Building innovation twitch muscles

Hey LinkedIn.

I set myself a goal of writing something/anything once a week this year and honestly, with the craziness of both home and work life I’m amazed I’ve managed to keep it up. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to anyone who has read, commented, liked and shared my words and personal perspectives. I really appreciate it ??????

So here’s something. I had to give a talk last week about the Pause Principle. For those of you who aren’t aware of it, it was conceived by the wonderful Kevin Cashman in his book of the same name:

Whilst there is much in Kevin’s bestseller around broader leadership traits and leading through change with excellence, I find it particularly disruptive and thought provoking when it comes to innovation, in particular disruptive innovation and most importantly the psychology and sociology of innovation within an organisation.

The book details a two x two, with the vertical access being how complicated an issue is, and the horizontal on how much we’re pausing or stepping back to think about it.?

Now, within those axis four scenarios are plotted:?

Transactive: A less complex scenario that sees us executing our business today with excellence?

Hypoactive: A less complex scenario that sees us slowing down, hesitating and not acting with purpose

Hyperactive:?A more complicated scenario which sees us busying ourselves without clarity or direction

Transformative: A more complicated scenario that sees us stepping back, understanding the issue and creating breakthrough innovations which can transform our business, our people, our growth trajectory.

It is explained brilliantly here:?

and more broadly here: https://cashmanleadership.com/the-pause-principle-book/

The Pause Principle ultimately allows us to navigate these situations …but it’s the agility of both innovation teams and the core business to move between transitive (or Perform) and Transform which is so critical in realising the potential of any disruptive innovation.?

But there’s a build here…

The move between ‘Hypoactive/Perform’ and ‘Transform’ is so critical when it comes to driving accelerated and significant change in heart, minds and product development. HOWEVER, being transformative or seeking disruption is not enough. Transforming the learning and opportunity from tomorrow into today is the challenge and also the competitive advantage. This is why Amazon’s 3rd leadership principle is so critical to their success: ‘Invent and simplify’ is operation in action of both “Customer Obsession” and “Leadership” - more of that here: https://www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/principles.?

Businesses often set innovation teams to task to create, but what is less common is a task set to the core business to be ready to receive. Where and how they meet in the middle is critical for the overall success of the business.

The Perform and Transform scenarios are both growth opportunities for any business or individuals, be it kaizen and marginal gains or breakthrough. But there is a far greater, more impactful network affect when they work together seamlessly, both within individuals and their approach, internally between teams and externally between partner organisations. The value here is having the equal partnership whereby roles and goals are aligned to translate the value created. Think of it as an athlete who is using opposing muscle groups together. Like a sprinter…but imagine a 'long-distance sprinter' with both amazing fast AND slow twitch muscles. Fast twitch muscles fit for?sudden bursts of high intensity energy and slow twitch muscles for endurance and consistent performance over time.

The agility an individual or a business should seek through the pause principle is to build the capability which allows us to slow down enough to elevate into the transform (to pause, to think and problem solve with clarity…) and step into ambiguity,?yet also allows us simultaneously to quickly translate that ambiguity and complexity into opportunity.

So what does that mean practically for leaders, businesses and teams alike?

1) Be aware of where you and your teams sit to navigate these scenarios:?

Life is full of distractions and our brains are brilliant at welcoming them with open arms. There’s little wonder then that we can find ourselves in the hypo and hyperactive states. I have to say, I have some tell tale signs for me personally..I have some early warning signs of hyperactivity and passivity…and it comes down three things with both myself and the teams.

• Are we asking the right (difficult) questions and are we sense checking if they are the right ones…
• Are we measuring the right things and what are our external benchmarks for success?
• Are we communicating a direction clearly enough to remove the complexity for people to understand and act.?

2) Speaking the same language and understanding the narrative:

On this last point, we know the hardest thing is to take something which is highly complex and make it feel simple AND actionable. That’s the definition of good strategy, but as I say, good strategy lives through people and in the real world, not on ppt or in individual teams.?But here's the rub... it’s effortful when communicating?potential breakthrough solutions to people who are often firmly in the “Transactive/Perform” scenario. It’s on you as a team or individual to do this, being clear on the value, the opportunity, the cost of inaction and the things which need to be true to capitalise on it. Style-switching from Transform into Perform (and back again) involves creating an inspiring story that teams can own and drive - and that starts with the language and narrative of innovation.

3) Aligned roles, goals and a shared sense of burning platform:

I’m firm believe in the notion of ‘innovation everywhere’. It’s always felt very strange to me when businesses say innovation lives in one place. It wreaks of rooms full of unused 3d printers, bean bags and kids with trainers. That’s not the way businesses who have institutionalised innovation act, or the way innovative companies innovate.?The agility to move quickly from Transform and Perform comes from a clear sense of roles (and the value they bring to a cross functional team), goals (what are we seeking to achieve together) and a shared sense of the same burning platform (what happens if we don't do it). And without dumbing it down...it's pretty obvious to think capitalising on an opportunity is difficult if people don't see the same potential value, in the same potential opportunity against the same very real business problem.

4) Moving from measuring reaction times vs OTIF?

Businesses care deeply about what they deliver. That makes sense - it's a measurement of value, market penetration and share. What it doesn't measure is a businesses reaction time, which is a crucial competitive advantage. Note this is different to velocity of output or throughput. Measuring a team or individuals reaction times is a proxy for how quickly we can solve a consumer problem. So the importance here is around speed of transfer and learning. If we have the ability and appetite to seize a growth opportunity then the best way to measure this is speed to market and proximity to customer. Getting out of the door is imperative in order to translate the most relevant learnings into a language and insight the business can act upon.?And a product/process which can be systemised at pace.

Which leads us back to that Amazon example… …they invent and simplify. They don’t invent and perfect. And they don’t silo their organisation into ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ - they set and engrain an expectation of opportunity/so what/now what, and create cyclical behaviours which allows them to organise for growth.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this and would love to hear any thoughts you have.

And all views are my own :)?

N. Tate / Feb 22.