View all of our courses and services
on findcourses.com
Sign up for free mini-courses
at our eLearning school
View all of our courses and services
on findcourses.com
Sign up for free mini-courses
at our eLearning school
Enabling innovation is both an art and a discipline. The art is the human side. The discipline is the set of processes and tools that everyone can learn and use.
There is a lot of talk and promotion about fostering greater innovation using various protocols, methods, IT platforms, and such. Those disciplines have certainly contributed a great deal to achieving significant, innovative results. But research over the past 30 years has shown that such disciplines are eclipsed in their importance by various human factors – the “art” of innovation.
For example, Google’s recent research on their best teams revealed that “psychological safety” was by far the most important element to their most effective teams. The other 4 key factors?... dependability, clarity, meaningful work, and positive impact. All human dimensions – part of the art of innovation.
At a recent Chief Innovation Officer Summit in San Francisco, sponsored by the Innovation Excellence Group, I was curious to see and hear how much these human elements would surface in the presentations. And I was quite pleased.
For example, Soon Yu is Global Vice President of Innovation at the VF Corporation, a global leader in branded lifestyle apparel, footwear and accessories – with brands such as The North Face®, Wrangler®, Timberland® and Lee®. He spoke about the “3 walls” that stop innovation: fear, apathy, and disbelief.
On the other end of the spectrum related to the human side were conversations started by:
Together, they pointed to a foundational ingredient for enabling innovation: TRUST. Trust that a person won’t be embarrassed or judged for voicing new ideas. Trust that management will follow through on innovation commitments. Trust that being innovative will be a positive force for career progression. Trust in each other to share the recognition and rewards for collaborative team innovation.
Patrick Tickle, Chief Product Officer at Planview, even emphasized trust as a key ingredient for the innovation culture in M&A integrations.
They all spoke of explicitly building trust by making sure there was a unity of thought, words and action… and implicitly building trust by making sure the platforms, processes and tools reinforce trust.
At VCI, we address the issues of trust, fear, apathy and disbelief as an integral part of the front end of the innovation process. Normally, teams either start with an idea and try to run with it or jump from setting a goal to analyzing the issues and then brainstorming ideas. But after setting an innovative goal, we interject a question that brings out people’s hopes, aspirations, skepticisms, fears, and doubts:
This elicits the human side of, “What’s at stake? Why is this important? What’s the risk here for us personally and as a team?” It surfaces a lot of what goes on emotionally and mentally when people first take on an innovative opportunity or challenge. By getting these thoughts and emotions out into the open, we can then use it as positive and constructive stimulus going forward.
Still, this discussion sometimes lowers the enthusiasm and energy if it focuses too much on the “3 walls” of fear, apathy or disbelief. So we also ask another foundational question in the innovation process:
This line of inquiry provides an important antidote to the 3 walls. It expands the minds and lifts the emotions and confidence. Creating a safe space to explore these questions up front in the innovation process creates a sobriety whereby a group can face the ups and downs of any innovation project with a stronger sense of courage and character.
So yes, I’m very happy to say that the Chief Innovation Officers I met certainly DO appreciate the human side of innovation. And their power, influence and effectiveness are the better for it.