innovation -nature & nurture

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Innovation:Nature and

Nurture?Corinne Miller

Since findings support both nature and nurture with no clear win-

ner, were left to make talent decisions with the assumption that

the environment, which includes learning, can shape skills, knowl-

edge and behaviors. As such, this provides a unique opportunity for

the learning function to demonstrate bottom-line impact, both by

developing skill sets around innovation and directly contributing

to innovation through action-learning sessions.

Abou t InnovationIn order to operationalize the nurture component within a

learning context, we need to first understand the environment

and ask why, what, who, where, when and how. Why does the

corporation want to innovate? What is the definition of inno-

vation? Who is sponsoring innovation? Where should we inno-

vate? When should we innovate? How should we innovate?

With the answers to these questions, the learning organization

can be a powerful enabler for innovation in ways that may not

have been fully realized in the past.

There are three basic areas where a corporation can focus inno-

vation: product enhancements such as quality improvements or

cost reductions, product extensions such as additional featuresor incremental functionality, and breakthrough or disruptive

products. Of course, innovation doesnt have to be all about

products. You can replace product with service, process, busi-

ness model or market, as well.

Understanding where the corporations strategy is focused is

important to the learning strategy. What percentage of resources

will be allocated to each of the three innovation areas? With

this answer in hand, the learning organization can set an inno-

vation learning strategy that enables the business strategy.

What Is Innovation?There are several conceivable definitions of innovation.

However, the definition that works best for this particular dis-cussion is the process of transforming new and novel ideas into

commercial value. What is especially attractive about this def-

inition is that while it includes the necessary new and novel

ideas, it more importantly starts with process and ends with

commercial value.

Does your corporation have a definition? If not, the learning

organization can have an instrumental role in defining it. How

can we direct innovation learning solutions without it?

Who Is Sponsoring Innovation?There will be senior leaders in the corporation who will act as the

drivers of innovation, whether theyre interested in initiating an

innovation movement or trying to drive innovation themselves.

Recognizing these innovation sponsors across all functions

(products, services, processes, business models and markets) and

establishing a formal sponsorship-style relationship is critical to

ensure the innovation learning strategy has the resources and

authority to be executed.

Where Should We Innovate?Innovation can occur anywhere across the business ecosystem:

products and services, processes, business models and markets.Many times, the focus is narrowly placed on product technolo-

gy, but phenomenal value can result from an innovative busi-

ness model, as evidenced by Southwest Airlines point-to-point

model or Googles AdWords model.

Many times, organizations will determine specific focus areas

where innovation is desired. With this information, the learn-

ing function has a unique vantage point across the multifunc-

tional employee population to foster an innovation skill set and

collaborative action learning targeted precisely where innova-

tion will bring the greatest value.

When Should We Innovate?

Innovation can be difficult when its pursued in an environmentdeficient of the right culture, processes, skills, tools and resources.

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Innovations require breakthrough thinking and instinct.

Developing them requires a holistic mindset and flexibility.

Implementing them requires collaboration across the corporation.

How mature is your organizations innovation environment?

The learning function can have a pivotal role in assessing the

knowledge, skills and behaviors needed, and driving a plan to

put them in place, including partnering with sponsoring senior

management and addressing the reward and recognition systemwithin the culture of the organization.

How Should We Innovate?In the simplest terms, innovation is a process that starts with inves-

tigating needs and follows with creating ideas, evaluating solutions

and activating plans. Many times, innovation is seen as simply

ideating. However, our definition, which concludes with commer-

cial value, reminds us that without action, there is no innovation.

Understanding the details of the innovation process, whether it

is a formalized pipeline followed by a stage-gate process or a

looser collaborative network, is a great opportunity for the

learning function to align solutions that advance skills and evenfacilitate the process through action learning.

The Innovation Skill SetRegardless of an organizations particular nomenclature, the

essence of the innovation process can be summarized in terms of

four distinct and fundamental stages: investigate needs, create

ideas, evaluate potential solutions and activate plans. Each stage

requires a different set of knowledge, skills and behaviors that

collectively comprise a whole-brained thinking model (as seen

in the Herrmann Whole Brain Model: analytical, imaginative,

sequential and interpersonal). Note that the four stages are based

on the four thinking styles.

Investigate Needs: Investigators are analytical, logical andfact based. To ascertain needs, investigators ask good ques-

tions, listen to and hear what interviewees are saying, inter-

pret materials and research, exercise great objectivity, see rela-

tionships, separate causes from effects, prioritize requirements,

know when to stop investigating (that is, avoid paralysis

analysis), have expertise in the chosen domain and its audi-

ence, and articulate needs in a way that stimulates great ideas.

Create Ideas: Creators are creative, synthesizers, conceptu-

al, holistic and artistic. To create ideas, creators ask good ques-tions, have expertise in the chosen domain, see patterns and

relationships where others might not, integrate thoughts and

concepts, take risks, imagine and, as Theresa Amabile put it,

have intrinsic motivation.

Evaluate Solutions: Evaluators are planners theyre

organized, controlled and detail-oriented. To evaluate ideas,

evaluators ask good questions, determine both qualitative

and quantitative criteria, and understand who needs to

make decisions and when. They drive the evaluation process

in a way that best avoids hidden agendas and other unpro-

ductive behaviors.

Activate Plans: Activators are action-oriented, talkative,emotional and interpersonal. To activate plans, activators ask

good questions, determine who needs to do what and when,

understand how to drive collaboration, create a motivating

environment and usher in progress.

Nature or Nurture? Its Both!Without a doubt, people are born with more ability in some

areas than in others, yet we can all develop our effectiveness in

each of the four innovation skill areas. Recognizing and align-

ing talent with jobs or innovation team roles is an obvious step.

However, once in the role, knowledge, skills and behaviors need

to be continuously honed. Not all talent will be at the same

level of expertise. In the event that the talent is not available,nurture will take a greater role.

1. What is the organizations innovation strategy?

2. What is the organizations innovation process?

3. What skills are needed to implement the process?

4. How might we ensure the right people are in the right positions to best execute the process?

5. How might peoples skills be furthered developed using education, coaching and experience?

6. How might the learning organization conduct action-learning sessions to meet innovation challenges and goals?

7. How might globalization be leveraged?

8. How might the innovation actions taken by the learning organization be measured?

Eight Great Questions for CLOs (A CLOs Innovation Question Bank)

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In the case of investigation, evaluation and acti-

vation skills, nurture can play a significant role.

However, creativity is a combination of think-

ing styles, cognitive development, environmen-

tal influences and life experiences. While train-

ing and tools can improve creativity, various

findings agree that nurture cannot create acreative person.

The goal is to be whole brained. People are typ-

ically a mix of thinking styles: investigator, creator,

evaluator and activator. While one of the four

styles may be more dominant, most times there are

at least one to two others in the mix that influence

thinking style to a lesser degree.

Recalling that learning has three dimensions:

education, relationships (feedback, coaching, col-

laboration) and experience, the learning function

has the unique ability to enable innovation from

a number of vantage points, including individual

skills, team skills and manager skills.

Action LearningWhile educational solutions can include class-

room-based training, e-learning, books, articles,

Web sites, conferences or workshops, action-

learning workshops in which people engage in

actual innovating around a real goal, challenge or

problem statement provide some of the best

learning for fostering innovation.

What might that workshop look like? Beginning

with a brief interactive-thinking assessmentexercise allows participants to identify their

thinking styles. With this information in hand,

diverse-thinking subteams can be formed, and

people can later learn both individual and team

techniques to increase their whole-brain think-

ing throughout the innovation process.

The workshop can be divided into the four

stages with time allocations for each, dependent

on the complexity and depth desired. In each

stage, question banks are utilized to guide the

participants through divergent exercises, with

the goal of generating and developing lots ofideas.

The results of these divergent exercises all come

together at the end of each stage, when a con-

vergent exercise is used to identify the most pro-

ductive ideas from that stage, which will become

the basis for the next stage.

Stage 1: Investigate Needs: Participants use a

question bank of investigate questions that

brings them through a series of divergent exer-

cises to generate lots of ideas, concluded by a

convergent exercise to filter the ideas and hone

in on top needs that will be used in the nextstage for ideation.

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Capital One: Experiences in InnovationCorinne Miller

Understanding that the potential to innovate lies in every organization, Capital

One has a history of demonstrating an ability to innovatively plan and conduct

work. However, since its client base was growing at a significant rate annually,the company had to be even more innovative in creating new products and

identifying cost efficiencies. New ideas were required to carry the business into

a new reality and grow Capital Ones reputation as an industry leader.

By making innovation a key initiative, the company challenged itself to build a

culture that looked for new and better ways to do business. To accomplish this,

they needed to add new and proven processes and tools to their innovation

toolbox. Partnering with SolutionPeople, they designed a customized innovation

training program. The program was structured to teach innovative processes

through action learning focused on real business challenges in creative spaces.

The underlying goal was not to conduct a traditional training program but

rather a memorable experience they called the innovation experience. This

was designed to be dynamic, creative, multisensory and engaging. Contentwas balanced between learning and fun, and physical and virtual experiences.

The training focused on teaching simple tools and processes that could be

replicated in tackling future challenges. Working together, teammates forged

stronger relationships committed to building cultures that foster innovative

thinking.

Eight teams participated in the innovation experience. To begin, each team was

led through one-day accelerated innovation training workshops that provided

an introduction to key processes and tools and created an environment for

team building and interaction. During the initial event, participants discovered

their thinking styles through an interactive exercise. This information was used

by individuals to drive more whole-brained thinking through the use of tools

and techniques. It also was used throughout the process to build diverse-think-ing teams.

They followed up with two-day workshops that focused teams on specific busi-

ness challenges, providing the time, tools and settings to explore those chal-

lenges in greater depth. Teams generated an average of 848 investigative ques-

tions describing the needs surrounding the challenges. These were prioritized to

the top 30, which were then used to generate ideas by using creativity tools. An

average of 1,883 ideas emerged. Each team created a list of eight to 10 criti-

cal evaluation criteria and used these criteria to select 10 to 20 solutions.

Participants found that the more focused the challenge questions, the better the

quality of the results.

Teams developed comprehensive strategy programs, devised systems for cap-

turing more customer data and created communication plans. Teams also leftwith a common sense of direction for taking action on their challenges. Ideally,

teams who targeted $5 million to $10 million in increased revenue, $2 million

to $3 million in cost savings or $2 billion to $4 billion in customer account

growth had the most developed solutions and actions to execute.

From a learning perspective, the teams indicated a 75 percent increase in their

knowledge of innovation and a 30 percent increase in their ability to use inno-

vative processes and tools. On a scale from 0 to 5, the participants rated the

overall value of the innovation experience at 4.14.

From a business impact perspective, the participants indicated more than $500

million resulted in new revenues and cost efficiencies and over $1 billion in new

customer accounts. As a result, Capital One continues to use the processes and

tools learned through the innovation experience program.

in pract ice:

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Stage 2: Create Ideas: Participants use a question bank of create questions that

brings them through a series of divergent exercises concluded by a convergent

exercise to hone in on top ideas that will be used in the next stage for evaluation.

Stage 3: Evaluate Solutions: Participants use a question bank of evaluate ques-

tions that brings them through a series of divergent exercises concluded by a con-

vergent exercise to hone in on top solutions that will be used in the next stagefor activation.

Stage 4: Activate Plans: Participants use a question bank of activate questions

that brings them through a series of divergent exercises concluded by a conver-

gent exercise to hone in on top actions needed to achieve the overall goal.

At the end of a workshop such as this, participants leave with actionable ideas,

as well as new tools that can be used for innovation ideation in their own jobs.

The goal, challenge or problem that is used in the workshop can come from the

organizations innovation focus areas or strategies. It can be product, service,

process, business model or market based. The output of the workshop can flow

into the organizations existing innovation or stage-gate process.

Throughout the innovation skill set description, as well as the innovationprocess description, questions are key. Whether one is playing an investigative,

creative, evaluative or activator role in the innovation process, the questions

that are used to explore the stage are critical to the result. In fact, questions have

long been known as the enablers of innovation. Albert Einstein said, To raise

new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle,

requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

The ability to questionate is a key skill for innovation. To questionate is to cre-

ate, use and improve question banks. Question banks are organized collections of

thought-provoking questions on a particular topic or focus area for the purpose of

innovative application. Question banks capture the thought process, or intellec-

tual capital, of many, for use by many.

With action learning, such as an innovation workshop, measures that quantifythe contribution of the learning organization to innovation can be easily

attained and communicated. To make it easy and client-driven, ensure return on

investment or a comparable, meaningful measure is used in the evaluation crite-

ria. Follow up after the innovation workshop and build success stories that can

be communicated.

Most senior leaders understand the value of innovation and the culture and the

skills associated with it. Middle managers typically understand it as well, but are

challenged with prioritizing and operationalizing it in the context of day-to-day

responsibilities. First-line managers, who direct the bulk of the workforce, are

tightly caught between operational and tactical responsibilities and the need to

allow time for workers to grow their skills, let alone innovate. How might the

learning organization provide training, collaboration or experiential learningsolutions to break through the time crunch experienced by front-line employees

and supervisors?

Nature and NurtureWhile the ageless debate continues around nature or nurture, the discussion will

be made somewhat irrelevant by the fact that it has been shown that certain

innovation skill sets can, in fact, be taught. The sooner a company takes advan-

tage of its own internal innovative talent through development and proper job

assignments, the sooner new products, services and business models can be

brought to market. The learning organization is in a unique position to under-

stand the organizations innovation strategies and processes, and enable the skills

and knowledge needed to move the organizations innovation agenda forward.

Corinne Miller is chief innovation integrator for SolutionPeople and the former director of

Motorola University. She can be reached at [email protected].


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innovation -nature & nurture

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