Ergonomics of Innovation
Recently I came across an article on how to encourage innovation within an organization. The article by Hayagreeva Rao and Robert Sutton appeared in The McKinsey Quarterly (2008 vol. 4) titled “The ergonomics of innovation“.
Given below are the main points of the article. I think the main points can apply to any organization and even helps in improving personal life. Some ofthese points also tie in to another post I wrote about “Myths of Innovation”.
- Create a new blend of old ideas – You don’t have to reinvent the wheel but apply proven techniques from other disciplines/organization in your own discipline/organization.
- Set goals that count – Set concrete numbers, dates. Goals should grab attention, make people believe it is a worthy cause and move them to action.
- Name the problem – Naming the problem makes it seem more tangible, focuses energy, attention and generates pressure to deal with it.
- Get the “hard count” – metrics are needed to ensure people focus on every little thing that moves them towards the goal.
- Ask people to take small but effective steps – Focus on small things that have big impact. People tend to respond better to a series of smaller steps that are concrete and manageable.
- Use affordances – People need concrete, easily learned and implemented tools such as checklists. Use of such affordances will make it easy for novices to learn. Veteran employees won’t find it difficult to learn. Affordances should start with obvious problems and mundane solutions. Affordance (definition) – “a quality of an object, or an environment” that allows an individual to perform action” – Wikipedia
- Engage the network – Leverage external networks to scale rather than building out. Think of using web based or other networks to find support.
Link to original article:
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/PDFDownload.aspx?L2=21&L3=35&ar=2197