation, improve decision-making, and drive growth. As demonstrated by companies like Apple and Google X, the benefits of cross-functional teams are clear. As businesses navigate an increasingly complex and competitive landscape, investing in cross-functional teams is essential for staying ahead of the curve and driving success in the long run.

SPECIAL BONUS: The very best change planners use a visual, collaborative approach to create their deliverables. A methodology and tools like those in Change Planning Toolkit™ can empower anyone to become great change planners themselves.

Image credit: Pexels

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