Innovation How?

Onli is the Fabric of Innovation.

A CEO of a Fortune 500 company playfully said to me, “nice slogan but I got to tell you, I have not met a lot of people who know how to do that; innovate. It is obviously easy for you but for everyone else, not so much .”

It got me thinking about how I think about innovation. In my humble opinion, Innovation is not magic. It’s a skill. Anyone can do it. It is a doing thing. It is not a thinking thing or a feeling thing. It is a recipe. You get the ingredients and follow the recipe and you get it every time. There is obviously a prerequisite to that: capablilty. To be capable of innovation, you need to be humble enough to accept you don’t know, make the effort to learn how, practice until you get it right, and then practice until you can’t get it wrong. Ultimately innovation isn’t something 190 IQ guys alone could do, if anything intelligence gets in the damn way, it is something anyone can do. No one is too dumb to get it but most people are too smart to get it.

Innovation is natural and human. You cannot “not” innovate. There are a ton of obstacles to innovation and that is the real work. Removing those. The problem with innovation, is that most people aren’t after innovation. What they want is the credit. The difference between a Pro Athelete and an athletic person. Is not the love of winning. Most of the time as a pro you lose a lot more than you win. The difference that makes the difference is that a Pro Athlete loves the practice. Most people want the credit without doing the work. What they hope to avoid is paying the price. What they want is a genie that grants wishes, not an opportunity to earn. They are looking for the angle, the easy way. They are desperate for the credit because they want the love and admiration they are lacking. Intuitively they believe that if “others” can acknowledge them as innovators they will get the recognition they deserve. They want to keep what they have and get a little more. They are disappointed when it isn’t the way they imagined it will be. This reality is the problem with innovation and why it is percieved to be something “special” you either have or you don’t.

You can’t get more without giving up something. Only an empty cup can be filled. Coveting something never works. Greed and avoidance of the work it takes, are two values that just cancel each other out. You can’t go forward taking two steps back. That is an unrealistic expectation and has nothing to do with the nature of the thing. Therapy may be a better investment for resolving all that. You cannot bring those values to the pursuit of innovation. That is just diving off a rook into concrete. It is ultimately painful to pretend. The point is to know yourself. Be honest with yourself. If you want Innovation then pay the price. If you only wish and covet it then walk away. Innovation demands commitment. They are inseparable. What does all this have to do with business? Everything. Your feelings have nothing to do with innovation. The secret to innovation is something you must perceive with the intellect not the heart.

Innovation is a formula. Find out what to do and just do it, pay the price, the sooner you do the faster you get there. It is not negotiable. Stop negotiating, just do it. Innovation is mechanical.

While I take it for granted now. The simple fact is I didn’t invent the formula. I learned it. It is not a secret. Like all truth, It is not hidden. There is nothing to figure out. Probably the most important lesson my master at the monastery taught me was that: The world is not in darkness. It is your eyes that are closed. The funny thing was that she said it to me every day and still, it took me a year to get it. Put simply, everything you need to know is already known. Try to imagine for a moment, just expand your mind, let go of your self, and reach out, listen. You will come to realize the obviousness of the truth. You are a part of something larger. Billions of human beings have lived before you did. Thought as you did. Lived as you did. Done what you have done. You don’t need to figure it out. There is nothing to figure out. Stop reinventing the wheel. It’s been done. Move on, find a better challenge. Move up from the wheel to the car. Just go buy the wheels. The “invented here” mentality is pure ego. Ego is about as useful as hitting yourself in the head with a hammer. It only feels really good when you stop. Put down the hammer. Any problem you ever had chances are, someone else had it and if they didn’t solve it at least they could get you halfway there. Stand on the shoulders of giants not beneath them. Everything you need to know is already known. There is nothing to figure out. You just have to be willing to reach out, to listen and to receive it. You don’t make innovation happen. You allow it. You open your eyes to see it. It all starts with acceptance. Follow the rule of acceptance in your life and you will never know loss and grief. Be accepting that you don’t know and institutionalize it. The job of the workplace is really to remove the obstacles to innovation. Innovation is a process. It’s natural and human.

All good advice but how do you do that first for yourself and then for your institution. How does one “open the eyes”, how does one come to see clearly. How do you cultivate that in an institution? How exactly, step by step. ???

My formula is Definition + Framework = (Insight *Iteration)Test = Innovation.

Definition

The process begins with a definition. The definition is what enables you to see clearly. Everything you need to know is already known. Here is a quick definition that works well for me.

From Geoff Moore (of Crossing the Chasm)

Target (who is it for) (target customer)

who (statement of the need or opportunity),

the (product name) is a (product category)

that (statement of key benefit — that is, compelling reason to buy).

Unlike (primary alternative), our product (statement of primary differentiation).

Another approach is

‘A [target customer] has /have [need or opportunity].

Currently, they’re [primary alternative], in this [product category]

but if we offer [ (product name ] our target will [desired behavior]

because [statement of key benefit — that is, compelling reason to buy], then we’ll have success through [acquisition, onboarding, engagement, retention, etc.].

Framework

The next step is a fully formed outcome, which is the output of a framework.. You want to see the big picture. This is the WORK part. With a little practice, it will take about 30 minutes to do. Once you have a model down (practice) and it becomes like 2nd nature (practice until you get it right), you will begin to do this so quickly that it will take more time to explain how you knew. Once you have a definition then you want to fill out the big picture. That means asking core questions. My favorite saying is “Questions drive cognition”. You want to take the cognition somewhere then ask questions. It is all about the questions. To fill out the picture then ask a framework of questions.

Probably the best framework for this is BPC — BUSINESS PLAN CANVAS. There are a ton of BPC training approaches. If your institution doesn’t have this skill then that’s just plain inexcusable.

From alexandercowan.com

The Canvas is popular with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs for business model innovation. It’s a quick coherent view of a business’ key drivers–

1. Customer Segments: Who are the customers? What do they think? See? Feel? Do?
2. Value Propositions: What’s compelling about the proposition? Why do customers buy, use?
3. Channels: How are these propositions promoted, sold, and delivered? Why? Is it working?
4. Customer Relationships: How do you interact with the customer through their ‘journey’? What is the customer journey?
5. Revenue Streams: How does the business earn revenue from the value propositions?
6. Key Activities: What uniquely strategic things does the business do to deliver its proposition?
7. Key Resources: What unique strategic assets must the business have to compete?
8. Key Partnerships: What can the company not do so it can focus on its Key Activities?
9. Cost Structure: What are the business’ major cost drivers? How are they linked to revenue?

Methodology

(Insight *Iteration)Test

These are all doing things. They are methodologies that one develops. They vary for every feild. Nothing is true until you test it.

Start with a definition and a framework. The bottom line is this: If you don’t have a well-articulated understanding, then everything else you do is irrelevant.

Understanding is job one. I like to say removing the obstacles to my understanding is job #1 because in my experience once you do the work and get it understanding, you realize that it is so easy, you wonder why you resisted, and made it so hard, in the first place.

Probably the best advice I can give is the best advice I ever got. Learn how to think about a business like a CEO. CEO stands for CUSTOMER EMPATHY OFFICER. Cultivate customer empathy to create killer communication that is actionable for your audience. That’s the job.. It all begins with a well-articulated understanding.

Innovation delivers growth when you understand it. Innovation isn’t a mystery or a secret. It’s a mindset. You have to set your mind to it. Innovation whether in your business or your life. It is all the same thing. In business, your fellow man, they are the customers. In life, you are the customer. Cultivating innovation in your life is just as important in your business.

Innovation is easy when you “know how”. How do you get the know-how? You do the work to find out, then practice until you get it right and then practice until you can’t get it wrong. No one is too dumb to get it, it is a doing thing. You do. You get. However there are some people are too smart to get it.