Measuring Innovation

Image courtesy the BCG

To all my fellow innovation managers out there who are trying so desparately hard to measure the value of innovation in your organizations, I wanted to share something that struck me as so simplistic yet so profound that in and of itself, was truly innovative.

Rick Weaver posted an article about measuring project success and the impact Cloud services could have on these measures.  One of his measurements focused on an "Innovation Ratio" where we consider how much we are spending on reducing technical debts versus the amount of new capabilities we are adding.  More simplistically put:

                           Amount spent on reducing technical debts
      Innovation =  ------------------------------------------------------------
                                Amount of new capabilities added

To me we could keep this very simple on figuring out hard numbers of Innovation.  Consider what   are you spending to ensure your current technology does not become obsolete?  Are we buying the latest and greatest versions or upgrading legacy equipment?  Are we removing manual systems that lead to errors?

And then capabilities are easily accounted from a basic features list.  What can you do now that you could not do before is a great measurement for any change project or initiative.  Those are the benefits that are quickly tangible!   You can worry about culture change and measuring shifts in dynamics later once you have buy-in with your metrics!

So where to look for these things?  Again, keep it simple - where are you manually addressing processes?  Where are you using outdated technology (easy answer is where do people ignore the technology provided and instead use their own manual process - these are anyone creating their own spreadsheets and databases or emailing items or worse, printing!!)?

What ideas do you have?  Again, this equation struck me as a great way to help MEASURE INNOVATION and the value that you are bringing to an organization!

Building Leadership Skills on Project Teams

I recently had the pleasure of sharing this as a presentation at PMI HNL Professional Development Day 2015 and enjoyed the feedback that I've incorporated into this posting to continue to share and build on thoughts that makes us successful when working with people!

If you want a different outcome, ask yourself what are you doing differently to achieve this outcome.

Requirements

Understand that project teams are made up with people of diverse experience & expertise; while valuable to the team, realize that they each take a different view of the challenge at hand

Physically displaying items – whether in pictures of end result or large words posted on the wall – help clarify and ensure everyone is literally on the same page.

Consider “Draw the Pig” icebreaker – instructions available at:  http://www.whiteman.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-130408-056.pdf  

Risk

Draw out the potential outcomes (comic strips are great for actions) – how likely are they to occur?  Are they worth prioritizing? 

Getting Feedback

Post ideas on a large easel sheet of paper (one idea per page) and post in a common area.  Leave markers and encourage people to comment over a few days.  Great for identifying what’s in and out of scope!

Listening

Listening is about asking the right QUESTIONS (not the right answers – if you knew the answer, why are you asking the question?)

Listen to all the information the person shares versus focusing on just what you want to hear – you may miss out on valuable information!

Get a scribe – someone NOT a stakeholder to take notes so that you may engage with your stakeholders.  Then review afterwards with the scribe and highlight key insights from your listening.

Process Definition

How a process works is sometimes better to see in person.  If you can’t physically see the action then act it out (think charades!). 

Brainstorming

Use the “Red Cup” or other object – one idea per person, must say an idea before passing, can only say one idea and continue for a short amount of time with a hard time limit (push people to go faster!) – focus is on QUANTITY not quality.  It removes the “analysis paralysis” by focusing on the object while getting equal participation by all, regardless of position or expertise.  There are no right or wrong answers, just ideas to grow on.

     Question from presentation: Brainstorming in this way could still allow influence on others - YES!  Participants, even though the focus is on equal pariticipation by all, could still be influencing others; however, the goal of brainstorming is quantity.  If you're more focused on not influencing, then anonymous techniques (via email and a facilitator) or non-verbal techniques (using post-its on a wall) may be preferred.  Adjust to your situation!

Prototyping

Build something a user can interact with – SHOW what the envisioned end result is, do not tell them.  Give them something to interact with.

Prioritizing

Write out each item on a post-it, one per post-it.  Then provide stakeholders with poker chips (or other voting item) and have them vote.  They can place as many as they want on each, but no “buying” more.                                                     

Just TRY it!  And build on Lessons Learned!

More Words of Wisdom for BA's (Part 2 of 2)

Continuing on my last post regarding the amazing discussions taking place at Building Business Capability (BBC) Conference 2013, sponsored by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), business analysts and other professionals continued to garner insights from discussions around change – incremental versus transformational.  Do you know the expected type of change demanded of the organization before you begin an engagement?  What are their expectations around timeframes, costs and impact?  Small scopes might imply incremental change, leaving harder challenges for later as showing any progress would be more meaningful than exists today.  Larger scopes coming from the top down around new visions and transformations refer to transformational changes that are more permanent.  These will take more time and cost, but go back to the objectives – what is the overall goal of the engagement and get the owners to understand that their objectives and expectations are going to need to match up to the time and resources required to get them there.  An interesting thought for those who love to capture processes – if the new process is so different from the current, only spend limited time documenting the current one as it will have little matter once the new process is in place.  Utilize your resources carefully such that they spend their time on the most valued activities on the critical path to success. 

Back to innovation, a great thought was shared that smart leadership should only create the container, the space for the activities to occur.  Limited boundaries keep things focused, but then allow all creativity to exist within that space HOW they go about implementing the process.  As long as objectives are met (the box you’ve given) the details should be trivial on the execution.  Knowledge workers will look to simplify their own lives and streamline operations into efficiency without being scripted by those unfamiliar with the process.  One can destroy innovation if they put too much pressure on the process versus delighting the customer, internal or external in the end solution.

And finally, consider your own role as a BA and what leadership skills you are sharing with your teams.  To help differentiate between a project manager and BA, often a whole debate in itself, consider how you present the value of your role outside the project.  Rather than focusing on scope, highlight how determining which projects should be undertaken is inherently more valuable to the organization.  Move from software to systems and how individual pieces and projects work together to support the overall business objectives.  The shift should be from requirements focus to becoming a visionary, innovator, strategist and leader.  These roles are so needed and ask any PM – I bet you often they have little time nor authority to consider the solution being put into place and are so driven by deadlines and narrow objectives that having a BA around to see before and after the project would be greatly welcomed!  A great thought I heard was make sure that a project isn’t just being done to satisfy a debate between two competing technologies.  Ask if the technology itself is even needed – that will solve the debate quickly!  But too often this occurs where two options are considered without holding true business value in the forefront, regardless of technology solution.

I love the closing thoughts that to improve your own BA skills, elicit requirements from those you work with on what they require from you.  We spend so much time on requirements definition we often forget ourselves.  Ask your stakeholders and use some of that input as guidelines or benchmarks and then seek opportunities to improve these skills.  Better execution of the old models is not enough, but encourage yourself to innovation and reinvent your approaches!  Know your own strengths and surround yourself with others with different strengths so that you become more diverse.  Remember, trust, an important part of relationships, is a two-way streak.  Ask yourself if you are worthy of the other person’s trust.  And a final note – people follow people who get things done.  Keep your word and use your energy and many others will follow willing to help!

Business Analysts Words of Wisdom (part 1 of 2)

    Last November, I had the exciting opportunity to not only attend, but even share my own experiences at the Building Business Capability (BBC) Conference 2013, sponsored by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).  There were so many wonderful sessions and engaging speakers, it was so hard trying to select which to attend!  In my own experience, certain key areas stood out to me: fostering innovation, facilitating change, leadership skills and collaboration and teamwork approaches.

     Keynote Marty Clarke gave an incredible presentation about “Avoiding Leadership Landmines” to kick off the conference.  He shared great lessons learned we could all benefit by heeding, such as avoiding managing the exception.  Ask yourself if you change a decision, reconsider an approach or completely redirect your strategy for the majority – the most probable outcomes – or are simply letting a one-in-a-million chance derail your hard work.  As he talked about meetings, being a leader – being the one to make a decision and say what everyone is thinking anyways – is not only what is needed, but also remains your job if you are the true leader.  And about these meetings…have as many as necessary and as few as required.  Too much is going on every day that communication at any level can not succumb to outside pressure.  While it may occur faster than ever, the nuances of proper grammar and respect cannot go out the window just because the method is faster.  The message in fact should be shorter and twice the clarity as before.  Consider your voicemails – avoid the endless message.  And emails need to be proofread before sending.  Spell check is NOT proofreading!!

    Focusing on Innovation, I really enjoyed the thoughts that asked us if we felt we do it on a regular basis or its just something that you set an hour of your time aside to do and then go back to your old habits.  Something that I’ve already applied in my work today was how to not only get new ideas but also eliminate the meeting multitasking.  Doing things differently will get you different results and if you want people to not be looking at their phones, get them involved with an activity.  Words and talking do not foster creativity and so facilitate a meeting differently if you want different outcomes.   When someone shares an idea, there are no “no’s” or “but’s” there’s only “and.”  Try next time, when someone proposes an idea, saying “Yes, and…” to get them to think through the idea rather than instantly pointing out the negative.  Give the idea a chance to marinate a little and the true seed of creativity may emerge!

(Part 1 of 2 - more to come next week...)