5 strategies to ensure your innovation ideation workshop delivers

5 strategies to ensure your innovation ideation workshop delivers

Sep 12, 2019 | Collaboration, Innovation

People quite like the freedom of a workshop where there are no limits, where the objective is to generate as many ideas as possible. They then feel satisfied that they have done their bit for the innovation efforts of their employer.

Nonsense.

Unfocussed Ideation bears little relationship to innovation.

Having done many workshops over the years, there are some practices I have found by trial and error that work.

Closely define the innovation assignment.  

Usually this is done by clearly articulating the problem to be solved. The more you understand about the problem, the context in which it occurs, and the costs it generates, the more relevant and ultimately useful the ideas for possible solutions will be.

Diversity.

This is not a call for a politically correct workshop group, but one that acknowledges that people have different ways of looking at problems and potential solutions. Everyone has a differing style of thinking and expression, and all are useful. Having a range of practical, professional and analytical skills, domain knowledge, personal commitment to a solution,  and organisational position creates the sort of cross pollination opportunity that can lead to insight. However, a significant hurdle I often see is where there is someone of organisational power in the group, who fails to throw off the mantle of the position for the duration of  the workshop. Better that they were absent, having offered their support to the process.

Have a structure.

It seems counter intuitive to have a structure to run an ideation workshop, but without structure you risk skating over the surface. The structure needs to ensure everyone has equal voice, and opportunity to use it. There needs to be appropriate idea  generating techniques used,  and the workshop needs to be adaptable as things evolve, and importantly, it must be interesting, engaging and fun. It also must be recognised as the serious exercise it really is, not just some junket for a couple of days.

Have a professional facilitator.

This need not necessarily be someone from the outside, but it needs to be someone who stays in the background, separated from but directing the conversations. The facilitators job is to direct the traffic, ensure the right questions are asked and answered, and to ensure that the light is thrown in all the possible corners.

Create expectations.

Ensuring the exercise is taken seriously is partly dependent on what happens after the exercise, as everyone will be watching. Follow up on the workshop outcomes by allocating specific tasks, accountabilities and timelines to individuals and groups. This will ensure as far as possible the workshop has ‘legs,’ and people do not just go back to their normal jobs next week. It will also frame their expectations of the next step. Using the SMART framework can help, as does creating some urgency in the discussions, as in: something must be done now!

Ideation is a core part of the innovation process, not some sort of separate exercise, and the expectation that that outcomes will play a serious part in the whole innovation process is really important for the depth of thinking that goes on in the workshop.

Need a hand with this stuff, give me a call.

 

 

 

Please sir, can I buy another ‘Indulgence’?

Please sir, can I buy another ‘Indulgence’?

Sep 9, 2019 | Governance, Leadership

These days, we indulge ourselves in an ice-cream after going to the gym, an extra piece of cake, a new dress when we do not really need it, but they make us feel good.

A bit of harmless indulgence seems OK.

Except when it is  not.

The word originated in the middle ages, when the few rich and powerful people, ruled spiritually as they were by the church, could wander along to their local bishop and buy an ‘indulgence.’  It was simply a bribe to regain Gods favour after a bit of rape, murder, incest and pillage.

An ‘indulgence’ bought you forgiveness, it seems  much easier than  changing behaviour.  You are forgiven,  so now it is Ok to go out and do it all again. Forgiveness and salvation are for sale. Whoops, another ‘indulgence’ required!.

It was how the church made its money, gathered power, and exerted control over the politics of the day.

Seems not a lot has changed, although we have put different packaging around the sale of ‘Indulgence’.

The church in the middle ages has largely been replaced as the controlling institution in our lives by governments, and the body politic more generally, of all sorts of persuasions. These continue to evolve, and sell ‘indulgence’ in more sophisticated ways. They sell, and trade favours, make laws and determine the degree, and against whom they are enforced. They make decisions binding on the rest of us, that are coloured and directed towards those seeking advantage and able to pay for it, in one way or another.

Greed, ego, personal advancement, power, and self-aggrandisement seem to have replaced the  observance of the common strictures of the major religions as the spiritual framework guiding much of our private and public lives.

As individuals and communities we are the lesser for it.

Anyone got an Aldi bag?? 

 

PS March 29, 2020. 

Re-reading this post, it seemed sensible to clarify the reference to the Aldi bag that was current at the time of writing. A Chinese ‘businessman’ had given 100k in cash, in an Aldi bag to an official of the NSW Labor Party. No doubt paying in advance for an ‘Indulgence’, or two.

it also seems likely in the reconstruction that will soon be occurring, both from the fires over Christmas, and the subsequent Corona induced catastrophe, that there just may be lots of Indulgences’ for sale.

The curse of knowledge in marketing

The curse of knowledge in marketing

Sep 6, 2019 | Marketing

Human beings are unconsciously subject to confirmation bias, and marketers are  no different. We tend to see the things that conform what we already believe, and not see, or dismiss the things that go counter to those existing beliefs. This is a dangerous tendency in commercial life, one that can lead to considerable wasted effort and resources.

We think we understand the customer in some detail, most marketers would claim to be ‘customer centric’.

We think we understand the customers pain points.

We think we understand the customers behaviour.

We think we understand the customers price sensitivity.

We think we understand the customers response to competitive offers.

We think they see our brands the same way we do.

Because we think it, does not make it true, and often we are wrong.

Nobody likes to admit they are wrong, even to themselves, so many marketers  continue chasing lost causes, blaming others, finding fluffy clichés as justifications, and generally wasting resources.

Many Marketers I see spend way too much time examining spreadsheets, research done by third parties, listening to  various service providers, and not talking to customers.

Customers are not always able to clearly articulate what they want, but they are usually able to articulate their pain points if you are smart enough to ask the right questions, understand the answers, and ask the penetrating follow up question.

I often ask the question of clients, how they would rate their ‘customer centricity’. Typically, the answer is between 70 & 80%. Some work to do, but looking good. I then go and ask the question of some of their customers, to rate their suppliers ‘customer centricity’. A score over 30% is as rare as rain in Broken Hill.

Perceptions do tend to differ, but the sort of variation I see is not a statistical error, but a reflection that we are simply not close enough to customers, and listening with an open mind.

A bit of sceptical thinking from an outside source can save you a lot of heartache.   

 

 

 

The 7 principals of business success.

The 7 principals of business success.

Sep 4, 2019 | Leadership, Strategy

 

Over a long career, I have seen many successes, and just as many, if not more, failures. In both cases, there are a small number of common factors. The successes all have most, if not all, of the factors below, and the failures are typified by their absence.

Be constantly learning.

All business skills are learnable, so be constantly learning. Business skills are  not rocket science, business is in principal simple, and the skills are there to be learnt. This is not to say you will be the best in the world at it, but you will be good enough to make a huge difference. How many people do not understand how their accounts work, the basics of marketing, how to be a leader rather than just a manager? All these things are easy in principal, and those skills can be learned, with time and commitment.

New things rarely work first time.

You might try a Facebook add campaign, or different sales pitch, and it does not work, but nothing works entirely as expected first time.  Aim for the top 10% in your field, experiment, be different, and learn as you go. The alternative is to aim low, and you might just get there.

Leverage.

Doing more with less. Leverage risks becoming a cliché of the business coaching set, but it is not a new idea, just a recycled one. Organisations of any type have at the core of their existence rarely stated, the recognition that together we get more done than alone, and to work together takes some form of organisation. That organisation offers the benefit of leverage.

Work on, not just in, your business.

Every  business, whatever the size has two dimensions. The first is transactional, the things that have to be done in order to deliver a product or service for which someone is prepared to pay. The second is to determine what I call the ‘which’. Which customer, which product, which capability, which market segment, which advertising channel, you get the idea. It is all about the choices that need to be made that have no direct impact on any individual transaction as it occurs. A disturbingly common factor in small business failure I see is the functional focus of the person who started the business. They may be a great  electrician, architect, retailer, or whatever, and their time is spent in the functional area where they are comfortable, the ‘in your business’ things at the expense of  the wider questions of ‘Which,’ that are all about ‘on your business’ issues.

Have goals.

Short term medium term, long term. All change starts with a change in your mental models, and to grow and prosper, change is essential. Another cliché, if you are not running hard, you are being left behind. See in your mind what things could be like, that leads to a change in actions as a result. If the mindset does not change, it does not matter how many tools and techniques you see and learn, if the mind set does not change, it will be all for nothing.

Why.

Understanding your ‘Why’  your business purpose creates the potential for synergy and alignment of people and resources, that is needed to enable you to jump the hurdles that will emerge.

People. Nothing happens without them. A business is not a business until it engages with people, employees, stakeholders, funders, and customers. Never forget the customer is really king, they are peope too, not numbers on a spreadsheet, and never forget the people who make it all happen.

How many of these factors can you identify in your business? Winning is not an accident, it takes long, hard work, physically, intellectually and emotionally, and you cannot do it alone. Give me a call when you need some independent and experienced input.

Header photo courtesy of Hugh McLeod at gapingvoid.com

How can you build a relationship with an algorithm?

How can you build a relationship with an algorithm?

Sep 2, 2019 | Customers, Marketing

You cannot.

Building a relationship with an algorithm is beyond even the wildest imaginings of the ‘AI forever’ set, which is why I prefer people.

Algorithms are there to be gamed.

On the provider side, wherever you see a platform that uses ranking algorithms, at some point, it will become a pay for performance regime. Equally, when the algorithm is king, the gamers who understand the system better than you, will win. Algorithms cannot tell the difference  between an article ‘written’ by another AI algorithm, and one that you sweated over, but your friends and connections who genuinely know you can.

When you meet someone and you seem to be on their ‘wavelength,’ stuff happens, deep conversations, referrals, collaboration. When was the last time an algorithm referred you to someone that was useful, and who had not paid for the referral via some means or another?

What happens when you receive a thank you via email, generated by an autoresponder? You ignore it, often do not open it, but if you recieved  a hand written note, posted, it is opened every time, and remembered.

It takes a bit more effort, which is why it works, it taps our deepest needs to be social and connected to people.

Algorithms are not human, they have no conscience or social awareness.

If I suggested that we put an ad for grog at an AA meeting, you would be disgusted with me. However, and algorithm does not have any social conscience. Such an ad would likely be very successful, and deliver a great ROI on the advertising cost, which is what  algorithms are designed to do.

In our digitising world, those who continue to demonstrate their  humanity will win in the end.

Header cartoon courtesy Tomgauld.com