The Innovative Enterprise: Continuous Value Creation (CVC)
Curt Carlson, Ph.D.
Professor of Practice, Northeastern University and Distinguished Executive in Residence, WPI
An enterprise that continuously creates and delivers the highest customer and stakeholder value by systematically developing and using superior value creation tools and practices.
The Problem
Almost half the companies in America now use some version of "Agile."??But what is it – a brand, a mindset, or a methodology???At a minimum, it generally means a responsive, adaptive enterprise employing customer feedback with rapid incremental product deployments.
There are almost endless programs claiming to be Agile.??They include Fast Agile, Modern Agile, Lean-Agile Process, Spotify Agile, Scrum, ScrumBan, Scrum of Scrums, Portfolio Management, LeSS, SAFe, FDD, TDD, RAD, RUP, DSD, 4DX, OASM, P4-D, SAM, SCARE, USDP, Lean Software Development, Nexus, Extreme Programming, and many others. In addition, there are over 270 different Agile certifications.
Is it any wonder that some are confused???Most of these methodologies apply to specific tasks, like Scrum for software development.??These are generally excellent practices. However, others propose types of Agile organizations, some of which do not appear to be significantly effective.?
Core Characteristics:?To help sort this out, a pioneer in Agile management, Steve Denning, emphasizes that Agile enterprises typically have common characteristics, which he calls the three laws of Agile.??They are the law of the 1) customer, 2) small team, and 3) network.???As we will see, those three characteristics fall out of the model described below.
Denning also points out that a profound mindset shift is required to be Agile, where management and staff place the customer at the center of the enterprise.???This positive mindset shift should be an inevitable consequence of the organization's design.??
No Single Design:?Agile companies cited often include Gore, Spotify, Ericsson, Amazon, Cisco, Microsoft, Barleys Bank, and Haier.??These companies are incredibly diverse, with different business models and types of offerings.??And quoting Shakespeare, it is clear that in many cases, the commitment to Agile is "More honor'd in the breach than in the observance."??Nevertheless, if Agile is more than a brand, there ought to be a way to test if an enterprise is legitimately Agile or not.???
A Proposed Test:?Specifically, are there a few questions for middle-level managers that allow an understanding of how Agile their enterprises are.??Since middle managers are responsible for implementing the enterprise's value creation strategy, it only exists if they can describe it.?
A Benchmark
To compare different Agile organizations, a benchmark is required.??Three principles will be used to determine the enterprise's level of performance:
Exponential Economy:?In addition, because many core technologies are improving exponentially fast, to survive, the enterprise's methods and tools must create new customer value exponentially fast.??Consider that MIT researchers estimated that many digital technologies exhibit improvement rates of over 40% per year.??For an enterprise to survive, its value creation processes must be exponentially faster than its market or fall behind exponentially.??
Interdisciplinary Convergence:?The exponential economy is daunting if you are competing in one of those exponential technologies. However, these rapid improvements often open major new opportunities when brought together.??For example, when creating Siri, we had to bring together three rapidly advancing digital technologies.??
Almost all significant opportunities are a result of the convergence of multiple disciplines.??That realization is a critical because it requires intense collaboration across the enterprise and with customers and partners. Unfortunately, most organizations, and essentially all universities, are poor at interdisciplinary collaboration.?
Enterprise Purpose:?Peter Drucker emphasized the three principles listed above when he wrote, "Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs."??
Thus, the enterprise must develop offerings that address significant customer needs with a sustainable business model.??In short:
Note that the goal here is not to be just customer-focused. Instead, it is to be committed to the continuous creation and delivery of new customer value.??
The CVC Enterprise:?In a Continuous Value Creation (CVC) enterprise, every function and position constantly identifies, creates, and adds value to its customers.??In an enterprise of this type, if the business model or organizational structures need to be improved, better ones will likely emerge.?
Everyone a Value Creator:?All employees are value creators working on adding value to the enterprise's customers.??The contributions from employees will range from incremental to transformational.??But in a CVC enterprise, that alignment on delivering customer value creates a positive, meaningful work environment. In addition, as Denning points out, it produces a shift in perspective with a healthier culture.
Most employees work for others within the enterprise.??They have “internal customers,” which may not give them direct access to customers.??This lack of customer contact can lead to inefficiency and unfulfilled value creation.??CVC enterprises minimize this through extreme transparency and access to others with the relevant customer and market understanding.?????
Next I will describe basic concepts and principles for creating an CVC enterprise. Of course, this model is idealized, and no enterprise will execute all these practices flawlessly.??However, experience shows that they are so effective, even modest success creates dramatic performance improvements. At the end of this post, I will note three companies implementing some of these principles with significant positive results.?
Strategic Intent
In a CVC enterprise, the management team commits to being the world leader in a market segment with customer value creation core to their strategic intent. But, again, this is not just a commitment to customer focus; it is a commitment to continuously creating and delivering superior customer value across all parts of the enterprise.??Thus, the enterprise will, in addition to its specific mission and vision, address these issues.
What?
How?
Value Balance:?For an enterprise to succeed, it must first deliver value to its customers and then satisfy its other stakeholders.??They include investors, shareholders, employees, partners, suppliers, and the government.??We refer to this as satisfying the "value balance." If not achieved, the enterprise may fail, as demonstrated by Theranos.??Thus, getting the value balance right is one of senior management's most significant challenges.???
Human Values:?Value creation is a profoundly human activity.??At SRI when I was CEO, respect for others and integrity were core values – the basis for trust.??Without these human attributes value creation suffers or stops.??
Rewards and Incentives:??If financial rewards are reasonable and appropriate for the position, they are not lasting motivators.??What motivates the best employees is achievement, involvement, community, and recognition.??The nature of the business determines which incentives are beneficial.??For example, for those creating major innovations, a reward proportional to the success of the venture might encourage needed behaviors.?
Transparency:??Value creation is a knowledge creation activity where different ideas, knowledge, and insights come together to address significant unmet customer needs.??Access to ideas, knowledge, and information is the raw material required for success.??Information and ideas are to value creation as oxygen is to living things. Inappropriate barriers are the enemy of CVC enterprises.???
Core Principles:?A CVC enterprise embraces the following concepts, which together create the required conceptual framework:
These very different disciplines might seem overwhelming, but many of the practices described are self-reinforcing. That is, they make a similar point from a different perspective, indicating its significance.
Behavioral Science:?Human perception is nonlinear with many seemingly illogical properties.??For example, the perception of value is measured as a percentage change, not in absolute terms. Thus, we can perceive $1+$1=$2 as more significant than $1+$100 =$101, although the absolute change, $1, is the same.??The just-noticeable difference for many attributes, like increasing the intensity of light, is around 10%.??
A significant result from Prospect Theory is that losses are perceived as more than two times worse than equal gains.??For example, Kahneman and Tversky's results predicted that a loss of $10 is perceived as 2.3 times worse than a gain of $10.??This has clear implications on the importance of delivering flawless customer services.?
Team Science:?Value creation is a profoundly human activity.??Positive human values and motivating incentives are required for teams to collaborate intensely over extended periods.??Productive value creation teams: 1) share the task's vision, 2) have unique, complementary skills, and 3) share in the rewards of success.??The best teams are from those who self-select and have enviable human values and proven value creation skills.?
Active Learning
At its core, value creation is about learning with empathy for others.? It is not about failing fast. It is about learning fast. ?Value creation is an exploratory activity to deliver sustainable customer value based on learning, exploring, creating, and improving.??The principles that describe the fastest and best methods to achieve this are from the educational sciences and are called "active learning."??Active learning principles include the need to:
Most of these principles are readily understood, but the last point, implementation in a complete system, is too often overlooked. Yet, this is the intent in CVC enterprises.??
Doing the Task:?Value creation is learned and practiced by repeatedly performing the task.??A musician doesn't get to Carnegie Hall by just reading books or listening to lectures.??The discipline of value creation is at least as challenging as being a professional musician.??It requires a similar amount of effort and practice.??The need for rapid, repeated iteration in teams is a foundational principle for mastering the discipline of value creation and for creating new customer value.??
Small Teams:?Research has shown that the ideal team size is roughly between 3 to 7 teammates.??First, the team must contain the perspectives and skills required to perform their task. At the same time, the team must be small enough for everyone to be fully engaged. Thus, Steve Denning's observation that Agile organizations work in small teams is correct. It is a consequence of a core active learning principle.??In the military and performing arts, this is well known. For this reason, as a project grows, it is best to break it into small, highly effective teams with an organizational structure allowing effective integration.??
Big Ideas First:??It is critical to understand the essential ideas and issues first – the big ideas of value creation – because they set the direction for all subsequent work.??Almost all the failures we see start at the start, because the teams fail to address the most basic questions, beginning with the customer's actual unmet need. Starting with the big ideas is also a principle when addressing complex problems, like when conducting research.
Mentors and Experts:?As in music, because value creation takes years to master, mentors and other proven practitioners provide guidance about key insights, mistakes to avoid, and best practices. In addition, if a team is missing essential skills or knowledge, experts are engaged to help learn and create faster.??CVC enterprises embrace open innovation.??Time is the enemy of value creation.
I will discuss below comparative learning, value creation concepts and tools, and motivating “network improvement communities.”??When they come together using additional Innovation for Impact (i4i) concepts, they are powerful value creation amplifiers. Most methodologies lack these powerful methods. These topics are described in detail in the HBR article at the end of this post.
Complex, Complicated, and Simple Tasks
In an enterprise, work varies from complex, to complicated, to simple.??Different tasks require different value creation tools and methods.
Complex:?For complex problems, practitioners employ a try, learn, and adapt approach.??They are often looking for faint signals in a sea of noise.??The solution to complex problems emerge, so the appropriate tools provide guidance and help set the boundaries for exploration.??This domain typically includes the enterprise's R&D activity for developing significant new products or businesses.??In this domain it is critical to first address the vital issues and mitigate all significant risks.??
When I was CEO of SRI International, we strove to first understand the most critical issues and risks before adding more resources.??Because complex problems are risky, a portfolio approach is appropriate.??But the major mistake most make is to invest too many resources before reducing the key risks.??In our hundreds of workshops with global enterprises, less than 25% of their initiatives provide any significant new customer value.??The potential for improvement is enormous.
The approach of addressing the major issues and mitigating significant risks at SRI led to successes such as HDTV and Siri.??Elon Musk has also described why first focusing on the basic ideas is a powerful way to identify new opportunities.??One of the objectives is to ensure alignment with ongoing changes in the technology and the market ecosystem.??
Complicated:?Complicated problems use proven recipies and management tools.??The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a commonly used tool with some value in this category.??Unfortunately, because it is a long checklist, it is often incorrectly used as a template for developing significant innovations, which are complex tasks.??In many situations, if not used correctly, it adds confusion and reduces the odds of success.??
This domain is typically part of the ongoing incremental improvements required in an enterprise that have modest complexity.??Appropriate tools in this category include Six-Sigma and Scrum to reduce product development time and cost while increasing quality.
Simple:?Simple problems use checklists and basic customer feedback mechanisms for monitoring performance.??Issues identified in these settings are often of the complicated type, not complex.??However, occasionally issues arise that lead to opportunities for more significant innovations.?
All three categories overlap and use many of the same basic tools.??In addition, insights about new opportunities can come from all three domains. Thus, feedback mechanisms back to the appropriate enterprise functions are required.??In all cases, the objective is to identify and deliver new value to the customer.??Of significance, the one value creation tool that is common to all three categories is the value proposition.?
Business Models and Networks???????????????????????????????????????????????????
In a CVC enterprise, its business model determines the information architecture for maximizing value creation.??It is sometimes called organizational flow, which includes aligning information networks, people, operations, and financing with the marketplace, customers, and the business model.??
Adaptation:?Because the tasks in an enterprise are constantly changing, the enterprise’s networks must change and adapt.??However, to have a stable organizational structuring, the organization chart may look very different.??For example, when I was CEO of SRI, the organizational chart was flat but otherwise appeared like a conventional organization based on core functions.??But, in practice, the operational networks were constantly changing as projects changed due to the market and as people moved from one area to another.
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The constant rearrangement of people and networks at SRI was enabled by having everyone speak the language of value creation.??The standard communication "protocol" making that possible was the value proposition.
Shared Language and Tools
An enterprise consists of professionals with different disciplines, functions, and increasingly global cultures.??Each of the groups has its distinctive language, mental models, and skills.??To collaborate effectively, they must share the language and concepts of value creation.??This begins with these definitions, which are often confused:
Preeminence of the Value Proposition:?The value proposition is the essential value creation tool tying teams together and allowing effective value creation.??It is missing in almost all enterprises today and is a primary cause of failure.
In our personal lives, we rapidly develop value propositions to justify decisions we make.??Most are nearly subconscious. For example, when deciding what to have for lunch.??Others might take days or weeks, like deciding on which car to buy.??Creating the value proposition for a new product often takes years.??
NABC Value Propositions:?What are the ingredients of a good value proposition? First, it must satisfy the principles of active learning and complexity analysis.??Thus, it must be concise and address the most fundamental issues.??A value proposition starts with the unmet problem or need and a description of a proposed solution.??Then, since different solutions have unique advantages and disadvantages, the approach is evaluated relative to the alternative solutions. Finally, this analysis determines which method is best for the customer and other stakeholders.??A value proposition that addresses these questions has four parts:
During value creation these four questions interact, each modifying the others.??After many rounds of iteration and reframing the solution emerges.?
Employees and teams construct value propositions to determine the best solutions for their tasks.??Many are made rapidly, and others take years.??However, when all employees have a concise mental model for the definition, it enables a much more efficient and effective enterprise. Conversely, if an employee cannot succinctly and quantizability address these four questions, they have yet to figure out what to do. Thus, in CVC enterprises, all employees understand and use this standard definition for the value proposition.??
Value propositions are also required to address the needs of all stakeholders.??It starts with the customer and then typically includes investors or shareholders, the enterprise, employees, and partners.??For drugs and other regulated businesses, value propositions are often required for the government.?
Inclusive:?When I was CEO of SRI International, the onboarding process for employees, from the front desk attendants to our new company CEOs, included a discussion on the importance of NABC value propositions.??Why the front desk attendants? ?They were the first to greet visitors and often asked to solve customer’s problems.??They established a visitor's first impression of SRI, and I wanted them to know how they could contribute to our success. They appreciated that and so did our customers and partners.
To work effectively at SRI, professionals had to understand our core value creation concepts.??Thus, all new professional staff participated in a three-day workshop using the NABC framework to develop their initiatives while learning additional i4i value creation concepts.??
Because the NABC value proposition starts with the customer’s need, when everyone uses it, it creates a customer focused enterprise.??And this has a profound positive effect on the enterprise’s efficiency and effectiveness. It establishes the essential customer mindset noted by Denning.
Words to Use and Avoid:??Productive collaboration is the beating heart of a CVC enterprise.??Employees are constantly performing different roles, sometimes starting a new initiative and sometimes as a partner on someone else's.??In such a collaborative setting, the names for team leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs are, as traditionally conceived, often inappropriate and sometimes divisive.???We used the word champion, which captures what is required. We expected everyone to be the champion for their specific role.??Colleagues were asked if they were the champion for their part of the initiative, whether in research, finance, or operations.??Our rule was, no champion, no project, no exception.???The world is competitive, and commitment and passion are essential.?
Networked Improvement Communities
Douglas Engelbart, the winner of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2000, was the inventor of the computer mouse and an unprecedented array of other inventions that set the foundation for personal computing.??More broadly, he devoted his life to developing tools and methods to augment human capabilities to better address the world's most urgent problems.???
One of his seminal ideas was the coevolution of technological and human capabilities.??Computers augment humans, not replace them.??And humans, in turn, make computer tools better.??He called this back-and-forth process bootstrapping—each building on developments of the other to provide ever-improving overall capabilities.
Network Improvement Communities:?He envisioned implementing this in a family of Networked Improvement Communities (NICs). For example, an A-level NIC might address a significant societal problem, like world health. Next, it was connected to a B-level NIC developing new drugs and a C-Level NIC working on human genomics.??Finally, he envisioned Meta-NICs where teams create even better computer tools and human practices.?
He envisioned each NIC having a feedback loop, as shown in the picture. When the feedback is positive, and there is a way to compound knowledge, it results is exponential improvement.??Companies like Google and Amazon have positive feedback loops with their users, which is a primary reason why those companies are so successful. Conversely, companies without customer feedback loops are at a significant disadvantage.??
Engelbart emphasized that the feedback be both within the A-level NIC and from all the supporting ones.??These additional ideas from related NICs further amplify exponential improvement.??
In principle, this model is what many enterprises try to implement. But the flow of ideas within enterprises is often blocked, and the feedback loops painfully slow.??For these reasons the core of many big businesses is sometimes called the "frozen middle." ?
In most enterprises, there are typically three significant points of failure.??First, there are barriers to the flow of information from one group to another and with customers and partners.??Second, because productive teams come from different disciplines and often globally from different cultures, the lack of shared language and understanding of value creation slows or stops progress.??Finally, a means for knowledge compounding is often lacking, thwarting exponential improvement.?
Value Creation Forums (VCF)
We have implemented a successful version of Engelbart's NIC concept that directly addresses these issues, which we call Value Creation Forums (VCFs).???They are recurring meetings with three-to-six teams, all using NABC value propositions as the standard presentation format.??The different teams present 5-to-10-minute value propositions and, while listening quietly, receive feedback from multiple perspectives.??For example, what was good, ideas for improvement, and the eyes of the customer and investor?
That common framework enables two significant outcomes.??First, it allows comparative learning, where the teams compare their performance to that of the other teams.??Comparative learning greatly amplifies both learning and team motivation.??Second, the standard NABC format allows knowledge compounding, where a new idea builds on an older one, like discovering a better business model.
Supportive:?Forms are positive, supportive meetings.??The goal is for everyone to learn and improve faster and to make more significant contributions.? Doing meaningful work with great colleagues is extremely rewarding, satisfying, and often fun.
Transparency:?From this discussion, it is clear that organizational transparency is a core practice of CVC enterprises.??Wherever possible, speed of value creation is given priority over managerial control.??Each enterprise team obtains the information it needs from customers, teammates, partners, and suppliers.??
The tasks to be performed and the flow of information in a CVC enterprise determines an organization's structures and networks.??The figure shows one possible configuration for a specific task.??Some of the input comes from other VCFs along with insights from customers and partners.??As needed, other teammates from corporate functions are included.??This functional adaptability is possible because all employees share the language and concepts of value creation. Unfortunately, in the over hundred companies we have worked in, shared value creation language and knowledge has been missing, greatly inhibiting progress.
Form Follows Function:?Steve Denning is correct that CVC enterprises have a network structure that is not all top-down. Instead, its design is a consequence of the information flows required to optimize the business model and value creation.???
An enterprise's network can never be all top-down because the required knowledge can never be all at the top.??So, the productive path is to push decisions down the organization to those with the highest commitment and best understanding of customers, technologies, competitors, and value creation.??
There is no one network.??Form follows function.??They emerge and adapt. If the required information and feedback loops are missing, progress is impossible.?
After a conversation with Tom Friedman, he coined "Carlson's Law." "'In a world where so many people now have access to education and cheap tools of innovation, the innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart. Innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb.' As a result, says Carlson, the sweet spot for innovation today is 'moving down,' closer to the people, not up."??This is even more true today than when I said it.
Better Decisions: Value Creation Forms allow decisions to be made by those with the most knowledge. First, it becomes apparent to the teams what actions are required to move forward, or whether to stop the project. Second, it allows senior management a common framework for evaluating progress. As CEO I rarely had to stop projects because employees were able to make those decisions and they did.
3-Laws of Value Creation
Developing an enterprise based on these principles typically takes years.??However, significant progress can be made by following these three practices, which I call the 3-Laws of Value Creation.
These are minimum requirements.??An enterprise's value creation process must follow these three practices in some form to be CVC or Agile.??The 3-Laws are multiplicative.??If one is missing, systematic success is virtually impossible.?
Methodologies that adhere to these principles for addressing different tasks include Six-Sigma.??In that case, the ongoing unmet customer need is lower product costs, higher quality, and more rapid product deployment.??The tools used include statistical measurement techniques.??And the iteration process is often a morning meeting where the team looks at the previous day's results and develops its next action plan.
Versions of Scrum follow similiar guidelines for software development, with daily stand-up meetings using basic management tools. Amazon also has a good value creation process where employyes write a customer ad for the new offering along with answers to FAQs (frequently asked questions). However, what is often missing in these and other cases, is an effective definition of the value proposition.?
Examples
No enterprise satisfies all the criteria described.??When I was CEO of SRI International, we were working to be one of the best.??The image below schematically shows the flat organizational structure we used.??Decisions were pushed down to operating divisions that were closely connected with customers and their market ecosystems.??All professionals were trained in value creation, and we used Value Creation Forums (VFCs) throughout the company.??
Except for proprietary intellectual property, operations were completely transparent.??The VCFs were created to address specific market needs, and employees were included from one functional area or another as needed.??Incremental innovations were developed in the operating divisions with an enterprise wide VCF for new venture formation, like Siri.??At any given time we were typically developing a dozen potentially significant innovations. As part of this program we implemented a staff value-sharing program.?
NABC value propositions were used across all functions, so anyone could come into a VCF and constructively contribute.???As CEO, I was the champion for the value creation methodology.
As I am sure you can understand, we did not implement a perfect CVC enterprise. We achieved perhaps 3 or 4 on a 10-point scale, up from a very dysfunctional minus 2 when we started.??But by using this model and improving every year, SRI went from failing for 20 years and close to bankruptcy, to growing over three times and systematically creating world-changing innovations, such as Intuitive Surgical, Nuance, HDTV, and Siri, now on the iPhone.
Ray Dalio at Bridgewater Associates, a financial asset management firm, embraces radical transparency and information sharing, where meetings are recorded and available to all employees.??His goal is to create a meritocracy where the best ideas win.??Our experience at SRI and with hundreds of teams from other companies proves the power of transparency and a way to build one idea on top of another.??Transparency provides both the information needed and fosters commitment from employees.
Haier has pioneered a highly diversified, bottom-up model called Rendanheyi with an organizational structure like SRIs in a white-goods business. The goal is for each employee to be an entrepreneur directly interacting with users, creating new customer value, and sharing in the value created for customers.??As a result, after Haier acquired GE Appliances, it transformed it from a top-down and slowly failing division of GE into a highly successful enterprise.??Haier is, in many ways, one of the world's best examples of a CVC enterprise.??
None of these examples satisfies all of the principles I outlined. But each proves the power of the approach.??Any team can perform in these ways to improve performance.??But their influence is only fully realized when embraced across the enterprise.???A CVC organization is not easy to manage.??It requires a CEO with proven value creation skills and a passionate belief in employees' potential when working in this demanding but gratifying way.??
At Northeastern we are in trials with commercial enterprises using the online, interactive platform we have developed for teaching and performing value creation. It is based on our Innovation for Impact (i4i) methodology, which we have taught to thousands of professionals.??Our goal is to further scale the teaching and use of value creation practices at low cost.??In addition, because everyone is now online with video, global collaboration has been greatly amplified.??If we had these two additional tools when I was CEO of SRI, I believe our ability to create new societial value would have been two to ten times greater.
Conclusions
This post began by asking what the term Agile means? The answer was approached by outlining a hypothetical enterprise committed to continuous value creation (CVC) that broadly uses and develops the best value creation tools and methods.?It is not just Agile, it goes well beyond what has been previously suggested. ?
Enterprises are on an organizational spectrum from mostly top-down, as exemplified by Henry Ford, to primarily bottom-up, like Haier and SRI when I was CEO.??And within an enterprise, different types of sub-organizations will be defined by the tasks to be accomplished. For example, new product development at Amazon is often bottom-up, but the product distribution centers are primarily top-down.?
Given this variety of organizational designs, when I first visit or work with an enterprise, I ask managers a series of questions.???The specific words they use are not critical, it is whether they adhere to core value creation concepts.
The answer to those few questions provides a basis for expecting what will happen when we start working with their teams.??Notice the answers do not depend on the employees’ positions or responsibilities.??They can be in R&D, operations, of finance.??When matched against the CVC principles outlined here, many enterprises are Agile in part, but few comprehensively so.??Imagine the performance improvements if they were?
Meaning
There are other important reasons to work this way, in addition to delivering superior customer value and improving enterprise performance.??I strongly feel the most significant outcome is what this does for employees.??An enterprise's most critical asset is its people.??Employees who gain these value creation skills by working in a CVC enterprise make significant contributions, are sought out by others, and master a life skill that gets only better with experience. Employees become more engaged and energized because they are respected, involved, and inspired to make significant positive contributions.??That is, it allows employees to have more meaningful professional lives - and more fun.???The reason I now teach is that I want all people to have this gift and work in positive enterprises based on these principles.
See: Curt Carlson, Harvard Business Review,?“Innovation for Impact”
Keep up the great work mate??. Would really appreciate if you would like to connect with me.
Professor of Practice, Northeastern University and Distinguished Executive in Residence, WPI
3 年Manish, thanks -- you are so right. I am doing a workshop right now at WPI. It is unrelentingly positive and we are having a lot of fun. Why not, we are doing things people love. Most "review" meetings are horrible because they are about criticism and not helping people learn and improve. I was just talking to a large company CTO yeasterday about this and why the lack of shared value creation language and concepts makes their review meetings almost useless.
Managing Partner, First Spark Ventures; Past President, SRI International
3 年I really liked the article - thoughtful, very detailed and with some clear prescriptive steps. I'm looking forward to re-reading and then internalizing some ideas. Curt, if I may make a suggestion, I think you should somehow add "Fun" to the methodology. In my experience, many of these approaches fail because the participants, while creating value, are not having fun. I think "Fun" is a deeply underestimated part of success. It is also related closely to satisfaction, which is something that your approach should inherently increase amongst employees.