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Report 103
Your newsletter on applied creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in
business – delivered to your e-mail box on the first and third Tuesday
of every month.
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Issue 114
Hello and welcome to another issue of Report 103, your fortnightly newsletter
on creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in business.
As always, if you have news about creativity, imagination, ideas, or innovation
please feel free to forward it to me for potential inclusion in Report103. Your
comments and feedback are also always welcome.
Information on unsubscribing, archives, reprinting articles, etc can be found
at the end of this newsletter.
REWARDING INNOVATION
A reward scheme can make or kill an innovation initiative, such as an idea
management process. Considering the amount of effort that goes into launching
an idea management process in many companies, it is essential to get the rewards
right.
In this article we will look at reward schemes supporting an idea management
process – one that is ideally supported by Jenni
idea management software service (www.jpb.com/jenni/). This is because Jenni
is the most intuitively powerful idea management solution around and because
if you use Jenni, you would get my personal support in setting up your rewards
scheme.
Getting Started with Rewards
In the early days of your idea management initiative, you should reward for
quantity rather than quality. Your biggest challenge will be getting your employees
to actually log into your idea management system and try it out. If the system
is as enjoyably easy to use as Jenni is, employees will quickly become regular
users. But they need to be lured into the idea management tool first.
Thus a small reward such as a chocolate, a piece of fruit or a pen for every
idea can be effective. An alternative approach used by an FMCG (fast moving
consumer goods) client of ours was to order a run of special T-shirts they designed
to mark their first ideas campaigns with Jenni. Everyone who submitted at least
one idea got a T-shirt which they were encouraged to wear to work. Indeed, they
were even rewarded for doing so. Thus not only did participants receive rewards
simply for participating in the initiative, but also they promoted the initiative
with their rewards. Such an approach might be enhanced by offering larger rewards
to the top idea submitters.
Mid Term Rewards
If such reward schemes will only apply at the early stage of your idea management
process, it is important to emphasise this to employees. Otherwise, once you
stop complementing ideas campaigns with numerous small rewards, employees may
feel you are no longer so interested in their ideas. Nevertheless, you will
eventually want to move on to an easier to administer rewards scheme.
One such approach is a points based rewards system in which points are received
for submitting ideas. Points might be used like aeroplane frequent flyer miles
in that points can be exchanged for gifts, special privileges or the like. Jenni
has such a points distribution system running in the background. It grants points
for almost every idea related action in Jenni, such as submitting ideas, collaborating
on ideas, having your idea passed to evaluation and so on.
Alternatively, a small gift for each idea submitted, a recognition scheme or
rewards for the most active ideas submitters are also effective.
Reward for Quality and Pay in Creativity
You will probably be tempted at some point to reward the best ideas. This is
dangerous and, ironically, can actually result in a fall off in creativity.
This has been my own experience and I have heard anecdotal evidence from others
to support this.
The reason why this happens is in fact logical. If you reward the “best
ideas” employees will submit ideas designed to please management. Such
ideas are likely to follow your existing approach and be similar to ideas developed
by management in the past. To give a totally unbusinesslike example: if your
sweetheart likes Belgian chocolates and you want to please her (or him) on Valentines
day, you will probably buy her a box of Belgian chocolates rather than take
a chance on something new and different. That's because your aim is not to impress
your sweetheart with your creative thinking skills, rather you are trying to
please her with a gift you know she likes. Likewise, when you ask for the best
business ideas, people aim to please rather than show off their creativity.
Reward for Creativity and Get Creativity
A better approach is to offer rewards for the most creative ideas, or even
the “craziest ideas”, “most outlandish ideas” or “furthest
out of the box ideas”. In my experience, and based on anecdotal evidence,
such an approach leads to a higher level of creative thinking and ideas that
are more creative. That also makes sense: ask for creativity and you get creativity!
Do note, however, that rewarding for creativity may result in a lower number
of ideas. When the rewards are for creativity, people are less likely to submit
incrementally creative ideas which they know will not be rewarded. This is important
to bear in mind if you are looking for incremental improvements rather than
creative new ideas.
Big Rewards Are Not Always Good Rewards
In general, offering a substantial cash reward to an individual for a great
idea, an implemented idea or anything like that is dangerous. When people know
that they can get a huge amount of money for an idea, they tend to act purely
for the reward rather than for the company's benefit. When big cash rewards
to individuals are on offer, problems such as: managers stealing subordinates'
ideas, big disputes between employees and top employees leaving the company
out of frustration become commonplace. The result, of course, is poor internal
relationships, loss of good staff and collapse of your innovation initiative.
That said, offering teams substantial rewards for developed ideas can be very
effective. The reasons why this is the case are clear
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People are working together as a team to develop a project, thus there
is not a rivalry at the individual level for a big pot of money.
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Helping each other develop an idea increases the likelihood of achieving
the award. When an individual gets the reward, the opposite is true.
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When the idea has to be developed into a business plan or other type of
project, team members put substantial effort into developing the idea. Hence
there is a feeling that the reward is compensation for extra work, rather
than a jackpot for one lucky idea instigator.
Dynamic Horizons, our partner for Jenni in Melbourne, Australia has had success
with such an approach. You can read more in their case study at http://www.dynamichorizons.com/Case_Study.html
(do also click the link and download the PDF which goes into more detail).
Transparent Versus Translucent Rewards
Thus far, we have talked about transparent rewards, that is rewards that are
announced at the beginning of any innovation initiative and which are publicly
given. If you wish to reward generously a particular individual for her substantial
innovative input, translucent rewards are the way to go. A translucent reward
might be, as an example, a promotion in which you state, “Sally, we really
like the great ideas you have been submitting to the company. As a result, we've
decided to promote you to division manager so you can be more hands-on in terms
of implementing your innovative ideas.”
Such a reward is translucent because it was not advertised across the company
and was given privately to Sally. Nevertheless, in giving the reward to Sally,
you make it clear that one reason she has received the reward of a promotion
is her participation in your idea management system. You can read
more about transparent and translucent rewards in the 3 January 2006 issue of
Report 103 (http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20060103).
The most important lesson here is to consider your rewards programme carefully
before you launch an ideas campaign or other innovation initiative. A well thought
out rewards scheme will do wonders for your results. And, of course, if you
want advice on innovation rewards, just contact me. Better yet, why not test
Jenni idea management software service in your organisation? That way, you will
not only get my coaching for your your rewards scheme, but you will also get
it for every aspect of your idea management implementation. And, you'll get
a really easy to use, but powerful idea management software service at your
disposal to boot.
PRIORITISING INNOVATION
Innovation is important to your firm – at least assuming you are a manager
in an organisation – is it not? But where does innovation sit on the priority
list of your employees? Probably further down that list than you would like.
In my experience, in most organisations, people will put innovation at the bottom
of their list of priorities, below report writing, below answering e-mails,
below making presentations, below calculating financials, indeed, below all
their day to day routine work.
Time to Innovate
A couple of years ago, we ran a research report, “Organisational Creativity
– the Top Ten Enablers” by Wayne Morris. It found that the number
one barrier to organisational creativity, and hence innovation, is lack of time.
In the report, Wayne wrote: “More respondents raised the issue of time
as the most important factor in enhancing organisational creativity than any
other with comments such as, “'Just having uninterrupted time would do
it for me. It’s so rare that I make space and time in my day to just think.
I know that when I do it works really well for me and I get a lot more satisfaction
from my work. It remains a real challenge for me.'” (Report
103, 4 October 2005: http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20051004).
Other research has had similar findings.
But the truth is, employees have lots of time. In the developed world, most
organisations stipulate a 35-40 hour work week. Employees in the USA and Japan
are notorious for exceeding the standard working week. Seven or eight or more
hours a day is, in fact, a lot of time to be creative.
It's Not Time, It's Priorities
So, the problem is clearly not that employees do not have sufficient time to
be creative. Rather, they believe that being creative is of such little importance,
that every other task in their job description should be done first. Thus, even
though management might be shouting that “Innovation is our number one
priority”, most employees feel that “Putting the financial projections
for the third quarter into a nifty spreadsheet in time for tomorrow's division
meeeting is my number one priority” and innovation probably comes in at
around priority number 50, after answering unimportant e-mails, tidying the
desk and filing away those reports from marketing.
Why Innovation Is a Low Priority for Many
There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, although management
is shouting that “Innovation is the company's number one priority”,
it is not really communicating to employees that innovation is their number
one priority. (Quick definition: corporate innovation = the profitable implementation
of creative ideas). Until that is communicated to employees, few will bother
with active creative thinking.
This bring us to our second reason. Being creative often does not look like
work. My creative juices flow best when I walk. This helps me not only come
up with ideas, but it also helps me analyse ideas and make decisions. Others
sit in chairs and stare out the window. Some people are best in the bathtub.
Unfortunately, none of these activities looks like real work.
If substantial parts of your offices are cubical farms or open plan desks,
employees are going to be self-conscious about sitting and thinking. They know
it will not look like they are working and they will fear being looked down
upon by their neighbouring colleagues.
The third reason is that creativity and innovation are very fuzzy concepts.
While most employees are very clear on what is involved in preparing a financial
projection, how to respond to a customer query and what information to include
in a report, few know just what is involved in being creative and innovative.
Thus, for them it is easier to be busy with concrete tasks with clear rules
rather than to have to struggle with vague notions of being creative.
Of course, employees generally receive some kind of training on how to complete
a financial projection spreadsheet, the company style for internal reports and
how to respond to customer queries. Few receive training on how to be creative.
What You Can Do
The first thing you, as management, can do is to ensure that you prioritise
innovation and creativity to your employees. And explicitly state that thinking
is a critical component of creativity. Demonstrating this is also important.
Secondly, training on how to think more creatively and, probably even more
importantly, how employees can apply creative thinking to their work, is essential.
Thirdly, a rewards system (see the first article above) can go far towards
encouraging people to think more creatively – not only because they want
to receive rewards, but also because the rewards legitimise creativity as an
important activity for the company.
Fourthly, running ideas campaigns, brainstorming events or other initiatives
around innovation challenges helps employees focus their creative thinking.
This has the added benefits of focusing creativity on your business needs and
putting employees in a “problem solving” state of mind rather than
the somewhat fuzzier “being creative” state of mind.
Lastly, innovation tools like Jenni idea management, mind mapping software
and similar tools help employees manage their creativity while looking like
they are performing drearier administrative tasks. That's not the goal we had
in mind with Jenni. But, heck, if it helps your firm innovate better, we can
live with it.
Note: for more information about
Jenni idea management software service, please visit http://www.jpb.com/jenni/
EVALUATION APPROACH: IDEA TRIALS
If you are evaluating high value ideas, that is ideas that will require substantial
investment, will require substantial changes or which involve significant risk,
why not put those ideas to trial by jury?
Assign each idea to a person or team who will act as that idea's advocate.
The advocate's job is to analyse the idea thoroughly and be prepared to defend
the idea. The advocate should look at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats and determine how to strengthen weaknesses and overcome threats.
Meanwhile, an evaluation team is charged with being a team of judges. Potentially,
you might even bring others to act as a jury.
Advocates are given time to prepare their cases. The judges are given time
to prepare their questioning.
Then you create an idea courtroom where each advocate presents her case and
answers the judge's questions. If ideas are competing for budget, you could
even allow idea advocates the question each other. In the end, each advocate
concludes her case. The judges adjourn and make their recommendations. Of course
the recommendations might not be quite so clear cut as in the courtroom: “Your
honour, we find the idea guilty!” The judges might decide to combine ideas,
implement parts of an idea or insist one or more advocates go back and develop
aspects of their ideas further.
While idea trials are more time and resource consuming than traditional evaluation
methods, this approach guarantees an in-depth analysis of each idea in a dynamic
setting.
Why not give it a try some time?
Note: his article was inspired by the “Idea Advocate” approach
to idea review developed by the Battelle Institute in Frankfurt, Germany; which
was brought to my attention in the book Getting to Innovation by Arthur VanGundy.
INNOVATIVE LINKS
I have come across a couple of interesting links in the past couple of days.
They are below together with a link to one of my own essays. Enjoy.
ENCOURAGING DISSENT IN DECISION-MAKING
One of the best articles on organisational innovation I have read in some time
actually seems to have nothing to do with innovation. But if your firm's innovation
initiative is not going as well as you expect, read this article immediately.
I particularly liked..
“we found that people were reluctant to voice what they perceived to
be good ideas, unless they were extraordinarily confident they would be well-received.
And this in a firm that lives and dies by its ideas.” And the mental calculation
people make: “The potential costs to me for speaking out seem reasonably
certain and somewhat immediate; the potential benefit to me for speaking out
seems rather uncertain and definitely long-range."
Learn more about why dissenting opinion is critical in decision making by reading
“Encouraging Dissent in Decision-Making” in Harvard Business School
Working Knowledge at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5746.html.
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION WIKI
While researching an article for today's report 103, I came across MyCoted,
a wiki that “...is dedicated to improving Creativity and Innovation for
solving problems woldwide, with that in mind, we provide a central repository
for Creativity and Innovation on the Internet as a summary of tools, techniques,
mind exercises, puzzles, book reviews etc, that is open to all - and can be
written by all.” I have not yet had the chance to explore MyCoted in detail,
but it is indeed an intriguing concept. Visit Mycoted at http://www.mycoted.com/
VISUAL BRAINSTORMING
In the last issue of Report 103, I wrote a short article on Visual Brainstorming.
I have since expanded upon the article considerably. You will find the more
detailed text on non-verbal brainstorming at http://www.jpb.com/creative/visual_brainstorming.php
LATEST IN BUSINESS INNOVATION
If you want to keep up with the latest news in business innovation, I recommend
Chuck Frey's INNOVATIONweek
(http://www.innovationtools.com/News/subscribe.asp). It's the only e-newsletter
that keeps you up-to-date on all of the latest innovation news, research, trends,
case histories of leading companies and more. And it's the perfect complement
to Report 103!
Happy thinking!
Jeffrey Baumgartner
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