Innovation is a repeatable system-that-drives behavior in people, that are goal driven (by a Manager, themselves, or a customer), to fix an existing problem OR to fix an hypothesized future problem.
Instead of creating failure charts, root cause analysis, and using a system of trial and error the simplest way is to start at the cheese and follow the path back to the mouse. By identifying the solution first, What we want to have happen, an easier solution can be found.
Using this video to illustrate two concepts;
The need and use of Gemba: solving problems in the location of the problem by the people who have first hand experience with the problem.
The systemic nature of Organizations and team: By changing one thing other parts of the system/process are changed that we may not notice.
Making decisions as a team requires a shared understanding and procedure for accomplishment. The confusion and strife that occurs because the team cannot make a decision will ruin any progress made on the work. In order for decisions to be made quickly, and the work to be completed on-time, on-budget, within quality, while the team still gets along, a known and agreed upon procedure must be used.
Have you ever wondered, why do we care what someone who is watching us thinks? Especially when it’s someone close like a spouse or loved one. Possibly someone who has control over your work, like your manager or subordinate.
Working with a team of 5 Executive Directors from a company that employs ~2000 people we identified a gap in the Managerial Leadership Training, Mentoring and coaching of employees prior to being promoted to a Manager Level within the company.
The Ideal Solution Statement. When working to solve specific problems psychological constipation can be turned to a flow state with the Ideal Solution Statement. The best solutions are the most ideal. The ideal solutions are the ones that are able to solve themselves for free, using all the existing resources.
We always want to share our experience and how we solved problems. When someone shares a problem they are facing, we quickly jump into the “If I was you…” “Here is what I would have done…” “That happened to me and I …” “why didn’t you just…” etc. This is especially true with a manager subordinate relationship.
In Leadership Coaching and when I am trying to work out solutions and success of my own, I use a scaling method learned from Solutions Focused Coaching.
At the conclusion of this process the marketing team;
Decreased the amount of time to make a decision by creating a model and replicable method. This model was recognized by other department and is now being implemented across the organization.
Decisions are being made faster and costing less money, upon observation and interviews what used to take almost 3 months to be decided upon is now done within 1 to 2 weeks.
The majority of people support the decision made. People understand that each decision needs support and not necessarily total agreement.
Active listening and communication to peers, supervisors and direct reports.