How do you foster employee-driven innovation, when all your talents and resources are absorbed in huge and essential projects to secure the company’s future?

Here’s PostFinance’s approach in “Mode 2” and the role of their PostFinance Innovation Lab (PF Lab).

Here’s their story.

Google, Apple, Netflix (the usual suspects) manage to hire the greatest talent.

Occasionally, when I discuss options to boost an organisation’s innovation capability this one comes up: Fire everyone! Hire the best.

Here’s my take on this: it’s a dumb theory.

Agile is everywhere, and anything nowadays – it seems.

At the core it’s about limiting your Work-in-Progress (WIP). And, it’s not “just fumbling forward without a plan”.
Let’s take a look at the differences between “robust”, “lean”, and “agile”. And, then get you started in your everyday life, if it suits your challenge.

A biased introduction.

In modern Service Companies up to 40% of the work time is wasted on activities that do not add value

“Lean” has thus reached the Office – but has a hard time getting traction.

Also, because of the most intimate zone at the office: Your Screen!

When we say “Continuous Improvements” we also mean “Small Improvements”. Keeping it SMALL is key to innovate BIG.

Because, as I am just learning, we have 3 brains. Really!

Here’s some neuro-scientific basics every manager could use when it comes to leading human beings.

Swisscom’s continuous improvement activities have been bundled under the brand IMPROVE.

Together they assure the implementation of 3’000 ideas per year, with a benefit of 30 MCHF annually.

It’s the result of hands-on guys like Marco.

It’s easy to get enthusiastic about Kaizen or Continuous Improvement.

But how do you keep the teams active past that first peak of improvement ideas?
How do you keep track of what is going on?

Here’s a hands-on approach using fire, flames and flipcharts. It’s not perfect, but pragmatic.

KPIs create dynamics. To create a high performing organization you need to get people dynamized. So, a good choice of metrics is key.

Ask yourself “What are the dynamics you want to create?”.

Let’s go for a Sunday bike ride.

Focussing on “low hanging fruits” is a common management practice to get a team started and also motivated. But what after that?

Lean Leadership is a way to establish a culture that produces sustainable gains and benefits. Also, it brings the employee into a new role: I like the analogy with the fruit farmer.

Gemba walks denote the action of going to see the actual process, understand the work, ask questions, and learn. It is known as one fundamental part of Lean management philosophy. (Wikipedia)

“Gemba” is Japanese for “the real place”. It’s the shopfloor or the offices where we do our actual work.

Do you know the difference between “complex” and “complicated”? Time for some serious small talk.

It’s mind-opening.

In real life when it gets tough, e.g. with little air left under water, or just some drops of drinking water left in the desert – you are going into survival mode. You will focus on what is essential to be successful.

Let’s limit time when you work on your ideas. Iteration by iteration.

Sometimes you can’t beat nature.

If we believe science, that’s the case with your thinking preferences. The cards have been dealt. Live with the consequences!

There are fine differences in how to give feedback. And they make a huge difference on a corporate culture over-all!

It’s not so difficult, though, if you stick to some simple basics.

The deepest possible way to bond with another human being is through meanings you share and both cherish.

In their book “Making Meaning. How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences” Nathan Shedroff and his co-authors argue that a company with its brand should aspire to resonate with meanings that are dear to their customers.

They base on research that shows that among the different cultures on our planet there are 15 meanings, that universally apply to all of us. Nice, isn’t it?

Stop before you go about solving a problem! You're missing a great chance to disrupt, think out-of-the-box, re-invent business.

As an engineer, and I would say also as a manager, we are trained and take great pride in being very fast at assessing a problem and then properly applying a (known!) solution to the problem. In some cases this is exactly the right thing to do.

Design Thinking goes through cycles of divergent thinking to create solutions – and convergent thinking to make solutions. Here’s how to diverge.

No one has a benefit from bulletpoint-loaded slides. Neither you as a presenter or speaker, nor your audience.

Go back a couple of thousand years, to the time before paper (and Powerpoint). Caveman. Fire. Families, a tribe sitting around a fire, shadows cast to the wall, simple drawings, while elders tell stories of the past, pass on their knowledge.

That’s as far back as Storytelling goes. Use it in a business context!