The Manager 164 - Innovation should be baked in
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"The Manager" Newsletter
Hi,
I hope you are doing safe and well. Things are good here although I can barely walk, but it’s for a good cause. I’m doing a 100 day fundraising squat challenge for MacMillan Cancer. I’m on day 6 so that’s 600 squats down. I will also be travelling for an upcoming conference to Oslo, so yes, I will be doing 100 squats in the hotel room or gym too :)
As well as being a great charitable cause, it’s also preparation for an upcoming 2022 goal. I’m planning to be able to dunk a basketball (in a regulation height net) by June 2022. I’ve dunked before, when I played pro-basketball way back in my youth. I’m 6ft 3 inches tall and so it should be achievable but I am getting old - hence the goal - can I get myself fit and healthy enough to dunk?
More on this over the coming months - and also how to set goals whether at work or in your personal life.
It’s also nearly time for my annual review - and will drop a video and post on this when I complete it early December. I typically take a week to deep dive on financials, goals, health, relationships etc and explore where I did well and where I could do better. This helps to feed into my annual planning for 2022. I already broadly know what I’d like to achieve, but new things often pop up. Is this something you do?
Innovation
It’s interesting to see how many leaders and managers completely miss the point regarding innovation. “We must innovate to stay alive” - True. “We must innovate to retain our people” - True. “We must innovate by calling it out and scheduling a special time for it” - not so true.
So, you end up with well-intentioned initiatives like a the dreaded SAFe annual “innovation week” in between delivery cycles. Really? Just a week?
Or you end up with a whole host of internal groups set up to drive innovation, provide innovation training or playbooks and a whole host of well intentioned, but costly initiatives that rarely move the needle.
Innovation is not something you do once a year, nor is it something that a central group does. To innovate sporadically like this, or with external people, is to miss out on the joys of continuous improvement and innovation. Daily, weekly, monthly continuous improvement done through innovation and experimentation.
It’s why teams doing regular retrospectives (where the outcomes are actioned) do so well - they are innovating often. It’s why I focus on the behaviours of continuous improvement over frameworks and “forced” innovation weeks. There's a reason it is one of the 10 behaviours of effective employees.
But simply going through the motions of innovation rarely leads to operational improvements.
Of course, there are times for massive innovation, like introducing a brand new product or entering a new market. This type of innovation requires a dedicated focus. But there is every day innovation that happens around existing products, processes and the business. This is best done as a form of continuous improvement.
This is where models like Steve Blank’s innovation stack is helpful.
Here’s my own take and variation of it.
You identify a problem that needs improving/solving
With data and insights and examples and measures.
You brainstorm or gather a series of potential options to address the need.
You come up with a hypothesis you believe the options will address
For example, if we could get customers to our show and tells we’d reduce feedback loops.
It’s both measurable and time-bound - the essence of a good experiment and goal.
You prioritise the options based on what’s important.
Are they low risk? Quick to test? Suitable for the problem? etc.
You implement the experiment or option carefully. Usually with a small pilot or well controlled experiment.
You gather qual and quant data about the pilot.
After all, there is little point in innovating around a process or tool if everyone wants to leave after.
You widen the pilot, assuming it was successful.
Or, if it's not been successful, you try the next experiment or option and test it.
Then it’s about making the initiative operational.
It becomes the very fabric of the organisation and business. It becomes normal.
And you then move to the next improvement.
Be careful about leaving innovation to a set time or an external team or a playbook.
Innovation is part of everyday life in business. And the trick to all innovation is to solve a problem, test the ideas carefully and make it operational.
This is why some companies operate at a great effectiveness and productivity than others. They often didn’t start out that way - they just improved and innovated until it became normal. And they rinse and repeat all the time, not just annually.
Interesting Articles
How to be more courageous at work. I talk about being brave as one of the 10 behaviours of effective employees - and sometimes people take offence at it. Be brave? Really? But yes, being brave and standing up for what is right would clear away a lot of the toxicity we see in companies. Go carefully. (medium read)
Austin Kleon on the principles of being patient. (short read)
I miss these moment too - the small moments between pre-pandemic life routines where inspiration strikes and creativity grows. Now it's too easy to just sit down and work. I've solved this by having dedicated "do nothing" spaces in my day. (long read but worth it)
Whoa! When Facebook arrived online at various American colleges the data showed a rise in anxiety and depression. Cal Newport on this interesting information. There's a reason I only log onto Facebook once a month or so. To be honest though, I've noticed I feel rubbish after looking at LinkedIn. You'll see I've been really quiet on all social recently - trying to reclaim my own head space. (short read)
Time management through calendar blocking. Sounds a lot like the system I use. (medium read)
You'll maybe spot that I like to use words for their original intention and often tend to go back to the origin of words to understand how to use them well. So, it's always interesting to see which new words are being added to the dictionary. Here are 20 new ones for this next edition. I'm intrigued that "dad bod" made it on there :) (short)
The whistleblowing module of my CIPD HR course was one of the more interesting modules. I find it fascinating that more companies don't have one - and even when they do, people still suffer the consequences of doing the morally, legally and ethically right thing. (short)
Until next week.
Rob..
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Rob..