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Constrained thinking
What's the impact of your workspace on your ability to innovate? Can a workspace influence your thinking and encourage or limit creativity and innovation? We believe the answer to both question is yes, for a number of reasons. Stimulation
Why is it that every preschool and elementary school are full of bright colors and lots of sunlight, and most workspaces are full of muted light and acres and acres of beige or gray walls and cubicles? School kids go to school to learn and enjoy mental stimulation in many of their activities. The entire environment is meant to get then thinking and engage all of their senses. In contrast, the average office building seems to be little more than an attempt to be as boring and generic as absolutely possible, with few colors, poor lighting and the feeling of being trapped in the continuing sameness. Few senses are stimulated and thinking is constrained by the architecture, layout, colors and textures. Need proof? Look no further than your local creative agency, ad agency or marcom firm. Many of these very "creative" organizations have much more interesting, dynamic spaces. Why? Because they stimulate more creativity and new ways of thinking. Do these firms need that kind of thinking more than your firm? Contemplation
The average office building, full of rows and rows of cubes, is anathema to quiet contemplation and organized thought. In this environment, it is difficult to find a quiet space to think beyond the next phone call or interruption from your friend in the next cube. In response, many individuals who work in cubes have taken to wearing noise canceling headphones to isolate themselves from the rest of the people within those cubes. Everything that makes a cube valuable for firms - its flexibility, space management, ability for individuals to quickly pop in and pop out, the ability for managers to "manage by walking around" makes it difficult to think creatively and innovatively. Cubes do allow others to overhear conversations and on occasion others can pipe in with ideas, but often we simply screen out the conversations of others. What we need are quiet, open workspaces where several people can brainstorm or collaborate, then return to spaces intended for contemplation and evaluation of ideas. Most firms have too many cubes and too few informal meeting spaces for collaborative work. Divergence
Everything in corporate American aims for convergence. We seek to converge our thinking and processes, and everything about the workspace, from the layout to the sameness to the focus on continuous improvement reinforces convergence. However, innovative thinking requires divergence, the ability to think broadly and outside accepted parameters about an opportunity or challenge. When the corporate culture, processes and architecture reinforce convergence and sameness, how can the innovation team break away and begin to think differently? Why can't our office be like this?
We had the good fortune to sponsor some brainstorming sessions in several purpose built locations for innovation. A good example of these is Catalyst Ranch, an innovative meeting space meant to encourage expansive thinking and innovation. The bare brick walls, colorful artwork, crazy paraphernalia on the walls is unlike most people's regular work environment . I'm sure they designed the space this way on purpose. Many people often say they wish their working environment would be more like these spaces. In an era where creative thinking is more important than conformity, and innovation is at least as important as operational excellence, is a small investment in creating a more creative atmosphere in your working environment valuable for your teams? Conclusion
Walk around the office space of most large corporations. Rows and rows of cubes, all the same height, all the same color. Certainly these cubes provide flexibility and ensure no one feels that other individuals have an advantage in floor space or decoration. Strangely, the most dynamic space in most businesses is the lobby, where vendors, customers and employees interact. Yet this is not a location for innovators. Why do we reinforce the "sameness" and convergence in our work spaces when we seek divergent and creative thinking? Why do so many innovation teams seek to move "offsite" to do their work? They seek creative working environments to spawn new ideas and new methods of working. So, while most of the decisions are made in your working environment for space planning, cost savings and flexibility, they really should be made based on creativity, divergent thinking and stimulation. If your teams want new and better ideas, why not create environments more likely to help spawn them? |
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Rewarding Innovation
If living well is its own reward, what's the reward for innovation? Rewarding and recognizing the people who generate, manage and evaluate ideas is a challenge every business faces. In this article, we'll look at the problems and challenges that innovation teams face when they seek to recognize and reward innovators. Why reward innovation
One of the first questions that almost always arises is the question of whether innovators deserve rewards or recognition above the kinds of rewards and recognitions that may already exist and apply to other employees. After all, we have high expectations of employees and our colleagues. Is what innovators do so different from the rest of us that they deserve something special? In a word, yes. Innovation usually requires changes to the way people think about their business. It introduces risk and the possibility of failure. Innovation is usually not a person's "day job" but is tacked on top of an already busy schedule. So, when we add it up, many people who participate in innovation initiatives are already engaged in important businesses which need to keep operating and are being asked to run counter to the "way things are normally done", introducing risk and change into the business. If we can't find a way to recognize and reward these folks, why would they even step out on that plank? Clearly we need the ability to recognize and reward people who are working on critical projects that run counter to the prevailing culture and logic of the business. Creating the right incentives
Obviously, however, the opportunity for wrong incentives is fairly high. If we provide rewards that are beyond a reasonable amount, suddenly everyone wants to participate and none of the "day jobs" get accomplished. Additionally, the higher the reward or incentive, the more likely the individuals are to "hoard" ideas rather than collaborate, so innovation becomes more like a game show than a business process. Clearly we need enough incentives to encourage people to participate in innovation, without creating artificial incentives that distract from the day to day workings of the company or create disincentives for collaboration. Most organizations seek to recognize participation within the program in addition to recognizing the person who submitted the "winning" idea. Since there are many people who collaborate to generate and manage the ideas, participation in the process is just as important as being the original submitter of an idea. Innovative people like to, well, innovate. One great reward or incentive is to give people time to innovate and be creative. For many innovators the "fun" is in the process - reward them with more time and your team and firm will benefit as well. Recognition
For some innovators, receiving a cash payment or other reward for innovating is a disincentive. They enjoy the thrill of generating ideas and having their ideas put into practice. For many of these innovators, peer recognition is more important than the reward or cash payout. As you build your rewards and recognition program, be sure to include a recognition programs that allows committed innovators to gain recognition for their participation and ideas. This could take the form of a new title or even a specific status as an innovator gains new skills - akin to a "Green belt" or Black Belt within Six Sigma programs. Conclusion
For an innovation program to succeed, the people working on generating and managing ideas need to understand the potential rewards available to them, especially if the innovation program is new and is introducing change or risk into the business. While some truly dedicated people may be willing to take on an innovation initiative without further inducement, most will want to understand the potential "upside", since they recognize that developing an innovation program will require challenging the existing thinking and processes. As innovation leaders, your job is to create the cultural attitudes to make the innovation programs more acceptable, and understand the balance between "rewards" and recognition for the innovation teams so that collaboration does not suffer, and people receive the reward or recognition that motivates them. |
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Mix and Mingle
As we noted previously, the Front End of Innovation is probably one of the largest innovation events held each year. A wide array of people will be attending this year, and the list of speakers looks very promising. The conference will be held on May 19-21 in Boston, and you can register to attend if you haven't already by clicking this link. What's the rationale?
What can you expect to gain if you attend? Every year there are hundreds of people just like you who are interested in improving the innovation capability or processes within their firms. Approximately 30 consulting firms, market research firms and software firms will present their capabilities and solutions to assist you in your innovation efforts. You have the opportunity to learn from your peers, experts in the innovation space, and build networks that can help you as you tackle this challenge internally. I can't think of a good reason not to attend if you have any interest or involvement in innovation. Stop by and say hello
If you attend the Front End event, please stop by and say hello to us in booth 14. We'll be unveiling a new software version to help capture and manage ideas, and we'll have signed copies of Make us more Innovative available. |
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A shameless plug
My recently published book - Make us more Innovative - has received some great kudos and feedback from industry analysts, customers and prospects. One recent prospect said he felt it was the best book on the market to define how to build an innovation capability (Thanks Dad!). Widely Available
The book, which is about the steps required to build a sustainable, repeatable innovation capability in a business, is available at a number of online bookstores and in several media - as a paperback, an e-book and even in Kindle format. Take a minute to explore the website we've constructed for the book and the other white papers and information about innovation on the Make us more Innovative site. |
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