Agility, Adaptability, and Purpose - The Recipe for Successful Innovation

There is something overly academic about the "digital transformation" movement, especially in industrial segments. We've been theorizing the benefits and applications of things like industrial IoT, digital twins, predictive analytics and closed-loop AI / automation for quite some time now. To put it in perspective, machine to machine (M2M) communication, which is what we called IIoT not so long ago, started with the introduction of the PLC back in 1968. Fast forward more than 50 years, and you will find few real-world impactful use cases and implementations of these technologies, especially at scale.

So why does it still feel so much like theory when we talk about these topics? Half a century later, it is still a challenge for organizations to adopt technologies that collect the right data, let alone use new technologies, like artificial intelligence and machine learning, to do something impactful with it. Today, the technology exists to make this a reality, but organizations are hesitant to adopt it and projects continue to sit in proof of concept (POC) or pilot "purgatory". Why?

Projects are often started without due diligence and investment in three key areas: agility, adaptability and purpose. These three elements are essential to driving adoption of any transformative or innovative project within an organization. Without these three things, what could have been a strategic, impactful initiative will likely end up an unfunded science project with no executive buy-in, which means no long-term viability and minimal impact to the organization.

Agility

Projects that embrace agility, and commit to it, are able to put biases aside and respond rapidly to changing demands. This becomes significant when working on cross-departmental or multiple business unit projects, where stakeholders have varying interests and outcomes. The key here is speed. An agile project is able to quickly and effectively mitigate risk and even change the course of the project based on shifting outcomes. This helps projects succeed and get adopted by ensuring all needs are heard and addressed in a timely manner, and competitive advantage is maintained by getting to market quickly.

The speed at which you deliver your project can also have an impact on the level of executive sponsorship and additional funding you receive. The most agile projects are orchestrated in a way that they show quick wins with measurable impact very early so that they can gain executive buy-in and additional funding for additional iterations and/or more in-depth projects with longer life cycles.

Adaptability

10 years ago, Harvard Business Review wrote an article calling adaptability the "new competitive advantage". The irony, of course, is that there is nothing "new" at all about embracing adaptability. In fact, you've likely heard the phrase "change is the only constant in life." Did you know that came from the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, more than 2,500 years ago?

Organizations and projects that embrace this mentality are prepared and able to change and evolve processes to mitigate internal and external challenges. When adaptability is successfully embraced, organizations can overcome adversity and improve processes as a result, to ensure future resiliency.

When it comes to innovative or disruptive projects and initiatives, being adaptable means keeping an open mind, being flexible with barriers and challenges as they present themselves and the willingness to change course as needed.

The most successful organizations and projects will embrace both agility and adaptability to not only overcome hurdles but to do it at a speed that reduces friction and maintains momentum within the initiative.

Purpose

The best partner you can have when pushing the boundaries of innovation or disruption is someone who will ask you, "Why?". If someone is asking you to explain the business justification, use-case, or simply why you want to start a specific project, it's because they understand the significance of being outcome-focused. Working backwards from an impactful outcome ensures the effort you are undertaking is worthwhile.

Technology is cool. I adopt many things in the first generation and I like being an early adopter, but I only purchase something if I can see myself really using it. If I can't justify a use or a purpose, I'm not going to waste time or money buying it.

The same ideology applies to business. It's not uncommon for teams to seek funding for projects that use new and innovative technologies with no real business justification. These initiatives will almost always "die on the vine", as there will likely be no measurable business impact once complete. Executive leadership and budget holders need to understand the return on their investment - "what is it going to cost me and what positive impact is it going to have to our bottom line?".

Starting with a clear problem statement and business need helps justify projects by defining their impact to the business at the beginning of the initiative. Even if it's not dollars and cents, it can be quantified in a way that will justify the spend. For example, if you know implementing a new technology will reduce quality defects by xx%, or decrease warranty claims by xx%, that can be quantified and it's impact to revenue can be measured (relatively easily).

Identify a problem, conceptualize a solution and use technology to bring it to life.

Agility, adaptability and purpose. When these elements are brought together, disruptive projects become unstoppable. Transformation and innovation is challenging; you will face hurdles, both internal and external, adoption will be hard, change management will be complicated, but if you embrace these three components, your project will be well equipped to deal with whatever presents itself.