PART 3

The Culture of Innovation

 

Determine Your Current Culture

SURVEY OF ATTITUDES TOWARD WORK

In the exercise printed on the next two pages, you will be given a series of 24 statements and asked to indicate your agreement or disagreement with each. To the right of each statement, you will find four boxes.

• If you strongly agree, place an X on the two plus signs.
• If you agree somewhat, place an X on the one plus sign.
• If you disagree somewhat, place an X on the one minus sign.
• If you strongly disagree, place an X on the two minus signs.

The statements you are responding to are statements of opinion. There is no correct answer. Thus, your response should indicate the way you feel rather than what you think the best answer is. In other words, select the box that conveys the extent of your agreement or disagreement with each statement. Answer all statements.

Here’s an example. Consider the statement below:

1. Most managers are interested only in productivity and output, and are not really concerned with the feelings of employees.

The person who completed the statement above strongly disagreed with it, as indicated by the X placed in the last box.

Now go through the survey. You will find scoring instructions on the page that follows the 24 statements.

1. Most employees feel that it’s pretty important to keep management happy and stay in the boss’ good favor.
2. The typical employee has a wealth of talent and energy that is just waiting to be challenged and channeled.
3. Policies and procedures are very important, since employees need to know exactly what they can and can’t do, and what the penalties are when the rules are broken.
4. Employees usually want to turn in the best performance they can, and will willingly take on more responsibility or extra work if they understand why it’s important.
5. Workers depend heavily on the company and the boss for their well-being; it is important that the boss like them.
6. If companies treated their workers as responsible adults rather than as immature children, they would get better performance and the work would be more pleasant.
7. In most organizations, the employees need to be watched and given close supervision to make sure that the work is done correctly and on time.
8. Employees like to know what management is thinking and doing in all aspects of the organization, not just in their own department.
9. Today’s employees seem to lack commitment and loyalty to the very company that pays them and provides their benefits.
10.  The majority of workers will think and act responsibly and will turn in good performance once they know the goals and are given regular feedback on how they are doing.
11.  Strong disciplinary measures are essential, since there are a number of employees who will get away with all they can and for whom verbal reprimands are not enough.
12.  The goal of any organization should be to have each employee managing his/her own work without close supervision.
13.  Employees are typically unable to set goals and standards governing their output; management must do so for them.
14.  Companies make a mistake by not getting their employees more involved in making management decisions.
15.  Employees are generally more interested in whether the boss likes them than they are in getting specific feedback on the quality of their work.
16.  Once employees know the goals and standards of their work unit, they can work out the details of how the work can best be done.
17.  Most workers need a boss who is something of a father and mother to them, sometimes praising, sometimes scolding, and always watching them and taking care of them.
18.  Most employees want to do more than simply please the boss; they want to meet goals and standards and achieve something.
19.  Despite the raises and good performance ratings that are given out from time to time, the majority of workers are turning in deficient performance, and their supervisors often know it.
20.  Managers who expect more from their workers usually get more, while managers who expect less usually get less.
21.  Even though books about management stress the importance of delegating and “getting work done through others,” it is often necessary for supervisors to step in and do the work themselves when a subordinate has failed to do so.
22.  Once they are sure the goals are understood, managers should give their employees a wide latitude of freedom in meeting them.
23.  The two things employees want most are pay and a happy boss.
24.  Employees want to be told when they have succeeded and failed, and want a boss who gives regular and specific feedback.

 

SURVEY OF ATTITUDES TOWARD WORK

SCORING INSTRUCTIONS

Now you are ready to score yourself. Follow these instructions:

• Under each box that contains an X, place the number 3, 2, 1, or 0 to indicate its value. The value of each X is as follows:
• Thus, if your X was on the single plus sign, you will enter a 2 under that box, as shown.
• Add up your scores for items 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, and 23 (that is, the odd-numbered items). Enter this total in the box at the right.
• Now add up your scores for items 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 (that is, the even-numbered items). Enter this total in the box at the right.

The highest score possible in each box is 36, while the lowest score possible is a 0. Each score reflects the relative strength of two different views of work, the “parent-child” view and the “adult-adult” view. We are all a combination of both views. Which is your stronger view? Under what conditions are your views “parent-child”? When are they “adult-adult”?

The “parent-child” view of work:

The “adult-adult” view of work:

Workers are basically children, dependent on management to fill a parent role (making all the decisions and assignments, watching closely to see that workers do what they are supposed to, and giving praise or correction). Workers don’t want to make decisions, set goals, evaluate their own performance, manage time effectively, etc. They are content to put in their time playing with the other children. Management must thus tell them what to do and how to do it, and must set up rewards for good performance and punishment (discipline) for non-compliance.

Workers and managers are adults. They share the same human needs, interests, and goals. Most workers want a say in how the work is done and how performance can be improved. Workers want to grow and take on more responsibility. They come to a new job hoping to be challenged. A major goal of the organization is to have every employee function as his/her own manager, making responsible decisions and turning in high performance with a minimum of supervision. Managers who treat workers as equals (fellow adults) will expect more from them and will usually get it. This requires continuous feedback from the manager.

 

Open Source Innovation

2 hours

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to give participants an opportunity to craft an open source innovation strategy.

Materials

  Flipchart paper

  Markers

  Laptop computers with Internet access (optional)

  Not invented here—Not

Procedure

1. Ask the participants to define “open source innovation.” Simply put, it is the process of obtaining innovative ideas from many sources, including from people outside your organization. You might mention that the packaged goods company Proctor and Gamble made it a corporate goal to raise the number of innovative products developed on the outside from about 10% to 50%. A related concept is “crowd sourcing.” Crowd sourcing is open sourcing using social network tools.

2. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 3–7 participants and tell the groups that they will be competing with each other in a contest. Tell the groups that their task is to create a high-powered open source innovation contest for a client. The winner will be the group deemed most likely to acquire the most high-quality ideas.

3. To create these contests, the groups should:

a) Choose a client organization. It should be an organization with which the group members are familiar: a church, Walmart, Walgreens, a sports team, a food shelf, a restaurant, a city, a political party.

b) Choose an organizational goal or a problem that needs to be solved. Examples might include the following:

• a church’s goal to increase membership

• a city’s plan for a newly acquired vacant lot

• new product offerings for a company

• food shelf’s drive for new volunteers or donations

• a minor league baseball team’s goal to make their games more exciting

• a college’s goal to increase enrollment

4. Note: Groups can either garner ideas to solve the problem or try to solve the problem. It is up to the group.

5. Each group needs to distill their idea on to one flip chart page. They will present the idea (in less than five minutes) to the larger group. The members of the larger group can ask clarifying questions.

6. After all groups have presented their ideas, each member of the larger group gets to vote on the plan most likely to succeed. Each participant will place a Post-it Note on the plan that they think is best.

Debrief

Start with a large group discussion on the various open source ideas. What makes for a strong open source campaign? What elements reward participants? What might pique the interest of uninterested people? The larger question is, “How do you enlarge the community that is interested in your endeavors?”

If the group has Internet access, you should suggest that they call up “My Starbucks Idea” (Starbuck’s successful open source sight) or General Electric’s “Ecomagination Challenge” (General Electric’s open source effort at creating energy-saving projects).

 

Killing the Naysayer

30 minutes

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to expose idea-killing phrases and learn how to deal with them.

Materials

 Flipchart paper

 Markers

 Notebook paper

 Sense of humor

 Imaginary machete

Procedure

1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups.

2. Ask each group to brainstorm phrases that kill ideas that they hear in their organization. Examples might include:

• That would not work here.

• We tried that five years ago.

• Top management will never go for that.

• It is not our job to come up with new products.

• We can never afford something like that.

3. After 5 to 10 minutes, have each group present some of their phrases to the larger group.

4. Have the smaller groups reconvene. Ask them to develop one or two “comebacks” for each of the killer phrases. These should be appropriate and effective comebacks, not just insults or put-downs.

5. Have each group present the “comebacks” to the larger group.

Debrief

This exercise can lead to the larger topics of organizational impediments to change and innovation. It may lead to underlying cultural constraints, some of which cannot be removed by the participants. You might want to develop two lists: “cultural constraints we can move” and “cultural constraints that are immutable.”

You should not allow this conversation fall into a “complaint” session where the participants feel that the organization is too powerful and entrenched in order to change. You should bring the conversation back to what is possible within the organizational constraints.

 

Where do babies (innovative ideas) come from?

2 hours (to weeks and months—this could be part of a strategic planning process)

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to push the participants to think about new sources of innovative ideas. Participants will also develop an action plan for capturing those ideas.

Materials

 Flipchart paper

 Markers

 Diligence and persistence

 Worksheet #13

 Laptop computers with Internet access (optional)

Procedure

1. Hand out Worksheet #13.

2. As a large group, discuss each of these items and develop a list of examples for each of them. For example:

a) Unexpected occurrences: 9/11, tsunami, oil spill, earthquake

a) Incongruities: high cost of AIDS drugs

a) Process needs: faster, fewer steps, digitalization

a) Market and industry changes: outsourcing, price compression, savvy consumers

a) Demographic changes: aging Baby Boomers, Tech-savvy Millennials

a) Changes in perception: green is gold, thrifty is good

a) New inventions: digital technology, new medicines, electric engines

3. Divide the larger group into smaller groups. Have each small group choose one or two of these “sources of innovation.” The groups need to develop an organizational action plan around one or two of these sources. For instance, if they choose “changing demographics,” they can choose a subgroup or two and create a mini-marketing plan around a product or service to meet the needs of this group. These product/service offerings should include:

a) product/service description

a) promotional strategy, including social media strategy

a) pricing strategy

a) distribution strategy

a) customer service strategy

4. Have the groups present their product/service ideas to the larger group.

Debrief

The point of this exercise is to have participants expand their thinking about the origins of innovations. Ask participants about their process in doing this exercise. The responses might range from frustration to fun. Yes, it is frustrating trying to create an entire product offering in a short time, but you might reinforce that this is just practice in order to get them in the habit of finding innovations.

 

Worksheet #13 Sources of Innovation

 

Unexpected occurrences

Incongruities

Process needs

Industry and market changes

Demographic changes

Changes of perception

New knowledge

 

Failure Notebook

30 minutes

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to begin to create a productive failure/learning book for an organization.

Materials

 Ability to laugh at oneself

 Laptop computer for each small group

Procedure

1. Tell the larger group that it is time to laugh at ourselves and have fun with it.

2. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 3–7 participants.

3. Have each group brainstorm mistakes they have made and what they have learned from those mistakes. Limit the brainstorm, if you can, to work-related issues. Others can then understand the contexts of these mistakes.

4. Have a scribe for each group type these in a database or on a PowerPoint.

5. After about 15 minutes, have each group report-out their findings.

6. To make it more fun or funny, take a vote on which was the biggest blunder.

Debrief

Tell the larger group how some organizations institutionalize their failures. Have the participants talk about their experiences in this exercise. Did they feel shame or humiliation? Or did it feel good knowing that others made serious errors?

Make the point that if we can learn from our mistakes, we can learn together. If we shared like this often, we would not make the same errors over and over again.

 

Faces of Innovation

30 minutes

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to help participants understand that there are different ways of being innovative.

Materials

 Worksheet #14

 Notebook paper

 Pen

 Broad working definition of innovation

Procedure

1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 3 to 7 participants.

2. Hand out Worksheet #14 and let participants read it for a few minutes.

3. Explain to participants that innovation involves many roles and many hats.

4. Ask them to think about which of these ten faces that they play out in the workplace. Have them present these to their small groups. Have them explain how they play these out and which behaviors they exhibit.

5. After all the groups are finished with that part, ask them to think deeply about which roles are missing in their organization. How could they fill those roles? What kinds of people could fill those roles? How could a group, using a disciplined approach, fill those roles?

6. Facilitate a large-group discussion to finish the exercise.

Debrief

Diversity is important to the innovation process. A room full of wild-eyed, creative thinkers may not accomplish much. In organizations, different skill sets are necessary to be innovative. In many cases, no role is any more or less important than another role. Discuss each of these faces and how participants might be able to uncover and expand their own and others’ innovative techniques within an organization.

 

Worksheet #14 The Ten Faces of Innovation

 

The Learning Personas

Anthropologist: observes human beings and develops a deep understanding of how people interact physically and emotionally with products, services, and spaces

Experimenter: prototypes new ideas continually, learning by an enlightened trial and error

Cross-Pollinator: explores other industries and cultures and then translates those findings and revelations to fit the unique needs of your enterprise

The Organizing Personas

Hurdler: knows the path to innovation is strewn with obstacles and develops a knack for overcoming or outsmarting those roadblocks

Collaborator: helps bring eclectic groups together and often leads from the middle of the pack to create new combinations and multidisciplinary solutions

Director: not only gathers together a talented cast and crew but also helps spark their creative talents

The Building Personas

Experienced Architect: designs compelling experiences that go beyond mere functionality to connect at a deeper level with customers’ latent or expressed needs

Set Designer: creates a stage on which innovation team members can do their best work, transforming physical environments into powerful tools to influence behavior and attitude

Caregiver: builds on the metaphor of a health care professional to deliver customer care in a manner that goes beyond mere service

Storyteller: builds both internal morale and external awareness through compelling narratives that communicate a fundamental human value or reinforce a specif c cultural trait

 

Event/Pattern/Structure

60 minutes

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to introduce systems thinking as an important part of innovation.

Materials

 Flipchart paper

 Markers

 Wide-angle view of life

Procedure

1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 3 to 7 participants.

2. Introduce the concept of event/pattern/structure:

a) Event: actual event occurrence

b) Pattern: series of like events or occurrences

c) Structure: the underlying structure that is creating the pattern

3. Example:

a) Event: a fender-bender car accident at a particular corner

b) Pattern: series of the events or occurrences

c) Structure: the underlying structure that is creating the pattern

4. Ask each group to choose a negative event or occurrence in their workplace. Have them figure out if there is a pattern. (Examples might include chronically late reports, dirty restrooms, or delayed shipments.)

5. Have the groups brainstorm and figure out the underlying structures that are causing these patterns.

6. Have the groups brainstorm (they can use one of the techniques delineated in this book) possible “fixes” for these underlying structural problems.

7. Have the groups report-out their findings to the larger group.

Debrief

Systems thinkers think in terms of underlying structures and not just events. It is important to look deeply for the underlying problems, not just surface issues. Otherwise, you might be solving the wrong problem, and the solution will not last.

This author once worked with a second-grade teacher. When a particular little boy acted out inappropriately, she would take away his recess time. Guess what? That just exacerbated the problem. Why? Because he was severely ADHD, taking recess away just made him more fidgety and prone to acting out. A better solution in this case might have been to have him sweep the floor or run files from room to room.

 

Trend Spotting

1–2 hours

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to give participants practice in spotting trends and translating those trends into possible innovations.

Materials

 Notebook paper

 Pens

 Fiery imagination

 Laptop computers or iPads (one for every two participants)

Procedure

1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4 to 8 participants. Distribute the laptops/iPads.

2. Explain that the purpose of this exercise is to give participants practice in spotting and working with trends in the marketplace.

3. Have each group choose an industry: auto, coffee shop, oil, fashion, craft shops.

4. The first task of the groups is to investigate the industry. They can use Google or another Internet search engine. They could type in “office furniture, innovations.”

5. While half the group “surfs,” the other half should take notes. What trends, innovations, initiatives, new policies, or events are happening in that industry?

6. After about 20–30 minutes, the groups should switch to an innovation mode. Given these trends and other industry news, what innovations is this industry ready for? What needs are being created by the trends, innovations, and events? Have the groups spend 20 minutes brainstorming possible innovations.

7. Have the smaller groups report-out to the larger group.

Debrief

Innovations spawn other innovations. Initiatives spawn innovations. Events create space for innovations. For instance, cell phones created a billion-dollar ringtone industry. Gas-fueled autos spawned a huge oil-drilling industry.

To get ahead of the curve, individuals and organizations must be constantly monitoring trends and innovations. What is next in that business or industry? You can ask how organizations and individuals can methodically and systematically collect trends and act on them. This will be a rich conversation.

 

Creative Collaboration

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to help participants use concepts of creative collaboration and evaluate their organizations with them.

Materials

 Flipchart paper

 Markers

 Notebook paper

 Pens

 Worksheet #15

Procedure

1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4 to 8 participants.

2. Distribute Worksheet #15, which lists principles of creative collaboration.

3. Have each group choose an industry: auto, coffee shop, oil, fashion, craft shops.

4. Discuss the concept of creative collaboration with participants. Creative collaboration is a stepping stone to innovation. The more creative collaboration in a group, the more likely the group is to produce new, productive ideas.

5. Each group should divide a flip chart page in half vertically. They should label each column “Helpful” and “Not Helpful” (to Creative Collaboration). Using the worksheet ideas, they should brainstorm behaviors and attitudes for these two columns.

Debrief

Very little is done in isolation. To tackle complex problems, we clearly need creative collaboration at its best. Everyone in organizations needs to learn how to play well in the sand box.

During this debrief, if a participant says something like “communicate better,” ask him or her to go deeper. What exactly do they mean by communication? In what context? Ask participants for specific action steps to make their workplace more conducive to creative collaboration.

 

Worksheet #15 Principles of Creative Collaboration

 

Open, advanced communication: Participants should be trained on how to build on to each other’s voices and incorporate respectful give and take as part of the creative process.

Diversity of voices: Many different voices help with creative collaboration. People with diverse perspectives see things in differing but interesting and complex ways.

Community space for communication: Nurses use logs. Many new computer programs allow for joint creation of documents or drawings. Bulletin boards allow for messaging during non-meeting times.

Watering holes: Creative collaboration necessitates a place where people can come together naturally, usually around food or coffee. It may be a coffee shop, a table out in the open, or a conference room.

Open time: There needs to be time dedicated to innovation and collaboration. It cannot be an afterthought.

“Yes, and” rather than “yes, but”: This is a subtle but powerful distinction. It is an active push to get negative language away from the act of creation.

Rapid prototyping: It does not matter if it is a three-dimensional representation or a sketch on a pad of paper. It is important to create a working prototype in order to have something to which to react.

 

Building an Innovative Culture I

30 minutes

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to give participants a start on building an innovative culture in their workplace.

Materials

 Worksheet #16

 Pens

 Laptop computer with Internet access (optional)

Procedure

1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4–7 participants.

2. Distribute Worksheet #16.

3. Have the groups fill in the worksheets as well as they can. Have them be creative. The goal is to have an action plan for creating an innovative workplace. They might get into a mode of “we cannot do this because…” but help them past this phase. There will always be resistant to new ideas.

4. Have participants use the computers to look up books or articles that may be useful.

5. Have participants share their ideas with others in the larger group.

Debrief

Innovation can be fun. Make it so. Build innovation activities into the calendar; do not wait for them to happen on their own. Innovation activities can be high energy. Add food and playfulness to the mix.

Emphasize that innovation is doable. It does not necessarily take a huge budget, creative geniuses, or expensive retreats to a mountaintop hideout, even though those are nice. Departments can take their own innovation initiatives and make them work. These efforts can become infectious to those around the initiators.

The important part is to start somewhere, even if it is just a once-a-month, lunch book club.

 

Worksheet #16 Building an Innovative Culture

 

 

Building an Innovative Culture II

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to help an organization gauge its openness to innovation.

Materials

 Critical eye

 Worksheet #17

 Pens

Procedure

1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4 to 7 participants.

2. Distribute Worksheet #17.

3. Ask participants to look critically at their organization and the checklist. In each category, how does the organization do well, and when does it fall short?

4. Have smaller groups report-out their findings to the larger group.

Debrief

What makes for an innovative workplace? Participants can give many deterrents to innovation, but can they conceive and execute a culture that encourages innovation? This exercise allows them to break down parts of a culture and examine it, and to see how to improve it. The biggest takeaway from this exercise can be the con versations that take place.

Ask participants which elements are missing and how to bring those forward. Ask them which of those elements on Worksheet #17 are hardest to build into the culture.

 

Worksheet #17 A Culture of Innovation

 

Write down two or three examples of each of these elements that are embedded in your culture.

• Open Dialogue

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• Encourage New Ideas

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• Sufficient Resources

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• Reinforcement

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• Respect

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• Opportunity

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• Long-Term Perspective

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• People Advantage

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________

 

Scaffolding:
Toward a Culture of Innovation

30–60 minutes

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to evaluate the personnel in an organization for readiness for innovation.

Materials

 Worksheet #18

 Pens

 Critical, self-reflective eye

 Laptop computers with Internet access

Procedure

1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4 to 8 participants.

2. Distribute Worksheet #18.

3. Facilitate a discussion of each of the five scaffolds for effective innovation.

a) Emotional intelligence. New innovations require intense collaboration of units, subunits, people, and departments. Innovators have to be able to get along with each other. Emotional intelligence consists of several different facets:

• Self-awareness

• Self-management

• Self-motivation

• Empathy

• Social skills

b) Innovation skills. That is what this entire book is about—building different innovation muscles.

c) Process training. Some of this training includes “quality” or “project management” tools: flow charting, value stream mapping, Gantt charts, and the like. The five-step innovation process must also be learned and practiced by employees.

d) Motivation. Sometimes, “we need new products to stay in business” or “we need to speed up our processes to stay competitive” is not enough to motivate employees. Sometimes, contests, prizes, awards, or other kinds of recognitions are needed. Sometimes, in the short run, money is a good incentive.

e) Systems thinking. Employees often need a primer on systems thinking: systems archetypes, systems principles, pattern recognition, and systems failures. Systems thinking is a way of looking at the world, a way that is scaffolding for many disciplines.

Debrief

Scaffolding is an educational concept. Students need to understand Algebra before they move on to Calculus. Students need to complete Spanish I before they move on to Spanish II. The same runs true for innovation. We need to master certain concepts before we can fully engage in others. Yes, there are plenty of examples of lone, eccentric geniuses who rant and rave at others and then invent great projects. Those examples are becoming less and less prevalent. More and more, close creative collaboration creates great innovations. Before diving into innovation projects headlong, organizations should bring their employees up to a certain level of competence in these skills.

 

Worksheet #18 Scaffolding for Innovation

 

SCAFFOLD	CURRENT STATE	ACTION STEPS
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
INNOVATION TRAINING
PROCESS TRAINING
MOTIVATION
SYSTEMS THINKING