Driving Eureka!. Doug Hall

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      Increased Innovation Speed: Increased Speed is important if we are to take advantage of the opportunities created by today’s digital and global economy. The good news is that order-of-magnitude increases in speed are possible. Digital tools and modern work systems make it possible to create, validate, manufacture, and make real new products, services, and internal ways of working faster than ever before.

      Decreased Innovation Risk: Decreased Risk is important, given the epidemic of innovation failure that exists around the world. Research finds that just 5% to 15% of innovations are successful at large companies. Most business leaders would have greater odds of success if they went to a Las Vegas casino and gambled their innovation investment on one big bet. A slot machine would give them 32% odds of winning, blackjack 45%, and roulette 47%.

      It’s easy to realize increased speed by accelerating projects without regards to risks. Similarly, it’s easy to reduce risk by slowing down all innovations and subjecting them to never-ending analysis.

      What’s needed is the combination of Increased Speed and Decreased Risk. This can only be accomplished by changing the system of how we think, lead, and work.

      Why Call It Innovation Engineering?

      The name Innovation Engineering precisely defines our purpose and mindset.

      Innovation is about ideas that matter. Creativity is the creation of the new and novel. Innovation is about ideas that make a difference. The difference can be new products/services, how we do our work, or even how we ignite social change in our communities.

      Engineering is about applied science. Many books and classes preach the virtues of innovation. Innovation Engineering is different—it details the big-picture leadership principles plus practical and proven “how to” methods for increasing innovation speed and decreasing risk.

      We teach theory to provide a background understanding. However, our education programs are primarily focused on how to innovate. We sweat the details. We work and rework each element of innovation until it is reduced to a reliable and reproducible process that can be documented in writing in an operational manual. We tell students to start their innovation efforts by doing exactly what we teach. When they develop confidence in their capability, they then have a responsibility to help the Innovation Engineering community discover and validate even more effective ways to innovate.

      An Academic/Industrial Partnership

      Early on we decided to create Innovation Engineering in partnership with the University of Maine. They lead the Innovation Engineering movement on college campuses around the world.

      Today, Innovation Engineering is recognized as a new field of academic study. It’s offered as an undergraduate minor, a graduate certificate, and as an off-campus executive education program. A PhD program is also in development.

      On college and university campuses we educate students on how Innovation Engineering will enable them to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities in the new economy. We explain how it will help them: 1) get a job, 2) get promoted, and/or 3) turn their ideas into reality faster and with less risk.

      The Innovation Engineering courses enable the personal passion of students. A student graduating with a degree in history or English or business, with a minor in Innovation Engineering, or the graduate certificate, has the skills and confidence to apply, activate, and make a meaningful difference leveraging what they learned in their major field of study.

      Studying Innovation Engineering on or off campus does not make you an “engineer,” as that is a title reserved for those who have passed the requirements set up by engineering trade associations for certification as a professional engineer. However, it does teach key elements of the engineering mindset: curiosity, discipline, experimentation, problem solving, and how to use writing and math to think deeper about challenges you face.

      Systems That ENABLE instead of Control

      The word system, especially in connection with innovation, creates a vision of being controlled, constrained, and restricted. That is NOT the purpose of Innovation Engineering systems. We design and develop systems that ENABLE innovation by everyone.

      The difference between systems that “enable” versus “control” is one of intent. In both cases the goal is the same—reliable delivery of desired results. As Graeme Crombie, an Innovation Engineering Black Belt (the highest Innovation Engineering certification) and an early supporter in Scotland, says:

      When the system is designed to Enable then it allows employees to take ownership for desired results, thereby delivering a higher degree of certainty that desired results will be delivered. The old form of Control requires that leaders and managers use micromanagement, direct supervision, and overexerted influence on events that really they should be leaving to the worker.

      Empowerment gives people authority to change. However, this will have no impact if people don’t know where to innovate, why to innovate, or how to innovate. Enabling is about providing the training, tools, and leadership coaching to make innovation practical, possible, and easy.

      Dr. Deming famously declared, “I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special causes (responsibility of employees).”

      Common Cause Error = Systemic errors of the system

      • 94% of problems

      • Management is responsible for making the improvement of the system a priority.

      Special Cause = Random or fleeting events

      • 6% of problems

      • These are primarily the responsibility of employees.

      • Note: Employees are also responsible for helping management improve the system.

      The simple way to state the Deming quote is the way my dad always said it to me: “94% of problems are caused by the system—6% by the workers.” Throughout this book, this is the version of the quote that we will use, as it is more directly relevant when applying system thinking to innovation.

      Dr. Deming was a tireless advocate for enabling workers to have pride in their work. As he wrote:

      A bad system will beat a good person every time. . . . A basic principle presumed here is that no one should be blamed or penalized for performance that he cannot govern. Violation of this principle can only lead to frustration and dissatisfaction with the job, and lower production.

      —Dr. W. Edwards Deming

      Improvement of a system involves reducing common cause variation. However, you can’t improve a system that doesn’t exist. And frankly, more than 99% of companies have no system for innovation. СКАЧАТЬ