By Marcelo Lemos – April 5th, 2020

 

Innovate on purpose

Innovate collaboratively

Execute on calculated risks

Learn from failures

Make innovation part of your culture

There is no doubt that innovation flourish in times of crisis. Throughout history, humans have shown consistently that the creation of useful knowledge in a broad range of domains, where technology is probably the most visible one, accelerates in times of crisis. This is the result of an innovation boost, and not necessarily because of the increase of individual, or collective, creativity or knowledge seeking. It is, in my opinion, the brutal pragmatism that urgency, and a high reward/risk ratio, bring into the situation. That pragmatism becomes a catalyst in the innovation process. As a result, the competitive landscape changes accelerate also, resulting in a potential new generation of winners and losers coming out of the crisis. Even if not as dramatic, there is going to be players that will come out of the crisis in a better position than others to create higher profits and/or faster growth. Who will be ones coming on top? I make the claim that they will be those that capitalize the most on the learnings and innovations developed during the crisis. It’s based on that claim, that I believe is essential for all organizations to promote and foster innovation during a crisis. If you are already having an innovation focused initiative, or process, it may be the time to boost it. If you don’t have one, then it may be the ideal time to make it and launch it. Either way, there are 5 things that I would keep in mind. Here below I described, briefly, what they are. I hope this will be useful to you and/or to leaders you know.

 

Innovate on purpose

New ideas are created by millions around the World every single day. Serendipity moments happen frequently as well. But, the probability of a new idea to become an innovation lays on the preparedness of the environment where it is brought in. Even, if an innovation can happen in almost any environment where a need is present, the number, and likelihood of success, of them are directly related to the environment in which they are conceived and materialized. To “innovate on purpose” is not enough a declaration, or the goodwill, that we want to create innovative products or solutions for our customers or the World. If we are serious about that mission commitment, we must create and support an environment that is conducive to that outcome.  This environment encompasses, at least, culture, polices and processes. In highly advanced, and resource abundant, environments it includes dedicated organizations, systems and facilities as well. Although, it is very important to understand that there is no limitation to “innovate on purpose” due to the size or sophistication of an organization, it is the leadership aspiration, decision and execution discipline that counts.  In times of crisis, the leadership conviction will be tested. It is in these moments that the leader’s understanding of the potential immediate value of innovation to the future of the organization must be exercised. Maintaining the focus on existing innovation initiatives, or even expanding them into new areas that in presence of the crisis could bring benefits. Products and solutions are only a piece of the opportunity space when we talk about innovation. Customer and partner relationships, internal processes and infrastructure, even business models could become the booster of post-crisis success.

 

“…there is no limitation to “innovate on purpose” due to the size or sophistication of an organization, it is the leadership aspiration, decision and execution discipline that counts.”

 

Innovate Collaboratively

Many well-known innovations are attributed to individual inventors or creators, but, most of them were the result of a team effort. More recently, even the small and usually isolated teams, which were popular as innovation producers few years back, are now being questioned in favor of a network of more open behavior contributors. Furthermore, when you understand that the innovation process has multiple stages (some people see them as creating, analyzing, refining and executing steps, others have different process breakouts). And that the set of contributors for each stage may be different, due to the different capabilities that are required. Then, it becomes obvious that collaboration is essential to innovate successfully. There are many things leadership could do to foster collaboration with focus on innovation. Most of them by implementing traditional teamwork initiatives with an innovation purpose. Setting common goals and collective responsibility, tolerating failure and explicitly rewarding and celebrating success, enabling horizontal and fluid communication, coaching the teams and helping them with building trust in each other. The use of simple, and inexpensive, technology to track teams and individual members contribution to the ideation, maturation and execution processes could prove highly beneficial as well. With the right leadership there is no better time for a team to work together, and perform at its best, than in a crisis.

 

“With the right leadership there is no better time for a team to work together, and perform at its best, than in a crisis.”

 

 

Execute on calculated risks

Making the decision to move an innovation prospect into execution it may become a challenging task. Immediately after the novel concept or idea is understood (at the very front end of the innovation process) resources should be devoted to the evaluation of risks and benefits. Even though uncertainty and risk are present in most, if not all, business activities the innovation process bring us many times into uncharted territory. Becoming “infatuated” with a promising “wonderfully beautiful idea” could become a very costly and frustrating experience. Not just for you, but for the whole organization. Remember that failures should be expected and tolerated. On the other hand, not moving ahead with promising ideas not only may be the source of a costly loss of opportunity, but also an almost certain competitive disadvantage over time. Scenario based analysis and evaluations should always include one for a total failure of the initiative. Along with a moderate and high level of success could make the three basic scenarios that should be monitored along the different stages of the process. Reality and transparency should be a must in these, risk and benefits, evaluations. Having independent team members, or even different teams, to be responsible for the evaluations should be considered.

 

“…not moving ahead with promising ideas not only may be the source of a costly loss of opportunity, but also an almost certain competitive disadvantage over time.”

 

Learn from Failures

The old saying “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” it’s not always true. Everyone that has recovered from a very difficult sickness, or injury, can tell you that scars sometimes don’t go away and reduce or impair you for the rest of your life. Fortunately, in the context of innovation, we are the main responsible for making that saying a fundamental truth or just a saying. The secret is to be relentless about learning from your failures. The knowledge and the cultural improvements that you can derive from the experience is what makes you stronger. You can’t pass on that!  Make sure you get that learning by acting upon your culture and processes. There are many ways to do it, from basic (for example, making it a fundamental behavior in the organization, having post-mortem reviews, or having lessons learned documents) to highly sophisticated ones (permanent review boards, dedicated knowledge capture and scoring systems, etc.). Choose the way that fits better your organization, but don’t waste this opportunity to become stronger and wiser.

 

“The knowledge and the cultural improvements that you can derive from the experience is what makes you stronger.”

 

Make innovation part of your culture

Innovation is one of the most important drivers of sustainable competitive advantage and, as such, a key contributor to the value and long-term viability of a company. Making it part of the organization’s culture is a direct responsibility of the top leader. Stating one or two fundamental behaviors fostering innovation, could be a good way to instill it in the culture. Look for wording that is easy to understand, easy to remember, and if possible, have an emotional connection with the people. When creating these fundamental behaviors, depending on your personal preference, or suitability to your business, you could lean towards incremental or disruptive innovation, or both. As with any other cultural value, or fundamental behavior, remain cognizant that what you do will validate or destroy the values you are communicating. Also, remember that top-down ideas very few times make it into sound innovations. Creating an agile environment to foster your extended team innovation capabilities is a much better strategy. Ideally the leadership team should be a key component in the creation and support of an idea incubator environment. You may find that during a crisis is easier to enhance or refresh your organization’s culture than at any other time. We, humans, are extremely resilient social beings, with an amazing capacity to adapt. Lead and trust. As I said above, with the right leadership there is no better time for a team to work together, and perform at its best, than in a crisis.

 

“remain cognizant that what you do will validate or destroy the values you are communicating.”