Incorporating innovation into performance evaluation for engineers
Daniel Schuck
VP Digital Products and Solutions - Pulp & Paper @ ANDRITZ | Maximizing industrial plants performance | Inspiring people to go beyond
The comments below are my contributions to a collaborative article. Show full article
Define Goals
Innovation goals must align with business objectives. It makes no sense to create something unique technically without value. The value proposition is key.
Engineers are usually happy when something works; they can prove they are technically good, validating their skills and earning managerial approval.
However, an innovation’s worth is its outcome.
For plant engineers, this could be improvements in production, cost, quality, reliability, safety, sustainability, etc.
For product development engineers, it’s about customer benefits, business objectives, and market growth.
For complex projects, defining intermediate stages like the first demo or proof of concept is acceptable as long as the initial business objective is kept in mind.
Measure Creativity
Innovation isn’t just about new tech, but solving customer problems effectively.
The process starts with idea tracking, linking them to business objectives, and ensuring transparency for all to contribute. Transparency is key and also creates accountability.
My suggestion to measure:
I would evaluate the ideas by combining the potential return, time to implement, time to benefit, and how easy it is to implement.
Encourage Risk
This was also a similar reflection in another article. See article.
This is a complex topic for large enterprises. I would start by setting the right culture.
A culture that penalizes failure will never be able to encourage risk. Human nature always tries to balance risk vs. reward. If companies are unwilling to share the reward of high innovation, they need to reduce the pressure when something goes wrong.
Regarding risks, I will always try to judge the consequences of failure. If the consequence is low, then we should accept the risk. If the consequence is high (to persons, business, environmental, etc.), I agree that extra caution should be added.
When something goes wrong, focus on understanding the root cause and use it as a learning opportunity. This is a continuous improvement process.
Provide Resources
For me, innovation is not the same as invention. It is more like connecting the dots to solve a real problem.
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Key resources:
Collaborate Widely
Engineers are proud of their knowledge. Graduating is not easy, and they were educated in the university to be heavily measured individually. They tend to believe they should have answers to everything.
A multidisciplinary and multi-opinion approach is better than a single focus. This sounds obvious, but it is hard to implement once some leaders or companies want everybody to think the same way. Diversity is key.
As a leader, encourage collaboration by recognizing the success of the joint success, not the individual. Brilliant people will be visible anyhow. The majority of incentive goals should be collaborative.
Avoid creating a super competition in the team. It is very hard to have collaboration in a competitive environment.
Reflect and Adapt
Celebrate success and learn from failures.
I feel relaxed when the problem is identified so I can focus on the solution. We need to openly speak about what went right and wrong. It is not about finger-pointing but making a decision and having a solution.
I personally developed some products that were a disaster in terms of sales but helped to build the next product, which was a tremendous success.
At the beginning of my career, I was trying to prove myself; now, my focus is more on customers and business objectives. That is how the market and management will judge you.
Do not fall in love with what you have developed. Don’t be afraid to kill your ideas, projects, or products. Your focus should be on bringing results, not on yourself.
Here’s what else to consider
Open space to introverts.
Introverts might not promote themselves as extroverts.
Brainstorming is a powerful tool for innovation, but usually, they do not open space for introverts to contribute.
For instance, it is usually not a good idea to create an open brainstorming session in which everybody will speak. Only one or two people tend to polarize the discussion. I can include myself in that group.
Start the brainstorming with post-its or other virtual tools, followed by an individual explanation (the introvert now has space to explain), discussion, and then dot-voting. This will create a safe space for introverts to bring their ideas and increase their confidence to share their thoughts.
Leave space for everybody to shine.
Thanks for reading!
I hope I can help you by sharing my comments.