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An unexpected benefit
When we read about many innovative firms such as Google, P&G, and WL Gore, you can't help but notice that people who work in those firms have great pride in their work and are genuinely enthusiastic. The more prosaic measurement of this phenomenon is called "employee engagement". A positive and somewhat unexpected outcome from innovation, as demonstrated by many innovation leaders, is a more engaged workforce. Now, this does not mean that a firm must be innovative to have high employee engagement, but it doesn't hurt. Likewise, some innovative firms are probably low on employee engagement measures, but for the most part there's a strong correlation between engagement and innovation. Why should we care?
In a time when good human resources are scarce, and people have the option to work in a wide array of firms (and geographies), high employee engagement and innovation are exceptionally attractive to many firms. First, firms that have high employee engagement tend to have very enthusiastic, involved employees who feel like "they make a difference". Second, firms with high employee engagement find it easier to retain good employees, so replacement costs are lower. Third, firms with high employee engagement and a reputation for innovation find it much easier to recruit and attract new talent. After all, if you are planning to compete as an innovator, you aren't competing for talent just in your industry, but against any other innovative firm. For these reasons, high employee engagement is very valuable. High employee engagement is also a virtuous circle. The higher the engagement, the more involved, productive and committed are the employees. What's the relationship to
innovation?
Historically, employee engagement increased as firms implemented and grew innovation capabilities. A "soft" side benefit of generating new product and service ideas was that the employee base felt their voices were heard and their ideas welcomed and implemented. What's different now is that firms are recognizing a new innovation program or capability can be partially justified by increases in employee engagement - in other words, what was a nice side benefit is becoming a rationale for investment. This is especially true in firms that have had a history of successful product or service innovation that have lost their focus, due to significant cost cutting or outsourcing. In many firms, the employee base begins to feel their ideas are ignored and the people grow grow disenchanted. The engagement can be recovered through a return to focus on innovation. Could 3M be an example
We at OVO don't have a business relationship with 3M, but if there's a poster child for this trend, it's got to be 3M. 3M is well known as an innovator historically, but has lost its innovation focus as new management imposed a continuous improvement and cost cutting agenda. Several articles have appeared in the business press recently identifying the frustration that many within 3M feel about their loss of innovation focus. 3M is now adjusting course and introducing more innovation focus. We'll predict the outcome as two fold: more engaged, enthusiastic employees and increased revenue from new product and services introductions. What can you do about engagement?
If your firm is considering implementing an innovation program, evaluate how enthusiastic and engaged your employees are today. Work with your HR team to understand their goals for engagement and demonstrate how innovation can greatly impact engagement. HR may come on board as a sponsor of the innovation program. If you have an existing innovation program or capability, keep up the enthusiasm and effort. The innovation program has a great side benefit of keeping excitement and engagement high and reduces turnover. Conclusion
Clearly, innovative firms have excited, engaged employees. Firms that do a great job listening to the ideas of their teams and bringing those ideas to market as new products and services only reinforce an already engaged employee base. A consistent, sustained innovation program in any firm can increase employee engagement and enthusiasm if it is effectively implemented and supported. Beyond the benefits of new product and services, a firm can build greater enthusiasm, engagement and retention in its employee base. |
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Occasional innovation
If your firm is like most firms, innovation happens in fits and starts. Sometimes there's a focus on innovation and new ideas are generated fairly quickly. Other times the focus is on the next quarter, or closing the books, or on a new product launch, and innovation takes a back seat. If this sounds familiar you should ask yourself, your team mates and your management this question: what other important function is performed on such an ad-hoc, occasional basis? Will anyone in your firm ever have the chance to master the process? The learning curve
Gaining competence and mastery over any business process or function takes time, repetition and a defined process. If the process changes or must be defined each time, or if the individuals change constantly, or if the work is performed in an on-again, off-again fashion, no one will master the capabilities and the work will always be inefficient and frustrating. Would you regularly change the accounting standards you use to manage your finances, or ask the sales team to step in on occasion to complete a manufacturing order? Of course not, since your team optimizes its output by having experienced individuals who understand the processes do the work. They've come up the learning curve and have gained mastery. Heck, we even have masters for Six Sigma - we call them "black belts". But when it comes to innovation - defining new products and services, everything seems ad hoc. Innovation and the learning curve
Most firms struggle to come up the innovation learning curve, for several reasons. First, many don't recognize or understand the importance of a defined process, so while innovation is happening, there is no common process. Every individual or team creates their own process, so little learning is leveraged or available for individuals that follow. Second, few permanent innovation teams exist, so there's little chance for individuals to repeat the processes and learn from their failures or mistakes. Third, if innovation is not a consistent focus, then the people who have participated in the past are often not involved in future efforts, so there's little or no chance for good practice to be passed on. Gaining competence
Innovation is often thought of as a risky, difficult and unrewarding effort, fraught with frustration. Well, any effort that involves risk and change that is undertaken by individuals who have little past experience and no clear process is going to struggle. The only way to gain competence and become a more consistent innovator is to practice. That means that a consistent innovation process is defined and closely followed, and the successes and failures within the process are communicated back and the learnings are incorporated. This means that individuals get more than one chance to innovate and have the support and learnings from previous innovators to fall back on. Conclusion
Gaining expertise in any process or function requires that the individuals or teams have the training necessary and an opportunity to perform the tasks more than one time. If this sounds like a repeatable process, then it probably is. Too often in our innovation efforts, there's little thought given to the barriers and challenges of once and done innovation approaches. Innovation will always be a frustrating and difficult experience if all of the participants are new to the experience and never have a chance to gain any mastery. |
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If you can't get enough
We're pleased to note that innovation articles by OVO are appearing in a number of locations over the next few months. See the links below for recently published articles, and stay tuned for even more commentary and advice on the innovation front. Real Innovation Real Innovation (www.realinnovation.com) is running a series of articles by OVO. Loosely entitled the "Seven C's", these articles are based on successful evaluation criteria to use to judge ideas. These criteria include items like consumer control, choice, convenience, community, and several other important aspects to consider when evaluating an idea. This approach provides a useful, consistent, general evaluation framework to consider your ideas, before examining them against very specific client or market needs. Real Innovation will publish one article a month for the next few months on each "C" factor. Here's the link for the second article on convenience. Look for new articles each month. ThatRadio
OVO consultant and VP of Marketing Jeffrey Phillips was interviewed by Tim Hurson on his radio show March 3rd. The podcast of that radio show is here. The show was focused on the tasks necessary to build an innovation capability in a business. Give it a listen. Read More
Find links to these articles and other articles, blogs and video logs from OVO at our website. |
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