Tako Eye...and Process Improvement

Tako Eye is seeing the process improvement innately....Calamari is asking if you even need the process in the first place!

Let me start with explaining this "tako eye" thing...I have to credit a mentor for phrasing the "tako eye".   In Hawai'i, we often use the Hawaiian and Japanese words for things we talk about in daily dialogue.  Tako is a Japanese word to refer to an octopus.  If you have ever watched one move across the ocean reef, they constantly change their colors to match their surroundings around them to blend in and better hunt their prey.

To have "Tako Eye" means that you see the tako on the reef while everyone else is marveling at the pretty fish swimming around the coral.  You see the moving creature, adapting, searching and even stalking right through the activities of the environment.  When you are looking at your business processes, what do you notice?  Do you notice things before people even consider the situation itself?  Do you see the root cause before the long-pressed symptoms discussion ever happens?  Then you my friend have "tako eye"!

But now I've had the fortunate exposure to go beyond this - let's make some calamari!  Now that you know how to spot the process improvement, are you able to step back further and not be lured in by the beauty of the movements and the awe of the colors and see that you can satisfy your own hunger with a tasty treat?  To be a helpful analyst and improve process is absolutely a needed skill set.  To go further and challenge the organization to ask how the process even fits and continues to support the organization's mission and goals is a key element of being that senior advocate for the business.

As we were improving a process, I noticed everyone was trying to fix the process.  We were talking about future status and no one was questioning the very existence of the process itself.  If we are truly talking about future state, then you don't bring the baggage of existing along with you.  But too often our stakeholders get consumed by what they do versus realizing they need to rise above existing 'business' and focus back on goals.  Asking the questions to what you are trying to accomplish - asking WHY! - becomes a key value to your role as a business analyst and process improvement support member.

So do you have "tako eye" and see the process improvement opportunity existing in the chaos of today's world?  Do you even see your next appetizer and are ready to cook calamari?  Share your thoughts on how we find and highlight these creatures of the deep that are all around us!

Doing Requirements Well

I've had the privilege of sharing some thoughts on doing Requirements well in the "real world" and I love the questions that it spawned from the Business Analysis community.  Here are some of those questions and some ideas I had on how I would respond.

"How do you identify the right stakeholders?"
Creating agendas and preparing  your questions of what you wish to accomplish

"Some people may fear that they may be complaining and may be reluctant to offer up 'pain points' - how do you best work with these situations to understand the current issues?"
Ask people what they LOVE about what they do - what works well?  What could be better?  As you follow this approach, the stakeholders will often start to highlight the exceptions to what works really well and that will give you the opportunity for improvement, but it's an expression of what could be better versus asking what's wrong.




If there is a conflict between the stakeholders regarding what should be consider a requirement...what can we do?
With conflict, I love to isolate the problem.  A simple technique is to "throw it on the wall and see what sticks!"  I literally write the problem statement on the board and so your stakeholders "attack" the challenge versus attacking each other.  Now we're a team trying to overcome the challenge at hand (versus disagreeing amongst each other).




How do you establish your expertise in the Requirements space, specifically, if the client himself isn't technically qualified and is insisting on limiting the BA to certain templates to use?
If someone asks you to use a template, ask them to walk you through it.  Do a collaborative approach with the stakeholder so that you can use your elicitation skills and ask good questions, even if the answers have to go in a predetermined 'box'.




How would you recommend handling an environment where many areas may are a part of a process/transaction, but true ownership is not clear?  Multiple managers may either view they own the process or no one feels they own it at all.
Try changing the focus to the product.  Who manages it today?  Identify who would be affected if you change a process - show how their daily routine would change based upon a decision.  And when in doubt - get them in a room and walk through the process around the decision so that everyone sees what the considerations may be. 




How do you deal with participants who give you non-functional or design specs as opposed to the function or business requirements?
Ask them WHY!  These will start to draw out the requirements at a higher level then where they are focused.  And ask for use cases and scenarios around what they are describing.  Even if the use case or scenario doesn't give you the specific business requirements, it will at least give you more stakeholders to approach as you may need to seek a different audience.




What tips do you have to match elicitation techniques to project/audience?
Know your project and more importantly your audience!  If the outcome is well defined, then use techniques that focus on specifics such as traceability and process flows.  If you are exploring options then use techniques such as brainstorming and focus group to allow the freedom of expression.  As well as even consider if you need greater engagement then consider using collaborative games.  This comes out of your BA planning work PRIOR to beginning your elicitation when you are doing stakeholder analysis.


A scribe may be helpful, but what are alternatives when resources are limited?
Having another BA assist you is a great way to job shadow and even be assessed on your own skill sets.  And if you're needing greater stakeholder engagement, ask the stakeholders to take turns capturing the discussion points and outcomes.  And don't forget to ask if you can record a session for playback later.  Reinforce you understand the sensitivity of the conversation and share all results and they may be more open to ideas that improve even current processes. 


Have you used Use Cases in the past and if so, did you find it useful to subsequently extract requirements and/or to ensure the requirements are complete?
Use cases are great for helping you validate your requirements and trace them to completeness.  I often ask for scenarios as story telling can be an easier approach for your stakeholders than asking them to give a 'checklist' of requirements - definitely can feel more natural to your stakeholders!


What are your thoughts on mockups being inserted into requirements?
Mockups are great for drawing out requirements.  Use the language your customers are comfortable when trying to elicit information.  The check is to go back and not only verify but then validate these represent the value your customer is expecting to add.


Do you find the use of "and" in requirements causes issues for designers or developers?YES!!  However, if this is how your stakeholders start off with requirements, then take it and work to verify them by separating them out as you ask more details.  Functional decomposition usually is a great way to help your stakeholders separate and isolate the requirements that make it easy for the next team who will work on them, such as designers and developers.


How do you position and integrate business rules into requirements?Business rules are part of your requirements so they are often intermingled.  Walk through the process so you get the process mapped.  As you verify the process, while walking through the process maps, capture requirements in one table and business rules in another.  Then identify the dependencies so that you know if you test or change one you must re-verify and validate the associations.


What if the requirement has been approved but later the solution was not as expected and all the estimates allotted were consumed?  What do we do with the requirement?
When you wrote the requirement, did you write acceptance criteria?  This acceptance criteria should still hold true to leading to project/initiative success and so the requirement is still required.  This is when you rely on change control processes to help you coordinate getting the resources to deliver the value.  It is easier to get more resources when you show the value of what they will provide. 


Is it acceptable practice to use words like "YOU/YOUR" or "WE/OUR" while doing business analysis in a context with respective stakeholders who may be also part of same organization?
use personal nouns when creating vision, describing success criteria and acceptance criteria as you want the personal buy-in of the stakeholders.  As you move to requirements and user stories, utilize the role that is affected or acting in the situation to draw out the need, not simply the want.  If the requirement can stand for anyone in the role it helps articulate business value to the organization than a one time occurrence for "you."




If you are an IIBA member, the presentation on "Requirements for Requirements" is available in their archived webinars section on their website IIBA.org.




Do you have any "Tips and Tricks" for BA's to share?  Please COMMENT and share your thoughts as well!

The Value of Added Value

I had the fortunate pleasure of being able to work with some fabulous Business Analysts (BA's) the other week as we were doing course work of the role of the business analyst.  Great questions came up about how to deliver value to the organization.  However, the most challenging question came up in "how to show the value of delivering this business value?"

What a great business analysis question!  How do I show the value of a business analyst that delivers value to the organization?  How do I show the time spent is value added?  How is the cost not only justified but then RETURNED to the organization?

This is the fun of a business analyst to ask the questions then about what you DO know.  What is it that you know you can measure today?  What do I know about the process today?  If there is a 'pain point' and you solve it, what is that worth to the organization?

Measures can always be identified and broken down based on the scenario.  Again, measure what you do know.  How long does it take you to complete a process (perhaps an average time frame).  Then if you change something in your process and re-measure the process, did it take less time?  More time?  This is the essential perspective of measuring - after a change, how do you compare to the baseline?

So if you're considering training and trying to justify it, can you identify activities that you do prior to training that might change based on your training?  Same thing with justifying the position of a business analyst or re-shaping your role to be an official BA - what are you doing now (and how can you measure it) and what will the process look like after the change (and what are the measures then).

Get Good In, Get Good Out...and Keep BA's Happy!

So I saw this posting and had to share it.  Funny how the first thing I thought about was how it applied to business stakeholders and business analysis.

But think about it for a few.  How many times have you read a business case and wondered how in the world the person came to the conclusion!?  I love the business case of a 12 month project that was submitted, but revenue projections show that they will be bringing in revenue on the second month of the project when the product will not official be available for sale until at least half way through the project!  

The thought that if you act like an adult and think about what value means and how to achieve it and spend some thought about what it will take to achieve this, then you will get more scrutiny from the BA than our minion is providing here.  Yet time and time again I see business cases submitted with the same amount of energy as the decision making being done above.  

Picking the project with the cooler sounding name will only make you cool as long as it takes to read the title.  After that the metal hits the pavement and you have to produce.  Projects fail if they were not well conceived to even start with.  And I adamantly defend BA's that projects do not fail because of bad requirements, but because they were not even setup to scope ANY requirements.  Some forethought to consider what might be involved, even a simple checklist can save a TON of resources!

Get the businesses to consider a simple checklist before submitting any kind of proposal, whether major project or small work enhancement:

• Is there IT components?  (Could there be IT components?)
• Do we do this work in house today?  
• What Legal issues are there?
• What Compliance rules do we have to worry about?
• Have we complied with Branding requirements?
• Who will be my testers to evaluate the solution?
• Do I know my budget?  Have I taken in account budget for any changes?
• Who are the people who use this process?
• Who are the people who support this process?
• Who are the people who pay for this process?
• Who has no clue about this process?  (Should they?)

And I could go on and on - but considering asking someone to look at these questions and for any question they do not know the answer to, then they must NOT submit their request and go find out.  A small checklist can save you a TON of time and headache from trying to work with a project manager to deliver an unrealistic project.  You may not be able to change the stakeholder's mentality but you can get them to consider a few conditions prior to asking for the world.  Then you'l be as happy as a BA with a 'bunch' of requirements!

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!

Delivering Value

How are you delivering VALUE in all you do?

VALUE - an interesting word that is often talked about but completely missed in daily activities.  This only perpetuates the statistics that projects fail to meet objectives or campaigns fail to meet their targets - they fail to deliver the value expected.

Do you consider how you are delivering value in all you do?  If every person on a team constantly looked at how they are delivering value, would the team then end up delivering significant value?

Being part of a volunteer organization where every single activity is done out of one's own selflessness, I found it amazing the energy and effort put into providing value for the members.  People who all have full time jobs in addition to their volunteer must absolutely prioritize all that they do.  For the service organization, the challenge was put out to ask if every thing they do delivers value, especially board members.  You are serving others and if you are not serving their value needs, then your efforts are not delivering the value intended.

Consider every task that is brought up in your work or volunteer organizations and ask "Does this deliver value to our [customer/stakeholder]?"  If you have a hard time answering this, you may reconsider the task itself.  People in offices often talk about how busy they are.  I see it too, personally, that the amount of information moving around seems to create a buzz of activity.  However, I find myself asking if what I'm doing is adding value.  I found a few simple responses to help me get through my day more efficiently by considering "Am I Delivering Value if I do this task?"

• If I answer "no" then I simply delete it and move on.  
• If I think the answer is "no" then I delete it and move on.
• If I answer "yes" then I prioritize it and do it as soon as possible.
• If I think the answer is "yes" then I skip for now and come back after I do the prioritized "Yes" items

"But wait!! Delete?  No one deletes ANYTHING around here!!"  To this answer - if it is important, someone will bring it up again - guaranteed!  And remember what's important to you may not be important to others so you can skip the tasks, but the owner/affected stakeholder may find value and will continue to pursue it.  Often if they ask a second time that have more information that provides you the background to turn it into a "Yes" value answer.

What's interesting on the "think the answer is.." options - they are often all No's as either it's clear that you can not articulate the value or you do not have enough information at this time to answer Yes and until then you do not understand the value.

Tricks to try and would love to hear other ideas and thoughts!!!

Spheres of Control, Influence and Control

Working on a team that includes Business Analysts, Project Managers and Software Developers, the sphere of responsibility can quickly grow out of control.  Like any team or organization, prioritization always represents a challenge and a great manager made an interesting thought when some discussion was being made:

"Consider your sphere of control, your sphere of influence and sphere of concern."

I loved this visual concept when thinking about priorities.   I found it a great way to reset myself. 

Think about the things you CAN do (whether you should or not is another thing to think about later) - these are things in your control.  If you can't change how the other team will react, what their priorities are, etc., then stop trying to control it.  Control what you can and prioritize that accordingly.  Then those things you're worrying about - consider what you can influence.  And then only focus on those items.  If you think you have no effect on the outcome, then save your time.  And then concern - what do you need to know so that you can best plan your actions for the future.  These thoughts are great when considering which meetings to attend.  Setup a meeting when you need action - control what you can and influence others to attend and contribute so that you can move on with your deliverables.  When responding to a meeting invite as what your level is for that meeting - control, influence, concern. 

And this can go both ways, especially when considering organizational structures.  A manager that chooses to attend a meeting may positively or negatively influence those attending. 

Everyone is given 24 hours in a day - it is up to you how you spend it, so prioritization gets to be a key component in your daily actions.  So remember what you can control, influence and are concerned about and see if this approach helps you streamline your day for more attention to higher priorities (like surfing! :) ).

What are your thoughts?

Some Good Questions Every BA's Should Ask

Business Analysts (BA's) live in a world of requirements.  And while  never the 'owner' of a project, they often bear the burden of requirements responsibility.

Two interesting things I got to see in the fascinating world of business analysis this last week made me think about how exactly I would recommend approaching these scenarios (one shared here, the second in the next post).

Business analysts assist in make sure things not only go smoothly, but also in ensuring the RIGHT things continue on track.  So a BA received feedback on a report.  The person addressing the BA told them to put the report in a certain format.  Now a more junior BA, he listened intently and described what he had done.  He asked what was wrong with his method and the response was basically it wasn't in the format as she was describing.  This went back and forth for a few minutes with nothing more decided than someone feeling that the report should be in the new format and a very unsure junior BA.

In talking through this situation with the junior BA, two very good questions came up:

1. Why?  What's the purpose of the report?
2. What question(s) is the data answering?

Two very simple thoughts, but something I'm not sure all us BA's really stop and ask ourselves, ask our stakeholders.  We put SO much effort in all our documentation, but do we stop and validate ourselves?  Do we double check the information we're providing is solving the need and ONLY solving the need (no sugar coating)?  I think these are two great things we should work on asking up front and more often on every single piece of documentation we work hard to create.

But these are only two good questions - many more are there!  What questions always help you ensure you're only doing activities that will help your initiatives and ONLY those initiatives?

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!

Levers of Innovation

I was SO incredibly fortunate to be able to share some thoughts for spirited discussion around change and organization development with the International Society of Organization Development.  Practitioners, professionals, students, researchers, educators, and excited minds interested in change all came together to share thoughts and build our awareness of the OD world and the passionate people who support and engage in the efforts!

When talking about change, working with organizations, what better place to start than what I find myself doing working with Innovation at Bank of Hawaii?!  Too often people hear 'innovation' in the financial industry and they remain stuck around the idea of technology - the mobile and online evolutions many of us use today.

But these very "innovations" are what's pushing the industry to look at things differently, asking 'How Might We' consider another way.  And with the ever-changing environment - regulations, economy and interest rates - coupled with competing against a 150-year old legacy of risk-adversion and security,  the  challenge quickly increases to avoid "becoming irrelevant." But how does one innovate if the competition hasn't created the product yet?  How can you be at the top of your market if the market isn't even existing?

I started considering that my role is not to create that 'end product' that's innovative, but rather my goal became to facilitate others to work, improve, change and consider new approaches such that when we look back, we would say "yeah, we're an innovative organization!"  So if this is my true role, then I began to look what 'levers' were out there that gets you do to something.  What makes you act?  What stops the person who does the same exercise everyday and simply reflect (assess)?  Then, what gets you over the barrier to try something?  And based on that attempt, not only take the feedback and modify, but then repeat the cycle?  These are how I defined levers.   

Too often we react to items - this is how we often see the action to try something new.  I love the example that you would not call budget analysts "innovative" in general, nor tell them to go "innovate the budget."  They're good analysts, they like the numbers black and white.  But what happens if you tell them to cut the budget by 20% across the organization?  Now you might get some innovative solutions as they talk to each other and consider options on how to remove that 20%!

While we can identify those things we react to, my goal would rather be prepared and act before we are forced to!  Avoid irrelevancy, we're proactively leading our charge into a successful future.  But this is going to take some re-assessing our current situation and approaching from a more holistic endeavor.  We need to expose our team to possibilities, get them trying new tools and being more customer focused than product/profit focused.  Consider how you can leverage the social rewards of employees thanking each other in ad hoc ways (vice the formal structure of management rewards).  Let's build an open and creative environment where we keep the boundaries of the business, but the team is free to try ideas and experiment with processes within the flexible arena of the organization.

There's something to understanding these levers and working with them so that you not only slowly move the entire culture, but you begin to make tracks in showing the complete turnaround into an innovative organizations.  And what's best is YOU didn't do it - you get the organization to change their ways!

Encourage Problem Sharing...but Always Bring Ideas with You

I love this article’s thoughts around ‘problem’ – “can bring any problem, as long as bring at least three ideas for a solution.” Encouraging sharing of challenges AND the ideas that surround them. And the ideas don’t have to be the best solution, just something to plant the seed. Many times these issues arise from those most involved with the work performed, yet they are so removed from the end source that it is hard for them to see a true solution. However, when you encourage them to share their ideas, you are getting end user feedback and insights that a ‘back office’ would never be appreciative of.

You ask someone why they perform a task the way they do and you get the answer “because I was told to” (often by a managing or senior person). This is NOT a bad answer, but perhaps the wrong question. Consider then if you asked the person next “if they could change anything about the process, what would it be an why.” If you’ve established some trust with this person, I’m sure they’ve envisioned many ideas on how to improve the process, create better quality while freeing up more of their time to innovate further.

How are you encouraging others to not just uncover areas of improvement but to encourage the generation of impactful ideas?
Read Adam Bryant's Interview with Jennifer Dulski, COO of Change.org, here.

Changing Habits

Chanaging Habits

It's not What you do, it's HOW you do it...

     How do you teach Innovation?  How do you help the manager assigned the most challenging position of his career, as articulated here by Doss (Forbes, 2013)?  Innovators in business must address both sides of the coin - change culture while providing results to keep the business not only afloat, but ahead of its competitors.

   The trick - don't teach something, get them to CHANGE.  If you change habits, these are longer lasting tools that can help them solve any problem, regardless if it's an innovative change or the daily work log.  And don't just let them change at work - encourage them to change at home so that innovative approaches are constantly looked for and not just a 'hat' they have to wear when they come to work.

Consider the following:

• Currently: Presume what people want
• Try: Asking for Feedback
• Currently: Say why we can't do something
• Try: Asking "How Might We....?"
• Currently: Decide "no" without asking first
• Try: Hearing them out before judging
• Currently: Do it because it's always been done that way
• Try: Asking Why?
• Currently: Quickly (and often harshly) criticize and idea that was shared
• Try: Thanking people for sharing ideas regardless of outcome
• Currently: Work in stovepipes
• Try: Radical collaboration - get people completely outside the project for their insights
• Currently: Avoid Risks
• Try: Valuing Rewards - rather than focusing on risks
• Currently: Too busy for Training
• Try: Making time to improve - even if a few minutes a day
• Currently: Direct/Assign Change
• Try: Participating - this may be more motivating to others than you realize

Habits to do:

• Reward yourself for doing something different - even if it's just a self-pat on the back, celebrate!


• Excite - yourself and other.  Things are always easier when people are motivated, even if a mundane task, make it out to be the change of the century.  Motivated and happy workers are hard workers!


• Try, Try, Try - do not let one 'no' take hold.  While eventually one items should come to fruition, the more you try, the more others see you and you then encourage them to try - this is greater organizational change than teaching people to try testing items first.

A few thoughts but if you make them habits, you become an approachable person with a mind to not solve problems, but to provide solutions as you consider that there might always be an option - this makes you a valued team member in any organization!

Why is Innovation SO hard?

What is preventing our great ideas from becoming reality? 

An original cartoon by KenMillerGroup

  The role of the Innovation Team at Bank of Hawaii is to be a facilitator - help good ideas become reality.  Granted a new department for BOH - a realization that we have to constantly evolve if we want to stay on top - but to those focused on the bottom line, the revenue driving value of Innovation, a record of only five (5) ideas implemented in seven months isn't exactly impressive.  So if we have a whole department, a sole person dedicated to Innovation, and even allocated budget - why only a few ideas?

  Is it a lack of ideas?  If we were measured on ideas volume alone, Innovation would be competing with some of those revenue-driving business units as we have over 180 ideas in just six months of having the website up.  We created a venue where people could share their ideas freely and openly.  Adding in additional social aspects, such as "Like"-ing the item and commenting, the ideas continue to grow and evolve.  While every idea may not be something we would implement right away (or if ever), tons of them are small process improvements and efficiencies that add up significantly.

  Is it a lack of communication of value?  To help with the processing of ideas, we have the idea submitters come to an Ideas Review Team.  NOTE: this is NOT a committee, no decision making, but rather, it's a discussion with people from all areas of the organization to hear and talk with the idea submitter about why the idea is so important.  The discussion then tends to consider what is possible, how could we evolve the idea and what are we doing now that we could incorporate some or all of the idea...It's a wonderful discussion that gets the idea submitters involved while showing the culture shift to more open, collaborative ways (no more 'boring', wasted meetings...not that we would ever have those). 

  So what's stopping us?!  I feel it's a mix of workload, priorities and passion. 

• Workload - that's a given.  Every one's busy, constantly doing more with less in an ever changing economy.  And now the Innovation Manager wants me to do something else!??!  How do they incorporate it into their busy schedules?  They do it by the next point - priorities.
• Priority - You've heard before Covey's Quadrants - are you working on the right thing at the right time.  We work on the Important but Not Urgent quadrant too much, allowing those Not Important but Urgent items interrupt us, causing stress when something that is actually Important AND Urgent comes up.  The trouble with the ideas are most are Important but Not Urgent; however, failing to address now leads to issues down the road. 
• Passion - every heard a "happy worker is a hard worker?"  I believe this fully - motivated people will always go above and beyond what is expected, but if they don't believe in it, it won't get done.  Period.  And this may be a bigger issue than the Innovation team alone can tackle alone, but it is something to consider - are you working with the right people to Innovate.

I'd like to know what thoughts others have on not just "barriers to innovation", but the realities we see.  I look forward to discussing further where I'm trying to take these things and move them forward.

~Jamie Champagne