Despite the negative reputation that they often have, meetings are essential to a successful business. To clarify, effective meetings positively impact productivity and results. Effective meeting strategies help move them in the right direction, making them productive and lucrative. Below, you’ll find five strategies to level up your facilitation skills:

Setting a strategic agenda

Holding space to reset with your team

Expressing gratitude

Ending with a crucial call to action

Reviewing your meetings

Time is valuable and should be treated as such. According to an MIT study, managers spend between 25% and 75% of their time in meetings. That’s a substantial number, especially when the majority of people feel that most of those meetings are a waste of time. In a survey of over 200 senior executives from varying backgrounds conducted by the Harvard Business Review, only 17% of respondents reported that their meetings are generally productive uses of the company’s and individuals’ time. For Harvard Business Review, Antony Jay claims that a “meeting defines the team, the group, or the unit.” People contribute their experiences, knowledge, and learnings to the meeting when invited to participate. An effective facilitator provides a space for just that.

The same study found that 54% of respondents said most of their meetings are held too frequently, are poorly timed, and insufficiently run. The resulting lower productivity and collaboration are wasted time and resources.

How can you guarantee engaging, productive, and lucrative meetings? We’ve broken down strategies to help you build a win-win situation–mindful facilitation to produce an environment centered around focus, productivity, and respect. 

1. Set a strategic agenda.

Recognize the purpose of the meeting. When people understand the why behind the meeting, they’re more likely to engage in a positive manner. A meeting agenda can make or break a meeting’s potential. As the facilitator, sharing objectives should be a priority. The focus of the meeting should be clear, enabling people to engage in a productive manner.

“If I don’t have an agenda in front of me, I walk out,” Annette Catino, chief executive of the QualCare Alliance Network, told the New York Times in an interview. “Give me an agenda or else I’m not going to sit there, because if I don’t know why we’re in the meeting, then there’s no reason for a meeting.”

A well-structured roadmap provides a clear start and end time and defines topics. Having run through the agenda, everyone should be equipped to participate effectively with the guidance of a facilitator. Conducting room intelligence keeps the group on track with regard to time and focus. It’s important to keep the attention of participants and be clear with them that there is an end goal to the meeting. With time, teammates will trust the process and come to meetings ready to address a shared goal. For a head start, explore our downloadable guides to help you structure meetings appropriately.

Think of it this way: a meeting is a direct reflection of a company’s culture. Do expectations align with reality? Are employees showing up as participants? Hold each meeting to the same standard, always mindfully set timeframes, and honor them. That reflects on how you honor your employees–their time is valuable to themselves and the team. Time should not be wasted. The 80/20 rule states that 20% of activities account for 80% of results. Prioritization of topics and appropriate time management are essential to the meeting’s success. Just as importantly, be mindful of who you invite to the meeting. Here’s a source for handling participant conflict–it’s healthy when managed appropriately.

2. Hold space to mentally reset.

With changing workspaces and varying priorities, recognize that not everyone shows up to a meeting in the same place. Some people may have back-to-back meetings, while others may be entering from deep work on a project. Start by making sure that everyone feels heard. Tell them that you want them to engage because each person was invited for a reason. There are likely varying energies entering the meeting space, so it’s important to enable a reset for all participants. They’re there to potentially contribute, and you want them to recognize that. 

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Try starting the meeting with five minutes aimed at initiating mindfulness.

Try starting the meeting with five minutes aimed at initiating mindfulness. Group meditation is one route. Simply offer a five-minute guided meditation for the group. One study credited a 15-minute meditation to a 22% reduction in mind-wandering. Meditation can improve cognition, boost memory, counteract stress/burnout, and more.

If the group is small enough, clearing is another. Offer an opportunity for each participant to preface with what’s occupying their headspace coming into the meeting. It provides an opportunity for everyone to engage and feel heard, while also recognizing that there’s a need to shift focus towards the agenda.

3. Voice appreciation. 

In addition to discussing the tasks at hand, it’s important to sincerely voice appreciation for everyone’s choice to dedicate their time towards a common goal. Recognizing team and individual achievements can elevate morale and motivate individuals. Both are essential to the success of the company.

Other people are motivated to do great work when they see it rewarded. 
Expressing gratitude can focus thinking for teammates, reminding them that they’re making an impact in a specific way and that their work is noticed. Other people are motivated to do great work when they see it rewarded. A study by Glassdoor found that 81% of surveyed respondents felt more motivated after their bosses expressed appreciation for their efforts. Voice this earnest appreciation for their hard work, and you’ll quickly recognize the return.

4. End the meeting with goals–actionable goals. 

No matter how effective the meeting may have felt, time was wasted if you end without defining and assigning the next steps. Highlighting the meeting’s outstanding items is a productive use of time when done efficiently. Make the most of the meeting, then leave with actionable goals. Assign teammates to deadlines for outstanding tasks and identify expectations for the work. What does Jane need to accomplish, and by when? Who takes on the next steps? Mapping out what’s possible when each teammate sticks to the plan provides accountability. When the goal is achieved, it also provides a sense of rapport amongst the team.

5. Review your meetings.

If you’re reading this advice, you’re likely on the right track. No matter how efficient your meetings may feel, it’s smart to review the process occasionally and determine what could be improved. 

Avoid letting meetings feel stale. What’s working, and what could be improved? Provide an opportunity for teammates to provide occasional feedback about meeting structures. Maybe someone recently joined the team and brings knowledge of what worked well at their previous workplace. Consider our Magical Meetings templates an additional library of meeting resources. . 

Which of these strategies can help make your meetings more efficient? As you improve the planning and execution of meetings, your team will reap the benefits, and they’ll realize it. Meetings are well-regarded once mastered, as are expectations. With time in weekly meetings jumping 10% with remote work, an effective meeting protocol is crucial to a team’s shared goals.

Still eager to refine your approach to meetings? Consider applying for our Facilitator Certification for a deeper dive.

Voltage Control also designs and facilitates innovation training, Design Sprints, and design thinking workshops. Please reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com to discuss what we offer.

The post Five Strategies for More Effective Meetings appeared first on Voltage Control.

How do you successfully facilitate a meeting? When you think about meetings, what’s the first thought or feeling that comes to mind? If it’s reluctance, annoyance, avoidance, frustration, unproductiveness, ambiguity, or a waste of precious work time, don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Make the switch from simply “running a meeting” to truly “facilitating a meeting” to make better use of your time and see more productive results. Even if you simply incorporate a few key facilitation skills into your meetings, you’ll likely see huge benefits in efficiency and effectiveness. With the help of a meeting facilitator, companies can solve complex issues and arrive at solutions to challenges they have not been able to overcome on their own. 

A successful facilitator possesses several key facilitation skills that make them such an essential asset in guiding effective, successful meetings. Even if you have limited experience in facilitation, the following information and resources can help you properly understand how to facilitate a meeting using professional facilitation techniques.t The resulting meeting process will be highly functional and productive.

What Is a Facilitator? hat Qualities and Skills Should a Meeting Facilitator Have?

Before we dive in, let’s first review what a meeting facilitator is and what they do. A facilitator is someone who plans, designs, and leads a designated group meeting or event. For more information on what a facilitator does and when you need one, see our post here. 

The best facilitators help groups efficiently and cordially reach their goals or solutions to their problems by creating an inclusive, safe spacer for all attendees to share their ideas and views. A skilled facilitator does not come armed with a personal agenda or opinions about the topic at hand. Instead, they are unbiased experts at guiding groups through the decision-making processes.

Overall, meeting facilitators are most concerned with how meeting participants interact with one another to agree on an informed decision, and they make sure that conclusions are successfully reached.

Facilitators serve as an unbiased leader, a reflection, and then an organizer of what is said.

As a best practice, a great facilitator should possess the following qualities:

• Confidence: Able to control the meeting space and keep participants interested and engaged. Fosters a feeling of psychological safety for all attendees and can manage strong personalities with grace.
• Humility: Knows the meeting is not about them and focuses on helping the group achieve its goals. Leverages active listening skills to ensure every single person is heard and understood.
• Flexibility: Comfortable course-correcting during the gathering if things change, participants want something different, or the agenda needs to change. This is especially important in today’s increasing virtual and hybrid workplace.
• Curiosity: Interested in their client’s problems, product, or challenge and is excited to learn more about it.
• Experience: Has successfully led meetings and gatherings for clients and companies before. Can manage any existing power imbalances in the group and navigate conflicting parties.

Additionally, these facilitation skills are also necessary for facilitating effective meetings:

• Advanced preparation
• Clear communication
• Active listening
• Asking open-ended questions
• Time management
• Establishing a feeling of psychological safety in the meeting space
• Creating focus amongst the group
• Unbiased objectivity
• Managing the group decision-making process

Best Practices for Facilitating a Meeting

When considering how to facilitate a meeting, look at the role facilitators play before, during, and after meetings. We break down key action items for meeting facilitators below.

Before the Meeting

Facilitators help with planning and logistics. They strategically plan a thorough meeting agenda to follow, which lists action items and key decisions that need to be made.. 

Plan to establish the purpose of the meeting very early in the agenda, as it’s important that all attendees are in agreement on that purpose. Without a clear purpose, there is no reason to hold a meeting, yet fruitless meetings still get held. A good meeting purpose will highlight the core issues that should be addressed and the key decisions that must be made. A facilitator then utilizes the agenda during the meeting to stay on track toward the desired goals. 

A meeting agenda serves as the roadmap for the meeting. It is a carefully designed plan that outlines the exact activities that will take place during your session, including the allotted time each agenda item will last as well as the start, end, and break times. Sticking to a sound agenda throughout the meeting helps to keep attendees focused and engaged, save time, and create desired results.

When gathering in person, it’s critical for meeting facilitators to create an inviting and open environment and set the meeting space up for success. Based on the meeting design, facilitators consider the best kind of seating arrangement, lighting, and props (items like a whiteboard, post-it notes, sketch paper, and pencils, etc.) that are needed to support it. 

For example, if the team meeting is best set up for open discussion, they may arrange chairs in a semi-circle or formation that will best foster communication among the group. Skilled facilitators also establish the kind of energy they want in the room before attendees even arrive, so most successful facilitators will approach the session with enthusiasm and positivity. 

Remote Facilitation Considerations

Virtual facilitation is now arguably just as important as in-person facilitation due to today’s consistently remote and hybrid work environments (such as Zoom fatigue, increased external distractions, technical difficulties, and time zone differences). 

Below are some pro-level virtual facilitation strategies we recommend planning ahead of time in order to have the most effective remote meetings:

1. Turn on your camera: Encourage all meeting attendees to use their cameras, which is important for human connection and engagement.
2. Learn by doing: Make your meetings interactive. This will not only keep people engaged, but it will also help with retention, engagement and a sense of ownership. Use a collaborative tool such as MURAL (a virtual whiteboard tool) to allow team members to engage and work together in real time.
   Pro Tip: New to MURAL? Download our MURAL cheat sheet for a quick reference for how to use MURAL first.
3. Piecemeal information: To promote meeting effectiveness and productivity during virtual facilitation, try to avoid cognitive overload on attendees. Due to the relative newness of regular remote meetings, facilitators need a new process of facilitation that best serves team members in a virtual space. One example of doing this is in our remote design sprints—we request our Design Sprint participants commit to a series of mini-workshops rather than asking them to commit to the five full days (which is the typical length of time for an in-person Design Sprint). 
4. Provide necessary support: A key component of virtual facilitation is helping attendees understand technicalities specific to the online tools you are using. Make sure everyone understands how to use the features of the video conference platform you are meeting on and any other virtual workshop tools they will need prior to the meeting.

During The Meeting

To facilitate meetings like a pro, start the meeting by informing the group what the gathering is about and how it will work. Discuss the meeting agenda, including the meeting duration, agenda items, activities, breaks, voting, etc. so everyone knows what to expect. Establish any ground rules that are necessary to create a psychologically safe space where everyone will feel included and comfortable.

The facilitator’s purpose is to guide the room. The facilitator watches the clock, makes sure the agenda is being followed accordingly, and tells the group when it’s time to move on to the next activity or discussion. Has a discussion run long or a topic gone too far off track? Redirect the group back to the matter at hand and tackle one task at a time.

Skilled facilitators also make sure all attendees are participating in equal measures so that no single person is dominating the conversation. To do this, they conduct room intelligence. 

Another skill that effective facilitators bring to the table is their ability to cut through the noise, conversation, and debate. The facilitator can find the common ground between everyone’s input and then “bubble up” what the group is really saying. They distill conversations and key discussion points, navigating any conflict and leading consensus decision-making. 

Remote Facilitation Considerations

Ensuring equal participation is typically more difficult on Zoom. To help mitigate this, encourage use of the “raise hand” and chat box features (and make sure you’re checking them). It can be tough to know when to contribute and how to do so respectfully in a virtual space. Establish early in the meeting that silence is okay while team members mull over different topics, and, though this is a voluntary process, the outcome will be better if everyone contributes.

Ask people to use the button or chat box when they want to be called on. It is a clear indicator of desired speaking space, thus preventing multiple people from talking at once. You don’t want anyone to feel overlooked or that their opinion doesn’t matter. These features are simple yet powerful ways to ensure voices do not go unheard.

Pro Tip: Download our Facilitator’s Guide to Questions – this guide was developed for facilitators to always know what questions to ask to keep your meetings effective.

During the meeting, a facilitator’s main goal is to help the group reach a consensus in the allotted time. Remember to allow more time in a virtual setting, or schedule several mini-meetings or workshops to tackle larger tasks or projects. 

Not everyone will necessarily agree on one solution or conclusion. The most important thing is that the facilitator gave people time to share their views, and all attendees are on the same page when it comes to the final conclusions. 

Pro Tip: Try out our Control Room app, a simple tool filled with meeting activities that keep your team engaged and captures feedback.

Finally, an effective facilitator will have a quality record of the decision-making process and any discoveries that were made. This log can be a helpful way to keep progress on track and to avoid repeating previously visited irrelevant topics. Record meetings whenever possible, which allows everyone to revisit the information when it’s time to plan the next action items.

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After The Meeting

After the session is over, a facilitator still has more work to do. To ensure that the collaboration done in the meeting does not go to waste, the facilitator reports the key information so it can be synthesized and implemented. 

A good facilitator will ask themselves a list of questions after the meeting, such as:

• What decisions were made? 
• What are your next steps? 
• How can you apply what was learned in an impactful way? 
• What tasks are still outstanding? 

A meeting facilitator curates and organizes all of the important findings to share with the team, setting them up for future success.

When to Use a Professional Facilitator

If you have a gathering that is especially important, sensitive, or complex, you might get a lot out of working with a professional facilitator. An external facilitator can also shake up a languishing atmosphere in team meetings, bringing about greater engagement and increased positivity that goes beyond the meeting. 

A skilled facilitator can help whether a company is looking to innovate, solve a complex issue, or gain a new perspective to help business. When you need a fresh and impartial perspective, think about looking for an expert facilitator. 

Additionally, Facilitation Lab is a good resource—it’s a free weekly virtual meetup focused on helping facilitators learn how to facilitate meetings successfully and hone their craft. By attending a Facilitation Lab meeting, you can get a better feeling for how prepared you are to facilitate a meeting.

Meetings don’t actually need to be frustrating or feel like a waste of time. By applying basic facilitation skills and best practices, your next meeting can be effective and successful, even in a remote or hybrid setting. 

Discover Facilitation Training and Certification from Voltage Control

If you’re committed to becoming a professional facilitator, level up your expertise by pursuing Facilitation Certification from Voltage Control. This widely-recognized certification shows your familiarity with the different facilitation methodologies and approaches.

If you’re earlier in your journey to becoming a facilitator, check out the Voltage Control blog for the latest trends and insights on the industry, plus the Control the Room podcast. Additionally, we host self-paced facilitation training courses and live, expert-led workshops.

FAQ Section

What is the role of a meeting facilitator?
The facilitation role involves managing the meeting dynamics, such as power dynamics and balanced participation, and ensuring that the group stays focused on its goals. Meeting facilitators also employ simple prioritization tools to streamline discussions and decision-making.

How can facilitators ensure balanced participation in meetings?
Facilitators use a variety of techniques to encourage balanced participation, ensuring that assertive people don’t dominate while quiet people are still heard. This creates an inclusive meeting environment where all voices are valued, leading to better collaboration and decision-making.

Why is body language important in meeting facilitation?
Body language plays a crucial role in any type of meeting, especially in fostering a collaborative meeting atmosphere. A well-facilitated meeting relies on non-verbal cues to gauge participation levels and manage the flow of discussion. Facilitators must stay aware of attendees’ body language to adjust the pace and tone of the meeting.

How can facilitators handle power dynamics in a meeting?
Skilled facilitators manage power dynamics by setting ground rules, encouraging participation from everyone, and using techniques like time limits for speaking. This ensures that no one person, regardless of their role, dominates the discussion, allowing for an in-depth discussion of key ideas and achieving meeting goals.

What strategies help quiet people contribute more in meetings?
Facilitators can create space for quiet people to share their thoughts by actively inviting them into the conversation and using techniques like round-robin discussions. Encouraging participation from everyone helps generate lots of ideas, making the meeting more productive and inclusive.

What should facilitators focus on during informal meetings?
Even in an informal meeting, facilitators should ensure the group stays focused on meeting objectives. Clear communication, managing meeting notes, and using simple prioritization tools can help ensure the group makes progress on key decisions without being sidetracked by less important topics.

Why is meeting facilitation important for project managers?
Project managers benefit from strong meeting facilitation skills because they are often the person responsible for guiding the team toward project milestones. Effective facilitation ensures that project-related discussions stay on track, meeting goals are clear, and the team moves forward with actionable decisions.

The post How to Successfully Facilitate a Meeting appeared first on Voltage Control.

Meetings are important. We need them. They get things done; they make things happen. But when not properly executed, they can be a big waste of time, resources, and money. 71% of 182 surveyed senior managers reported meetings are unproductive and inefficient. About $37 billion is lost annually to unproductive meetings. Yikes! Those are some serious numbers. So how do we make meetings worth a company’s time and money?

First and foremost, it is imperative to evaluate the meetings you currently hold. What is your meeting structure like? When’s the last time you evaluated it and adjusted it to maximize productivity? We can find ourselves in an autopilot mode, going through the motions.

But when you stop to consider the necessity of the meetings held, you may find that you don’t need some after all. That daily, weekly, or monthly meeting that auto-fills on your calendar has it outlived its usefulness? Before you set up the meeting, ask yourself, “Is it really necessary?”

How Long Should My Meeting Be?

The first step in running a successful meeting is adequately planning for one. The length of the session is a crucial factor to consider for group retention and participation. What’s the ideal length of a meeting? Look no further than TED talks for the answer. Every single TED talk, no matter if Bill Gates or Tony Robbins is on the stage, is no longer than 18 minutes. This is by design. Research shows that the optimum amount of time to hold people’s attention span and ensure the information sticks in their memory is 10 to 18 minutes.

“It [18 minutes] is long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention,” TED curator Chris Anderson said. “The 18-minute length also works much like the way Twitter forces people to be disciplined in what they write. By forcing speakers who are used to going on for 45 minutes to bring it down to 18, you get them to think about what they want to say. What is the key point they want to communicate? It has a clarifying effect. It brings discipline.”

A lot can happen in 18 minutes. John Kennedy inspired a nation in 15 minutes with his speech about going to the moon. Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream of racial equality with the world in 17 minutes. You can undoubtedly pitch your next idea within that time and have more confidence knowing some of the world’s most exceptional leaders made significant impact and change in a short window.

Sometimes, though, longer meetings are necessary, in which case it is recommended to hold them no longer than 60 minutes. Research shows that focus and attention span significantly decreases after 30 minutes: from the start of a meeting to the half-hour mark, about 84% of people will still be engaged; attention span decreases to 64% by 45 minutes.

Once you have determined an optimal time length with careful consideration, it’s time to plan your meeting.

7 Effective Meeting Strategies

The following strategies will help make your meetings more profitable and enjoyable for the company at large:

1. Clearly identify the purpose

There should always be a tangible objective for every meeting held. Don’t waste your time or anyone else’s discussing a topic that’s no longer relevant or trying to solve a problem that’s not clearly defined yet. First, identify the purpose. Is the information you want to share enough to hold a meeting? If the desire is to give a “status update” or to check-in with your team, an email or desk drop-by may be a better option.

Ask yourself what you want to accomplish. Are you wanting to seek input on a decision that needs to be made or a problem that the company is facing? Do you need to alert your team about a change in company structure or dynamic? Clearly pinpoint your objective and make it worth everyone’s time to share it before you schedule a meeting.

2. Strategically invite attendees

Identifying your objective will also help you to evaluate who needs to be in attendance. When people don’t feel that the information being discussed pertains to them or that they don’t have the skill set to contribute actively, they’re more likely to think that the meeting is a waste of their time.

But when you are intentional about who you invite, you set the team up for the most success.

Only invite the people who will be directly affected by the message you wish to deliver or who can contribute to solving the problem. It can be of habit to invite everyone. But when you are intentional about who you invite, you set the team up for the most success.

3. Follow your agenda

One of the most crucial aspects of a productive meeting is planning. Create a full-flushed agenda from the start and end time to all of the happenings in between. This will keep you focused on the objective and make every minute count. What kind of activities and methodology will best support your desired goal? Will you benefit from a more open or organized discussion? What resources will you need? How should the environment of the meeting space be?

Once you have all of your ducks in a row, time out the schedule so that you know what needs to happen when. Then display the agenda during the meeting for people to see–perhaps on a projector, whiteboard, or individual printouts. People will be more focused and involved when they know what to expect, and everyone in the room will be encouraged to stay on task.

4. Establish ground rules

Start the meeting by communicating the ground rules. Briefly go over the set agenda, including activities or discussions that will take place, any scheduled breaks, and the end time. This way, everyone has the same understanding of what to expect, and the meeting can run more smoothly. Remind the group that it is imperative to respect the opinions of everyone in the room, even if they happen to disagree with them.

Establish that the room is a safe space to share and be heard by others. With that being said, don’t allow anyone person to monopolize the conversation. Encourage quiet attendees to share their insights and kindly tell oversharers that they’re opinion is valued, but you need to gather other perspectives before making a decision. Pay close attention that conversation can flow freely around the room.

5. Stick to the schedule

Start and end on time. It’s that simple. If you expect people to show up on time and not leave early, give them the same courtesy. You build a reputation for being prompt and professional when you uphold your schedule. Attendees will also trust that you are true to your word–they won’t fear that meetings will run excessively long, for example, and can plan accordingly with ease.

You build a reputation for being prompt and professional when you uphold your schedule.

6. No roam zone

Unless you find it necessary for your objective, do not allow attendees to bring their devices–laptops, iPads, cellphones, etc.–to the meeting. Outside technology will likely be a distraction if it will not enhance the meeting’s purpose. The group will be more likely to engage in the discussion and activities planned instead of surfing the web or scrolling through social media.

Plus, because you’ve taken the necessary steps to trim the fat and fine-tune the focus of your meeting, they won’t feel the need to entertain themselves from a dull and seemingly pointless gathering!

7. Circle back

One of the best ways to make sure the group has retained the meeting information and is following through with necessary action steps is to follow up with them post-meeting. Within 24 hours after the meeting, send out an email with meeting highlights, including required tasks that need to be completed, deadlines, and responsibilities given to specific people. Doing so will clear up any uncertainty that may exist and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Meetings can be productive and invaluable. You only need to take the necessary steps and implement effective strategies to make them successful.

Still need help building a better meeting? Bring in a professional facilitator from Voltage Control.

Voltage Control designs and facilitates innovation training, Design Sprints, and design thinking workshops. Please reach out to us at info@voltagecontrol.com if you want to talk.

The post Practical Advice for Meetings You Won’t Dread appeared first on Voltage Control.

This is part of my series on thought leaders in the innovation space.

Claudia Reuter is a managing director at Techstars, an accelerator network designed to help entrepreneurs succeed. She’s familiar with the startup world and innovation by way of starting her own company back in 2006. She successfully led multiple rounds of investment to further the growth of her startup until it was acquired in 2014.

In recent years, Claudia has spent her time working with early-stage startups in partnership with Techstars + Stanley Black & Decker. Claudia has finessed how she brings others into the conversation around innovation, from large corporations to the founder-only startup. She believes that conquering fears around innovation and change is a conversation worth having.

Afraid of Heights

A fear of heights is one of the most common phobias, and for many, the closest they come to conquering their fear is climbing a ladder or a tree, or for the brave few, taking the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building. Claudia took a very different approach to conquering her fear — she took flying lessons.

Motivated by setting a good example for her children and the idea of skipping lines at the airport, she started taking private lessons. Claudia learned how to stall the plane, take off, and fly for periods of time. Around the same time, her company was acquired, and she moved from where she was taking lessons. “It’s something I did enough to conquer my fear of heights, but not enough to pick you up in a plane,” Claudia says.

“I think most fears are irrational, and most fears are in your head…I thought it would help me realize how this was something that is just part of our lives and something that could be fun versus something scary, and so just getting up way above the clouds and having a different perspective of the world from up there helped me.”

Claudia also believes that these irrational fears don’t just keep us on the ground; they can keep our businesses in safe zones avoiding the potential for new ideas and significant revenue, all because we’re afraid of change.

Claudia referred to these as the “corporate antibodies” where new ideas are treated with resistance because they represent a threat to something incredibly valuable. People are afraid of spiders because they might have a poisonous bite, they’re afraid of public speaking because they might embarrass themselves and hurt their reputation. So they’re afraid of innovation because it similarly threatens the system in place that’s already working.

If this fear is similarly irrational to the fear of heights, spiders, and public speaking, how do you get people comfortable with the idea of change and let them feel in control of it? For Claudia, she wanted to sit in the pilot seat and familiarize herself with the ascending and descending. So what does it look like to put other people in their own pilot seats?

“It’s really important for people who are doing a good job in managing an existing business to make sure that they understand that everyone appreciates the value in that and it’s not something to be thrown away.”

The first step to help people overcome their fear of innovation and change is to acknowledge and appreciate the systems that have gotten us this far, “It’s really important for people who are doing a good job in managing an existing business to make sure that they understand that everyone appreciates the value in that and it’s not something to be thrown away,” Claudia says.

In acknowledging how vital the systems are that are already in place, innovators can slowly start to introduce new concepts and then balance them with what’s already in place. This balance is a masterful skill of seeing what’s necessary for the day to day and the vision for the future.

Horse and Buggy Innovation

Claudia shared this example, “In 1900, the horse and buggy were still the predominant means of transportation in New York City, and it was only about 13 years later that the entire city was transformed with cars. So it’s really easy, however many years later to say, ‘Oh, that was such a quick change,’ but 13 years is a very long time to anyone who’s working in a corporate job. Right?”

The potential for disruption could appear very fast in a hundred years for now, but in our day-to-day happens rather incrementally. Helping people be a part of that change can look like giving them a platform to be heard or share their ideas on either incremental innovations or truly disruptive opportunities. So while they’re managing the existing business that keeps payroll going, they feel they have a say and are part of the innovation process. Waiting for the transition from the horse and buggy can feel like a slow, frustrating process, but by being included in the transformation, it’s much more exciting.

“Not only are we looking for founders that are all the things you would expect, like incredibly smart and motivated, and entrepreneurial, but are they also coachable? Are they also open to feedback?”

People Behind the Innovation

A big part of bringing forth innovation is being sure you’re working with the right people. Claudia explains, “With the startups who come into Techstars, we’re looking at the quality of the team as part of our application process. Not only are we looking for founders that are all the things you would expect, like incredibly smart and motivated, and entrepreneurial, but are they also coachable? Are they also open to feedback? Are they open to looking at data and making different decisions based on that?”

While there might be a few people named as responsible for innovation, “Innovation doesn’t happen in a bubble,” Claudia says. There needs to be buy-in across the organization. This widespread teamwork enlightens the innovators to new perspectives and creates space for everyone to be heard.

Bringing forward innovation in any big organization requires continued support from C-level folks. These conversations of innovation start at the higher level first, making sure you have that support, and then you can engage throughout the organization.

By including more people in the innovation process, you’re able to leverage assets and resources within the broader company. Claudia explained, “It’s just a matter of making sure that, again, you’re not acting within a bubble, or you’re not isolating yourself, that if there is a communications department, that you’re meeting with that communications department and saying, ‘How can you guys help me get this message across, or how could I be saying this in a better way?’”

It’s not just communication, but resources like finance, legal, sales, and other functions, so you’re not just hoping you come up with something great on your own — you’re working with a full team to build something new.

The surprising thing about the people in innovation is that the perspectives shared have the opportunity to turn a perceived failure into a different kind of success. Claudia shared her favorite story of this, the story of the Post-It note.

The creator of the Post-It note was someone working on an adhesive, and the first thing they thought was, “This isn’t working because it’s not sticking forever,” and someone else was able to look at it and say, “Well, actually, there are cases where I don’t want something to stick forever.” So while the creator had a different use in mind and thought the project a complete failure, someone else in the organization was able to look at it and say, “Hey, this is something I can use to make my life better,” and someone paid enough attention to that to actually have become Post-it notes.

Decide What You Want

With so many opportunities and directions for innovation to take us, how do we know which is the right way to go and where to focus? Claudia’s answer is simple: Depends on what you want and what you’re trying to do.

The opportunities are endless at Techstars, where Claudia is currently the managing director. The worldwide network is tapped into thousands of companies with thousands of founders and mentors who are working on innovation and new ideas. They measure all sorts of metrics for the businesses they work with: internal corporate metrics, the number of founders they gain access to, or even the amount of relationships made as a result. Every company, startup, or big corporation needs to ask themselves what they want from innovation efforts.

“If our real goal is we want to sell 20% more of this certain product, then we know we need to be more innovative about that product. Then that’s what you’re going to measure on. However, if you’re investing to say, ‘We believe there’s a potential for an existing line to be disrupted, can we come up with some ten ideas or 20 ideas that allow us to build a foundation?’ That answer depends on what the goal is, but whatever your goal is, it’s important that you have an understanding with the right stakeholders and that then you take steps to make sure that things are measurable.”

Claudia suggested that some of the best innovation efforts come from innovating from a solution that’s already sold to customers. To find these innovations, Claudia asks, “How are customers using the product now? Are they using it the way we thought they were or did they find a new use we haven’t thought of? How can we make that better?” This is innovation at work.

Fly Your Own Plane

Claudia first joined Techstars in Hartford to provide startups with counsel because she remembered what it was like when she started her company. She had little to no resources or support, and the idea that she could be part of that and help earlier stage companies was a great opportunity. She’s seen first hand in her startup as well as in big corporations how tricky integrating innovation can be. She emphasizes first addressing the irrational fear, and ask, “What does it look like to conquer our irrational fears of change or innovation in our work and lives and then lead others along in that process?”

Next, how do we include everyone in the process of innovation, making sure they are heard, and as a result, our ideas and perspectives are strengthened and grown? Through this, maybe we’ll even change a perceived failure into a huge success like Post-It notes.

It all starts with conquering our fears and inviting other people into the process. How will you get in the pilot’s seat today? What innovation can you bring forward?

If you want to read my other articles about innovation experts and practitioners, please check them all out here.

The post Conquering Fears in Innovation and Change appeared first on Voltage Control.

This is part of my series on thought leaders in the innovation space. Check out the other articles here.

As a child, Katherine Manuel loved math. “I loved numbers. I loved the idea that companies could grow and that the more money they got, if they were publicly traded, they could do interesting things.” Her family regularly discussed the stock market and what was happening with different investments.

As she absorbed these conversations, she began to understand the inner workings of business at an early age. “I started picking stocks and understanding what companies were doing and what they were talking about from a growth perspective.” After working as a consultant in her early career, she went back to business school for a Master’s degree.

Biographies of company founders and leaders have also served as a great source of learning for Katherine. One of her favorite biographies tells the story of Katharine Graham, who ran The Washington Post for over two decades. “It’s an incredible story about a woman of that era who became a company leader…She did not come into that role confident, but grew confidence in time. She was a phenomenal leader when she got her sea legs in that space.”

Katherine recently left Thomson Reuters where she was SVP of Innovation and is currently working on a book on the future of innovation and the importance of inclusion. She is also an Operating Partner at IDEA Fund Partners, a North Carolina-based VC firm that focuses on early-stage investments in second-tier cities.

Culture, Process, Talent

Katherine’s fascination with business led her to fill a number of roles at Thomson Reuters (TR) in her 13 years there. She worked in technology strategy, enterprise architecture, and corporate strategy before moving into innovation. When Katherine took over as SVP of Innovation, the company faced considerable technical debt and opportunity as a result of TR’s strategy of growth through mergers and acquisitions. “We had acquired all of these small, medium, and big companies and had not put the time, effort, or resources into streamlining the backend systems. So we ended up with our expenses outpacing our revenues.”

Katherine began the process of taking stock of what prior acquisitions had brought to the company and how these assets could be leveraged to drive organic growth and transform the company culture.

“Everything was very siloed. It was run more like a holding company than a true enterprise. A shift had to happen that was cultural around driving an enterprise mindset, but also an innovation mindset—the idea of trying things quickly, lean experimentation, and design sprints.”

In her previous roles, culture hadn’t been a focus for Katherine, and she found herself embracing the learning process. “I had a boss at the time who said, ‘Drive the metrics around culture and you’ll be amazed at what you can do.’ And so we started looking at metrics that we can drive innovation around and programs that we can use to almost federate the work of innovation.”

Katherine realized early on that inclusivity was an important factor in this cultural shift. “Everybody feels they know the path to innovation and so you need to understand where the power positions sit and make sure that people view their thumbprints on what the program looks like.”

Katherine ran two innovation funds for TR. One fund focused on bigger, disruptive ideas. “We ran it a little bit like Shark Tank. People would come with ideas and they’d pitch to our CEO and senior leaders. They didn’t need to have their manager’s support; we tried to take out some of the hierarchy and bureaucracy. It was hugely successful and had a lot of impact. People saw that they had a voice. They got talk to the CEO, share an idea that they had, and get funding.”

The second fund focused on incremental improvements driven by people from the operations teams. “One of the things that I uncovered was that a lot of folks in our operation centers wanted to be a part of it. We created a secondary seed fund that was designed differently. We didn’t need as many stage gates, and quite frankly, we didn’t need as much money, because a lot of it was small changes to existing processes. They were driving bottom-line improvements.”

Capturing and celebrating wins

Both programs energized employees and gave them a voice they didn’t have before, which had a positive impact on culture. Katherine wanted to capture that momentum, which she did through a campaign called Dare to Disrupt. One aspect of the campaign challenged employees to do something differently each day and share their insights on the company intranet. “We wanted people to be involved, so we gave employees three dares: Do something different today that you didn’t do yesterday and tell us what it is. Leave a meeting and write something inspirational about change and innovation on the whiteboard, and take a selfie picture, and share it.”

“We dare you to do something different today that you didn’t do yesterday and tell us what it is.”

With a lean team, Katherine knew others would need to take up the mantle of innovation for it to spread across the company, so she also committed to supporting anyone who wanted to lead an innovation workshop. “One of the challenges was how to train and put innovation in the hands of others to lead and drive. And so in this Dare to Disrupt campaign, we pretty much said, ‘Send us a proposal of an innovation workshop that you want to drive. We’ll provide you with the materials, the few hours of consulting time to help stand it up, and support it.’ And we were able to drive around 20 different innovation workshops in 10 different countries. We were able to empower other people to take those lead roles and drive some of the programs within their parts of the company.”

As these activities took flight, Katherine made a point to capture and celebrate the work being done across the company to create a continuous drive toward innovation in the culture. “We did a gamification where we created a tool to show 100 different innovations around the globe that were happening at the company leading people through a scavenger hunt. You could watch a quick video or a write up on what somebody was doing in a different part of the world. Capturing that and celebrating it as a company was certainly powerful.”

“We created a tool to show 100 different innovations around the globe that were happening at the company leading people through a scavenger hunt.”

One of the most impactful aspects of these programs was that it gave employees explicit permission to talk to customers. “A lot of it was teaching people about lean experimentation and encouraging them to talk to customers sooner rather than later. In certain parts of the organization, even though the customer is always first, I think people are hesitant to actually talk to a customer. It was taking down those boundaries and letting people know that they could. It seems like such a little thing, but at a company with some very entrenched cultures from the acquired companies as well, it was important to recalibrate how to think about driving new ideas and new product.”

“At a company with some very entrenched cultures..it was important to recalibrate how to think about driving new ideas and new product.”

Understand the seat of power

Structuring innovation programs is another area where it’s important to understand where the traditional power sits. In large, established companies that seat of power tends to be finance.

While scrappiness can take innovation through the initial stages, high-level support is crucial for that preliminary success to grow into broader company success. “There were teams that, once they got to a certain point, they needed the support from finance to understand what they were trying to do and provide the funding and resources that they needed. You have to bring the group with the power in as soon as possible so they feel part of it and can support it long term. And I think there are places where we did that well, and there are places where, if I were to do it again, I would have spent more time there.”

“It’s really important to understand where the traditional power sits and how can you bring that structure to the table to help make sure that they’re on board and they’re aligned.”

While metrics are necessary, placing too much focus on formalizing them early on can hamstring innovation efforts as programs evolve. Katherine chose to approach the question of metrics at a more granular level that could be contextualized for different audiences.

“I decided to collect 30 measures every quarter and not get stuck on rolling them into KPIs. My real justification was we still need to atomize this process and understand where something isn’t optimal and evolve what we’re doing. And the more granular I could understand where the measures were, the better. Depending on the audience, I could customize those metrics depending on who I was talking to and what they cared about. So if it’s somebody from finance versus somebody from marketing versus somebody from HR, the measures would be the same measures, but they’d be looking at things in different ways. I could speak their language, which I think was also a helpful part of what we did.”

Beyond metrics, finding champions for long-term thinking is key to the longevity of innovation programs. “You have to figure out who are the champions and who understands long-term thinking. It’s probably the space that kills innovation in large corporations time and time again. Having a long-term mindset is incredibly difficult for publicly traded, large corporations these days. That is not what most companies either have the luxury of thinking like or the tolerance for.”

All the stars must align

All of these experiences have taught Katherine that an idea is not enough for successful innovation. In her words, the stars have to align across culture, process, and talent for an idea to make its way through the corporate machine. Innovators must be vigilant about the various factors that can affect success.

“There are so many things that can make something fail. It can be that the person with the great idea leaves the company. It can be that finance cuts funding. It can be that the business that the innovation is for is overwhelmed and doesn’t have the resources to support it. There are so many different forces at play…The nice thing about being at a big company is that you can get money and fund an idea.But, the challenge is getting it truly embraced by the business and to then invest in it.”

While startup innovation may have an advantage with fewer barriers to entry, innovation at a large company is possible. “You can get my small guerrilla warfare type team to invest, support, and coach, but when it’s time for the machine to take it, scale it, and push it into the market is the machine going to reject it? Is it big enough for the machine to take on and draw from?” These are key questions for innovation teams and leaders to consider, but it’s also where the magic can happen. “We ended up having really high ROI numbers on the catalyst fund. Part of it was having a couple significant wins where that machine took an idea, brought it to market and made it big.”

“Build out a wireframe or PowerPoint slides that start showing how it would look and get feedback really early…”

Regardless of size, though, Katherine believes that innovation relies on lean experimentation to avoid the plague of over planning. “Build out a wireframe or PowerPoint slides that start showing how it would look and get feedback really early because that early learning will change the direction in ways that you don’t always realize.”

According to Katherine, the beginning phases are not the time for polished business plans; they are more suited to a seed investment approach. “I’ve seen a lot of platinum business cases developed that have a really linear way of developing a product. It’s better to put some seed funding into an idea, get customers at the table, iterate on what it’s going to look like, start building, and keep iterating with customers early. Then building out a business case makes sense, but you first need to invest in exploration time.”

Democratizing innovation

As someone who has seen the value of seed money and the power of motivating individuals to innovate, Katherine admires the role Kickstarter has played in democratizing innovation. “Something like a Kickstarter, a community that allows people to gain energy, funding, resources, and enthusiasm, is incredibly important. On the global scene, it’s a space that the United States needs to continue to support because our innovations are what got us here. We have to figure out how to keep the innovation spark alive to keep our prosperity going.”

“We have to figure out how to keep the innovation spark alive to keep our prosperity going.”

One area where Katherine sees massive opportunity is the venture capital (VC) arena. “Right now, only about 2% of venture funds in the US go to woman-founder companies. There’s huge growth potential if we can build that up and encourage more women to start companies and also have more women in VC funds. Women are half the population, but only 2% are getting venture funds. What would happen if we really provided funding to more of that population? What are those big discoveries that we would make in the world?”

If you want to read my other articles about innovation experts and practitioners, please check them all out here.

The post When the Stars Align in Innovation appeared first on Voltage Control.

This is part of my series on thought leaders in the innovation space. Check out the other articles here.

In the fast-paced world of technology where sprints are the norm, Karen Holst prefers the marathon. After starting to do triathlons in her twenties, Karen learned that switching focus multiple times in the middle of a lengthy goal wasn’t for her. Instead, she found satisfaction through a focus on one sport for the long haul. “It gave me the opportunity to really tune into new parts of my brain. It makes things turn off and other things turn on.”

“A lot of people that approach innovation are trying to fix a problem versus leaning into learn mode.”

What Karen learned through running marathons also has applications to her work in innovation. “A lot of people that approach innovation are trying to fix a problem versus leaning into learn mode. One of the components that really works for me is the ability to have time to reflect, ruminate, and connect the dots between different things.”

Karen’s career started her junior year of college when she co-founded MyEdu (formerly Pick-a-Prof), a site that compiles information from universities to help students plan college courses and compare credit requirements across different universities. After MyEdu was acquired by Blackboard in 2014, Karen moved on to Fuse Corps where she worked with the California Department of Education to design innovative educational technology programs for students in the California school system.

“That was my moment where I realized I didn’t have to own a company to find fulfillment, purpose, and autonomy.”

“That was my moment where I realized I didn’t have to own a company to find fulfillment, purpose, and autonomy — the things that really drove me. It was more about finding a problem that I care about and trying to solve that in a new and innovative way.” At the end of her year-long fellowship, Karen moved to IDEO where she helped launch their online learning platform for design thinking and creative problem-solving skills. Now Karen spends her time advising companies, teaching a product innovation course on LinkedIn, and mentoring at TechStars and SLEI while also working on a book about problem-solving in the innovation space.

Doers vs innovators

One pattern that Karen has noticed through her research is the concept of thinking of individuals as “doers” versus “innovators.” Rather than viewing people in binary categories — innovative or not innovative — Karen views innovation as a mode of work.

“The word innovation can be exclusive and has a lot of baggage with it.”

“There are modes where you need to be heads-down and get work done. But there are moments when you pop up and have opportunities to innovate — you have a great idea, you have an insight. If you segregate people as innovators and doers, then you’re really missing out on the diversifying of ideas.”

By creating confined categories or designating specific teams as “doing innovation,” ideas are limited to a small subset of individuals. “That is to the disadvantage of innovation and it’s how companies can stall out.” This idea inspired her to start writing her book, which focuses on enabling the doers in an organization to participate in innovation at all levels.

“Doers can launch new things, but are probably early in their career, haven’t done that kind of work, and are looking for purpose. It’s that group that can be left behind…”

To combat this, Karen suggests first acknowledging that everyone possesses the ability to innovate. “It’s not an innate skill that’s only within a select few visionaries [like] Elon Musk and beyond.” Begin by letting go of old mindsets that a job title defines who can be innovative. Then learn the concrete steps to move forward with an idea.

“It’s quite daunting. You hear this over and over from the people who are trying to innovate within large organizations. It feels lonely. It feels like you’re the only person in the world trying to do something this hard.” Opening innovation up to everyone creates opportunities for conversations and problem solving to make an enormous task more manageable.

“You hear this over and over from the people that are trying to innovate within large organizations. It feels lonely. It feels like you’re the only person in the world trying to do something this hard.”

Start where you are

Simple brainstorming exercises can often highlight the other mindset shifts that are needed for innovation to thrive. Karen related her experience introducing a brainstorming activity in one of her previous engagements. The goal was to acquaint participants with the idea of design thinking as a process for bringing innovation into classrooms. “It was a really simple brainstorm session of just coming up with a name of one of the products that they already provide.” No matter what name was suggested, the idea was immediately shot down for various reasons.

The story highlights two strategies Karen believes to be critical to success in innovation:

1. Start where you are
2. Avoid perfectionism

For a team with limited brainstorming experience, starting where they were led Karen to acknowledge the importance of having a devil’s advocate and multiple perspectives. In contrast, avoiding perfectionism meant challenging the team to evolve and try a different way of doing things — to freethink and gather ideas while postponing the filtering process so as not to slow down idea generation.

The innovation repository

One tool Karen uses to help teams start where they are is to create what she calls an innovation repository: “You have all these pictures of the people that work at the company an d you have places where there’s a process or where there isn’t a process. Capture it in some sort of written form, even if it’s just a four-slide deck of where you’re at today and where you want to be. Getting started is literally just getting as much [initial info] as you can, having a bulleted framework you might follow and continuing to iterate as you go forward.”

Feeling the need to have the perfect process and the perfect answer can cripple an initiative before it even begins. An innovation repository not only establishes a clear purpose to organize around, it also provides a means to measure current value.

“Often the problem with metrics is there isn’t buy-in that the metrics are of value.”

Visionary leaders who pull teams in too many different directions can be another source that slows a team’s momentum. A clear purpose coupled with metrics is a good strategy for focusing innovation efforts. “Often the problem with metrics is there isn’t buy-in that the metrics are of value.” She suggests a balance of qualitative and quantitative metrics so stakeholders focused on behavioral and cultural change are satisfied, as well as those who are focused on the bottom line. The ultimate goal of measurement is to create a long enough runway for teams to do the work that innovation requires. “It’s about extending that runway as long as you can and having belief and support that it’s leading to something.”

A tale of two companies

Southwest Airlines is one company Karen admires for their innovative ideas and start-where-you-are attitude. For example, in an effort to keep the same number of flights using fewer planes, they cut boarding time. The boarding process that resulted was faster and easily understood by passengers. “I think the reason that it stands out to me is a lot of people are focused on big innovation, radical change that’s going to bring in billions of dollars or change this big thing. Those are important, but it’s sometimes small tweaks that can make a big change and create ripples.”

In contrast, confused consumers can tank even the most clever ideas. Karen’s favorite example of this is Febreze Scentstories, a product that looked like a compact disc (CD) player and allowed consumers to experience a variety of scent “tracks” over 30 minutes. The product sought to solve the problem of habituation — our noses get used to certain smells with continual exposure. The problem was that customers didn’t understand it; many thought it was a conventional CD player. “Scentstories is interesting because it is so not human-centered. Kudos for taking a big leap, but to get it all the way to market and have it be such an utter failure is an example of not engaging with the human side of things.”

“To get it all the way to market and have it be such an utter failure is an example of not engaging with the human side of things.”

As a long distance runner, Karen has experienced the runner’s high, the moment when the work shifts from being difficult and painful to an easier state of flow. She sees that existing in innovation as well: “Once you get past ‘I’m trying to do something really difficult’ and get into the thinking high, that’s where there’s a real opportunity for innovation.”

Organizations that can think creatively to establish longer runways for innovation work, diversify the makeup of teams, and agree on balanced metrics are positioned to overcome the difficult nature of innovation allowing it to flow freely and carry them into the future.

If you want to read my other articles about innovation experts and practitioners, please check them all out here.

The post Innovation is a Marathon, Not a Sprint appeared first on Voltage Control.

This is part of my series on thought leaders in the innovation space. Check out the other articles here.

Brett Richards, author of the book Growth Through Disruption, is focused on demystifying innovation and providing leaders with a clear path to drive innovation within their organizations. After years of studying cognitive styles, Brett believes that organizations have mindsets or thinking styles that are distinct from individual or team mindsets.

“Understanding a mindset within an organization is really, in my view, extremely important because it strongly affects the way in which an organization goes about responding to the challenges it’s facing in its operating environment.”

Driving growth through innovation often requires some level of transformation within the organization. For Brett, that transformation must start by understanding the current mindset — something he views as distinct from explorations of organizational climate and culture — to determine where change is needed. “A mindset influences how we view things. It influences what we pay attention to and what we don’t pay attention to, how we filter, how we interpret, how we ascribe meaning to competitive threats or changes in regulations that are happening in the market.”

Assessing innovation readiness

Inherent in the concept of organizational mindset is the idea that organizations function as a system rather than a collection of individually functioning parts. With that in mind, Brett’s research on organizational development has culminated in a new, quantitative tool to assess an organization’s ability to create new value called the Organizational Growth Indicator (OGI). The OGI begins with an online assessment completed by a broad array of leaders and key contributors within the organization. “The power of the tool is that it provides an organization with a number which [describes] their current level of capability to drive and create new value and support effective transformation.” Organizations are evaluated for how they leverage four mindsets and eight orientations and receive a score from 0–100%.

“Much of what happens and influences an organization’s actual ability to innovate and grow are invisible dynamics that we can’t always see underneath the hood. What the OGI does is shine a light on these intangible yet vital factors that influence the extent to which the organization can activate its strategy and vision successfully.”

By providing leaders with quantitative metrics to back up what many good leaders intuitively know, the OGI fosters objective conversations with teams around strengths and what may be getting in their way.

Brett has heard the adage “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” and, while he believes culture is a crucial factor, it doesn’t present the full picture. Qualitative tools like culture surveys “describe what your culture is. That’s helpful, but it’s not telling the organization what their actual ability is to affect change or to shift culture. The OGI not only describes and gives a mirror to what your cultural mindset is, but it simultaneously speaks to the ability.”

The assessment can be taken by employees across an organization. Brett emphasizes 100% participation from senior executives and director teams as well as at least 80% participation from management teams. Once the assessment is completed, Brett analyzes the results and reviews them with the leadership team to identify remedies. The insights discussed can be broken down by senior executive team and leadership level or location for precise and informative feedback on where teams are strong and where there are opportunities for improvement. Brett has found the tool to work across a variety of industries, with organizations large and small, and in Europe and Asia as well.

In practice, Brett has observed how the OGI links to actual performance metrics. “Drawing on theory and then through application, I’ve created five tiers that relate an organization’s score to real revenue growth rates within organizations.” For example, a tier three organization (one with a score of 48–56%) can expect revenue growth of 1–9%. A tier four organization moves to 10–24% growth.

Innovation isn’t effective in isolation

Viewing an organization as an integrated system, Brett sees innovation viewed and conducted in isolation as a misguided approach. Counterintuitively, even companies with large research and development teams and budgets can still struggle with growth through innovation. “The great ideas that come out of R&D have to be socialized and integrated and transformed into the broader organization. If the organizational system is not supportive of that, then the organization’s ultimate ability to drive value into the market will be compromised despite having a tremendously powerful R&D wing within the organization.”

To mitigate problems where innovative efforts languish from lack of integration, Brett says the first step is acknowledging and understanding the nature of organizations as systems. “It gets to a very basic root cause of failing to [see] just how important understanding an organization as a system is to supporting organizational transformation and growth.” This is why Brett views ad-hoc programs as ineffective in driving change.

Organizations seeking change often resort to hiring outside consultants for training initiatives focused on leadership teams. “This is a classic example of an ad hoc solution, a mechanistically-minded thinking process which fails to understand that, for all intents and purposes, you’re throwing away your money.” The training often serves as a band-aid and organizations are left wondering why they don’t see improvements as a result. “A lot of organizations throw training at stuff because it’s easy to do. It can be excellent training, but if it’s not integrated within that organizational system, then we’ve got a problem.”

While organizations understand that leadership is important, the apparent working equation that leaders plus training equals improved organizational performance is lacking. Once leaders complete the training and return to the organizational system they realize that, despite their investment, they’re not seeing a big impact. “You get frustration [from] the leaders who are going through this awesome development. They go back into the organization, but it’s not supported in the broad sense. The new organizational performance equation must start with organization — it’s organization plus leaders plus training equals improved performance.”

Innovation for survival

When it comes to measuring innovation efforts specifically, Brett seeks to identify metrics that matter to the organization’s survival. One aspect of a company’s survival relies on innovation itself. “The problem is that organizations don’t understand that innovation is probably the most significant predictor of an organization’s ability to thrive successfully into the future. Organizations that don’t innovate — they’re dead.”

“Organizations don’t understand that innovation is probably the most significant predictor of an organization’s ability to thrive successfully into the future.”

In his book, he calls out thirteen inconvenient truths related to organizational innovation — namely, “an inability to break the bonds of short-term thinking at the leadership level will kill innovation.” Reluctance to set aside funds exclusively for innovation can rob organizations of their future survival.“What happens is that because of short-term thinking they build a system where they can borrow money from the pool of unsecured money for innovation so that they can satisfy some of their short-term operational requirements. It’s really just because a slush fund to move around.”

To support and increase the ability to innovate, organizations must ensure they have a clearly articulated innovation strategy that is integrated into their overall business strategy.

“Until you have your innovation strategy fully embedded and linked to your overall business strategy, you’re setting yourself up for less effective action.”

The OGI measures the extent to which an organization’s innovation strategy is articulated and understood as well as whether it is adaptive and responsive enough to meet the needs of the changes occurring in the market. For example, in the case of hospitals, innovation may look different. Innovation requires risk and a hospital’s goal is to reduce risk as much as possible to save lives. “What becomes important within a hospital system is to be extremely clear and articulate about what we mean by innovation in the hospital system. Innovation within a hospital context has to do with things like patient experience or efficiency, driving efficiencies within the organization.”

Not only does measurement through tools like the OGI serve to provide valuable data on an organization, but it also serves as a means for necessary conversations. Those conversations can help elucidate where key problems lie. For example, is the executive team in agreement on what the organization needs to do to drive innovation? What do leaders think innovation looks like at the company? “If you’re truly serious about improving your organization’s ability to grow through new value creation and adaptive transformation, you have to take a serious look at the organizational system and what are the factors that are influencing and/or constraining your organization’s ability to do that.”

In addition to establishing benchmarks and areas to focus improvements, Brett says the OGI can be used in successive iterations to evaluate those improvements. “The organization can add in ten custom questions to the OGI analysis and that enables the organization to evaluate the impact of certain training or organizational development initiatives.” OGI scores are correlated with people’s participation in the training to see if there has been any lift in the scores for those groups. By measuring mindsets and the effects of organizational development initiatives, Brett seeks to provide a tool to organizations for understanding the nature of their system and identifying actionable ways to increase their ability to innovate and thrive into the future.

If you want to read my other articles about innovation experts and practitioners, please check them all out here.

The post Is Your Organization Ready for Innovation? appeared first on Voltage Control.

When I first started Voltage Control, I was in deep market validation mode. I was meeting with potential clients, mentors, entrepreneurs, and other fractional consultants. I wanted to learn from the mistakes of others and also validate the market opportunity. While conducting this research, I met up with Ron Berry, the Executive Director of Fusebox. Fusebox is an arts nonprofit that brings artists and audiences together to explore vital issues and ideas at the center of contemporary life and culture. I’ve been on the board for four years and I respect Ron’s perspective deeply.

I walked Ron through my concept to get his thoughts and also ask him about his theatre background as I was just beginning to think about how to incorporate improv into my workshops. While Ron provided lots of great advice and perspective, most of what he shared was overshadowed by this system called Liberated Structures. Specifically, Liberating Structures and Anna Jackson, who I had previously met but didn’t realize was an expert facilitator. I connected with Anna a couple of days later, and we’ve been planning and scheming on how to partner ever since.

Anna first began facilitating when she was a teenager leading backcountry trips in the Sierra Nevada, as a YMCA camp counselor and youth leadership program director. She spent her summers immersed in groups as they made their way through the wilderness together. For short-term engagements, she facilitated low ropes games, which are focused on group communication and team-building. With a party that was staying for a week or more, the programs were based on a distributed responsibility model, focused on shared leadership. When the whole camp was assembled, there were typically eighty to a hundred twenty people, so Anna quickly became accustomed to facilitating with large groups as well as smaller ones. Since those formative days, she has transformed and inspired groups of various sizes and domains.

After finishing her master’s degree in 2009, Anna accepted a full-time role with Via Hope, an organization dedicated to transforming the mental health system in Texas. Her work focused on implementing new practices within organizations such as coordinating programs, organizing learning events and facilitating large group conferences. A few months running a large learning community, she noticed that the techniques used in these gatherings were brutally unvaried — there were a lot of didactic presentations. Every once in a while, someone would sprinkle in a group discussion for variety. The approach lacked rigor, felt inordinately expert-driven, and individuals had no sense of purpose or ownership.

Anna attended a Liberating Structures (LS) workshop in 2011 with her close colleague, Dr. Michele Murphy-Smith, who previously worked with the Keith McCandless, creator of LS. They immediately put the methods to use. They quickly overhauled the way they hosted events, remote meetings, wrote curriculum and designed their programs. The shared ownership within the programs soared well beyond anything they had previously been able to achieve. With the coaching support of Keith, Anna was fluent in the methods and teaching the repertoire in just a couple years.

In 2014, she left Via Hope and launched Alpinista Consulting. Anna now regularly teaches workshops on Liberating Structures and coaches other people how to use them, as well as uses them in her consultative work with her clients doing strategic planning, event facilitation, team development work, and program design.

When working directly with clients and facilitating in partnership with them, she becomes intimately familiar with their most challenging issues and through a collaborative approach can develop solutions that they own. The client knows and understands the solutions because they co-created them. Seeing these shifts in the organizations, programs, and individuals she partners is intellectually and creatively satisfying.

“Coaching other people using Liberating Structures, I get to see their leadership and facilitative practices develop and change, and I’m constantly learning from people, too. When you use LS, you begin to relinquish power more productively, develop more meaningful relationships with your colleagues and your work, and we can see real results very quickly. It is extremely rewarding.” — Anna Jackson

Like learning speak any new language, you first learn the basic vocabulary, then slowly increase fluency until you are ready to improvise and create new possibilities. Seven years after getting started with Liberating Structures, Anna is still finding new and exciting ways to remix the infinite possibilities of the repertoire. She is increasingly adding visual facilitation, improv, and other outside methods such as Gamestorming into her LS work. Ron, her life partner and the person who introduced us, is a contemporary art curator and his work often influences hers. She is currently exploring how people develop and hone a practice, whether the practice is cooking, writing, or something more obviously connected to her own, in the hopes of creating offerings that are even more effective at supporting people as they develop their skills with Liberating Structures.

Last summer I had the opportunity of attending one of Anna’s LS workshops and immersed myself in the methods. I was instantly hooked. I began applying the techniques in client meetings, workshops, presentations, and conferences. In November, Anna attended a Design Sprint Workshop I hosted featuring Jake Knapp, the author. Since then Anna and I have been meeting regularly to discuss how we might integrate LS and Design Sprints.

Design Sprints and Liberating Structures are beautifully well suited to complement one another. Sprints are a highly structured set of design thinking methods and practices that have been thoroughly tested and shown to produce significant results in just five days. While Design Sprints work well for seven people meeting to solve specific types of problems, Liberating Structures apply more broadly and scale to much larger groups. When you face a challenge that is not well suited for a Design Sprint, Liberating Structures offers a curated, tested list of methods.

Unlike the highly structured Design Sprint, the sequencing and individual method-shaping of LS is wildly varied, and people typically don’t facilitate the same exact sequence more than once. They work well for 1-hour workshops, three-day workshops, or even facilitating multi-month processes. One of our favorite ways to integrate Design Sprint and LS is to feed them into each other. LS can be used to identify opportunities for a Design Sprint and build alignment across a large group on who should attend the Sprint. Likewise, Liberating Structures can be used to share the insights with the broader group and synthesize the learnings together.

I’m convinced that Anna and I will continue to do great things together as we explore how we can support and challenge each other. As part of our continued effort weave LS and Design Sprints together, Anna and I are hosting a Liberating Structures Primer Workshop. We are hosting this workshop at Capital Factory and will be working hard to expose these tools to the entrepreneur and startup community. I hope you can attend, join the conversation and help us explore how to make Austin more connected and purpose driven.

If you are in or near Austin, come visit us at the Austin Design Sprint meetup. Each month we have a guest speaker share their experience participating in a Design Sprint. If you would like to be a future speaker please email me.

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