Innovation Values and Principles

When coaching and designing systems, values and principles are the core concepts that drive my focus, analysis and synthesis.

 A Value provides the foundation for identifying relevant Principles.

A Principle provides the context and insight for identifying or designing relevant Practices.

I’ve also noticed that some of the most impactful system levers seem to reside in the Principles underlying the system components.

So after some conversations with @ChrisSpagnuolo and @rhensley99 last week, I’ve come to think about Values, Principles and system levers for Innovation as shown below. I’m interested to hear if others have come to identical, similar, or opposite perspectives. I believe this type of model is critical for the initial design and ongoing improvement of innovation systems.

Value	Why it Matters	Example Principles	Hypothesized High Leverage Impact
Autonomy	Group can operate how they need to – shift focus from execution to learning	·      Group is not restricted to existing processes. ·      Group is not managed or evaluated using existing systems. ·      Protect the brand.	Tactical Operations
Adaptability	Group should be able to and comfortable with learning and change	·      Learn through experimentation. ·      Tolerate failure.	Learning Capability
Creativity	Create the space to cause creativity, for creativity to emerge.	·      Constrain the system	Ideation Flow
Urgency	Provide sense of urgency to learning and attaining fit.	·      Learn and adapt fast ·      Constrain the system	Learning Capability
Focus	Focus creativity, focus effort, focus funding	·      Constrain the system	Learning Capability
Accountability	Explicit accountability of results and decouple from dependencies	·      Accountable for learning	Tactical Operations
Ownership	Attracts people with entrepreneurial perspective and risk / reward profile	Provide ownership incentives.	Entire Innovation System

I purposely left off Practices as I’ve found they are not difficult to identify once the system, system components, values, and principles are well understood. So that is our current focus – understanding and hypothesizing. Next comes validation.

Operationalizing Strategy with a Systems Perspective

While there are many books and much research on Organizational Development, this system view combined with some validated learning over time is a powerful way to look at organizational challenges as a coach / consultant.

Here are some brief definitions and then some validated learning from my experience:

Brief Definitions

• Business Outcomes - the outcomes desired from the business strategy selected.
• Org Structure - the structure of power and authority to facilitate decision making.
• Incentive Systems - rewards for individual and group performance.
• Work Systems - how people get work done in the organization.
• Collaboration Systems - systems to overcome the friction to collaboration introduced by the org structure.
• People Systems - hiring, firing, development, HR systems - both tactical and strategic.

Validated Learning (observations and experiences over time)

• Business Outcomes are required to even think about the other dimensions; and interestingly, in my experience even some top leaders can struggle to articulate these so it may require some elicitation and dialogue. I like to use the pithy "operationalize strategy" when discussing this topic.
• Incentive Systems usually mirror Org Structure fairly closely.
• The Org Structure will help determine both Work Systems and Collaboration Systems; however, Collaboration Systems have a stronger relationship because they must overcome the friction introduced by the structure itself. 
• Incentive Systems and People Systems strongly impact everything else except Strategy. 
• People tend to focus first on Org Structure and Work Systems because they are the most visible, tangible, and even "fun" to work with.
• Each organization design decision made will impact the other dimensions so as the design is created, the entire system must be reevaluated. 
• Organizations are typically good at People Systems when it comes to tactical training and development, but more powerful levers are hiring, firing, and strategic training needs. 
• The most common constraint on change involves Incentive Systems.

Leaning and Discovery Enables Execution

One of the most salient statements in Steve Blank's "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" - for me anyway - seems logically obvious in hindsight (one of the most prolific biases I experience). This is a common scenario of invisible wisdom that required someone insightful like Steve to call it to my attention. But I digress.

Here is is:

"In the early stages of a startup, focusing on "execution" will put you out of business. Instead you need a "learning and discovery" process so you can get the company to the point where you know what to execute." - page 20

What I soon realized after fully understanding the concept and how it applies to the Customer Development model, is that this is a powerful principle which, while appearing simple and intuitive, applies to so much more than I would first realize.

Coaching

As a coach, this same statement sums up how I approach a client engagement, regardless of what the SOW states. In essence, trying to execute without a process of learning and discovery may not put me out of business, but it may make me ineffective. Do you really know what to execute without a process to get in there and see what is really going on?

Organizational Development

In organizational development, without a clear understanding of strategy, OD design is rather meaningless - how can you assess the components of design - structure, work and collaboration systems, reward systems. or people development systems - without a clear strategy defined or discovered? I would like to say it is merely about understanding articulated strategy, however in real life it feels more like learning and discovery through dialogue with leadership.

Facilitation

Someone recently asked me how I designed a large group facilitation engagement. And as I thought through the process from beginning to end, I realized that while I have a framework with criteria for the actual design, I spend a significant amount of time in learning and discovery about all kinds of information - points of view, biases, tensions, motivations, desires....the list gets long when I really try to articulate all the dimensions I'm interested in learning. Then the execution - or actual design - is rather straight-forward - and without all that learning, nearly impossible.

So it makes sense why that singular sentence was so impactful - it articulates a pattern I use over and over in these and many other scenarios.

What is then more interesting to me are those instances where I don't seem to follow that pattern and execute before learning - probably some significant opportunities for improvement there.

The Power of Questions in Artifact Design

Effective coaches use powerful questions, not to obtain answers but to stimulate thought so insight emerges and knowledge is generated.

Why not leverage this power by designing artifacts explicitly around questions? This will work for either formal artifacts used to capture and persist knowledge, or informal artifacts used to guide a conversation or workshop.

In a recent engagement this became so clear to me that I decided to capture my thoughts on this topic and some examples of changes made along the way to facilitate better outcomes for the particular group in question.

Questions Help Clarify the Intent of a Conversation

• Getting from an artifact template to valuable knowledge is rarely a straight line, and people tend to simply regurgitate known information.
• Question-driven conversations will help surface latent dissonance and divergence.
• Helps the coach and stakeholders focus on where the knowledge resides and who may provide unique perspectives.
• Whatever question is asked, your brain goes right to work formulating answers. Use this to your advantage by asking open-ended questions. Since the brain will not be able to formulate an answer, deeper thought will result.
• Some things to keep in mind for clarifying intent:
  • Mentally map out the journey and craft questions that serve as a compass rather than turn-by-turn GPS.
  • Use open powerful questions
  • Based on the context, be willing to change the question to surface what may be hidden.
• An Example:
• Before: "Customers"
• After: "Who is impacted by your work?" 
• The team in questions thought in terms of the impact they are making rather than identifying "customers."
• Within the team, refocusing on who they impact opened up the conversation to consider others who had not been viewed as "customers."
• At the same time, other stakeholders were then identified and a good conversation ensued about the differences between customers and stakeholders.

Questions Move the Focus from Results to Dialogue

• Fields in a template or on a form appear to be “complete” regardless of quality as our minds will focus on filling in blanks, not the actual content.
• Questions can push a group beyond converging on a shared understanding to creating a vibrant, divergent pace for exploration and dialogue.
• Be aware of questions loaded with assumptions, initial results may continue to hide them.
• Some things to keep in mind for shifting focus from results to dialogue:
  • Wherever you can, replace artifact labels with a question.
  • Use questions to discover new possibilities by challenging convention and challenging convergence.
  • Review questions for loaded assumptions and either make them explicit or craft the question to remove the assumption.
• An Example:
• Before: "Customer Outcome"
• After: "What stories would your customers tell after experiencing this value?"
• Interesting conversations emerged about divergent views in the team about the true outcome they hoped to deliver.
• Helped to focus the conversation on the highest leverage dimensions of the outcome.
• Increased the energy of the entire group and even fed back into conversations about options considered.

Questions Increase Engagement by Appealing to Credibility, Logic, and Emotion

• Credibility should be apparent through the questions themselves.
• Logic can be expressed through the mental journey from answering one question to asking and answering the next.
• Emotional appeal can establish a state of receptivity for new ideas, for vigorous conversation, for openness to what is possible.
• Some things to consider for Ethos, Logos, and Pathos:
  • Use your expertise to craft questions based on principles rather than dogma.
  • Design an end-to-end chain of questions that lead the group from surfacing what they do know, don’t know, and assumptions to meaningful dialogue.
  • Craft questions that touch on the group sense of identity, self-interest, and passion. Engagement will improve and the resulting dialogue will be rich.
• An Example:
• Before: "Unique Value Proposition"
• After: "Why is this team the best suited to work in this problem / solution space?"
• Created energy in the team around why they were uniquely positioned to make the most impact.
• Helped a still forming team to rally around their passion and unique identity. 
• Vibrant conversation that led directly to articulating a compelling vision for the team in short order. 

You must change the system to change the results – to change the results, change the thinking, to change the thinking, use questions. And use them not just in coaching; use them whenever and wherever you desire to influence the thought process and generate new points of view.

The added benefit of not just using them to coach the group and facilitate the conversation, but to design or refine the artifact itself is the powerful combination of having gone through the thought process in the workshop and having the prompts persisted for reinforcement and continued refinement in the future.

Here are two partial iterations - of probably 5 total that I observed - of a template for facilitating a program level strategic conversation. However, the most impressive version I encountered was observing a new group take the most current template, and then update it even further to match how they needed to think through their particular strategy. That indicated to me that they embraced not just a template but an adaptive mental model for how to effectively frame the meaningful conversation they required. 

Partial Canvas of an Early Version

Partial Canvas of a Later Version

Meeting Notes with Doodles and Graphics

Over the last year or so I've been experimenting with graphics in several ways, the most common being replacing PowerPoint with a whiteboard and markers and replacing a pen and notepad with the same.

I'm a visual person so this naturally resonates with me, but I've also noticed some positive dynamics from those engaged as the audience to a presentation or the participant of a meeting. So I thought I'd share some feedback I've received and observations I've made along the way.

Facilitated Meeting Example

The following is a panoramic picture of a completed meeting graphical journey (with some key information blurred out). This was laid out on a conference room wall that was whiteboard from floor to ceiling and is about 7' tall and 20' long on that wall.

Feedback Received

• "...the most interesting meeting I've attended..."
• "I found myself hooked and waiting to see what would come next..."
• "It was amazing that these executives were engaged for the entire 3 hours..."

Observations

• Persisting the entire image holds the end-to-end story together well (none of the common "...can you go back to that one slide....").
• Increased engagement with the content rather than the presenter.
• Inconsistencies within the visualization and the story are very visible.
• For me, requires a lot of practice and preparation.
• Key competency - building out the image while not turning your back on the audience.

It is important to note that this entire image was not drawn from scratch. The entire visualization was designed and then key content left out until it was needed to pull the story along. Then it was drawn into the "frame" image.

Meeting Notes Example

And this visualization is the output from a 30 minute phone conversation - my co-worker was facilitating the call while I documented the conversation. Again, some identifying data blurred out.

Feedback Received

• Meeting facilitator was able to stop taking traditional notes and found the image a more effective representation.

Observations

• I was more engaged with the call than I would have been by passively listening or taking traditional notes. 
• We were able to immediately see patterns in the information both during the call and when the call ended. 
• Synthesis of information via relationships and connections was very natural and quick afterwards.
• Integrating color and annotations helped to identify the key pieces of value from the chaff.
• It is better to start in the very middle of the board as you won't know where the conversation will take you.
• To be clear, you will not find many artistic images other than basic shapes in either example. I am not an artist. But it is good enough to obtain the most valuable benefits in the areas of 1) achieving shared understanding, 2) efficient information processing and 3) stimulating meaningful analysis and synthesis of the content.

And Practice is Easy....

I now carry pens and plain paper with me into every meeting and take notes this way. I also represent books I read, or sometimes just chapters, into a graphical format for deeper understanding. And then there is the old standby of just brainstorming on a topic of interest. There are many "actual" graphic facilitators, visualization experts, and visual thinkers out there where you can find truly valuable information - here are my favs but there are many others:

• Sunni Brown - http://sunnibrown.com/doodlerevolution/
• Brandy Agerbeck - http://www.loosetooth.com/
• Center for Graphic Facilitation - http://graphicfacilitation.blogs.com/
• Dan Roam - http://www.danroam.com/the-back-of-the-napkin/

Remember and Verify for all types of #Coaching

Some thoughts I've collected over the last year - some completely my own, some inspired by reading, and probably some that have been floating out there for awhile with coaches I know but resonate strongly with me. 

It is always about the other person

Do I want this or my customer?

Am I thinking about my customer or me?

Am I listening to understand and empathize or to appear engaged?

Feelings matter, many times more than logic

What feelings and emotions are explicitly in play or lurking just under the surface?

Fear must be acknowledged and accepted

Fear is not a productive motivator and can only be released when it is acknowledged and surfaced.

A powerful question is more valuable than an obvious answer

When I don’t know the answer, ask a question.

When I think I have the answer, ask a question.

When I am certain of the answer, ask a question.

People most often start with painful events, not underlying causes.

Many people reflect the visible and painful aspects of a situation, not the underlying systems.

Don’t ever lie.

....ever.

No matter how difficult or painful, the truth is always more valuable than ignorance.

Viewpoints, while valuable and powerful, may and should change.

Point of views that never change indicate close-mindedness, laziness, or ignorance; but having a POV is powerful and useful.

Are my words and actions a service or disservice?

Always serve others and be clear about who is being served (or not) by my words and actions.

Never stop LEARNING.

If I ever think I know it all, I will be of no value to anyone.