How can you foster a culture of innovation while meeting operational goals?

Clarity in communication and Setting expectations right is very must. A healthy compitition within the team can make them deliver their best.

Some of the thoughts, not in any particular order, that come to my mind are: - communicating the 'why' to get the buy in from the team. What's in it for them and why they should go above and beyond 'just' meeting the operational targets - providing psychological safety and certain tolerance to calculated risk of failure to meet operational targets. Delicate balancing act, and requires seamless integration of operational innovation loops into the daily operations - Regular innovation sprints or designated time periods where employees are encouraged to take innovation breaks, preferably in cross-functional teams to focus solely on generating new ideas and solutions without the pressure of immediate operational demands.

I've found it useful to earmark innovation in your strategy [top/down] while also incentivizing innovation within your organization [bottoms/up]. Within your strategy, be intentional about opportunities and ideas that you will test. This can work particularly well when you leverage data, insights and discussion to prioritize the most promising opportunities. Second, incentivize team members for suggesting new ideas. Ramp up the recognition and rewards for those that prove useful. Continue to reward innovators for turning their ideas into tools or repeatable processes that everyone can use. These innovation tactics can be included in your team's rhythm without sacrificing the achievement of core business objectives.

In my previous role, we promoted innovation by organizing regular brainstorming sessions and hackathons where team members could freely share creative ideas. This not only sparked innovative solutions but also allowed us to align those ideas with our operational goals. Encouraging a culture where experimentation was valued led to successful projects that contributed to both innovation and operational efficiency.

Build a fail-fast mentality in the organization, so failures are spotted in advance rather than letting them persist for it to be discovered later.

As a leader one needs to empower the team and encourage them to experiment, fail fast, learn fast and replicate ! Make them feel- 'its ok to fail, as long as we learn quickly from it'.

As a leader, I believe in leading by example. When introducing innovative ideas, I kick off by evaluating implementation costs and guiding my team through the deployment process. I encourage open communication through a shared log where team members detail resource needs, timeframes, problem-solving aspects, potential risks, and implementation costs. Throughout the journey, I provide support, fostering deeper thinking when needed. It's gratifying to witness team members undergoing a paradigm shift in their thinking process, even when they independently reassess and learn from the journey.

Recently I was crafting a policy on a competency framework, which is directly linked to employee learning, growth, and development. The complexity magnified when I ventured into creating a comprehensive competency framework FAQ document from the viewpoint of 1000 employees. In an innovative workplace, I felt empowered to take risks, knowing missteps were learning opportunities. This fearless environment streamlined tasks and encouraged unconventional approaches. I learned that when employees feel secure to experiment, they deliver their best work, harmonizing creativity with operational success. The lesson: a culture embracing innovation propels both individual and organizational excellence, fostering growth and adaptability.

Having true psychological safety is key for this to work. People need to believe that “failing fast” doesn’t morph into “falling fast”. Leader’s behaviour not just on projects, but throughout all company interactions is key here to build that credibility.

Encourage the team to fail and make mistakes and encourage them to learn from their failures and mistakes. What helps is making them understand the difference between failure/mistake and blunders. Blunders cannot be excused but failures and mistakes and learning from them needs to be encouraged by creating a free work environment where people can work without the fear of failure.

Risk and Innovation are the two sides of a coin. The risk of failure is a necessary ingredient for innovation. A risk averse organisation stays put in the comfort of the known and rarely innovates, whether it be in processes, products or service.But the risk taking cannot be at the cost of the stakeholders, it has to be a calculated risk with clear ideas of the returns and rewards - both in short and long term. Clearly sharing theses details with key stakeholders is often necessary to build trust and seek support.

Identify potential risks associated with innovative projects. Evaluate the impact and likelihood of each risk to prioritize mitigation efforts. Develop a framework for systematically identifying, assessing, and responding to risks. Create contingency plans for addressing potential setbacks. Foster a culture that accepts a certain level of risk for the sake of innovation. Acknowledge that not all experiments will succeed, and learning from failures is part of the process.

Lasting innovations are built on a foundation of the basics. It's a classic mistake to start pushing for innovation before a team has mastered the basics, and this leads to false positives ... flashes in the pan that provide short-term value until the foundation under them is revealed to be unsound. Innovation is the icing, not the cake. If you try to put the icing on first, you'll be removing a burned and jumbled mess from the oven later, and be starting again from scratch. A classic error is to make productivity bets on expected innovations. This creates pressure to abandon the basics when it might not be appropriate to do so. It also distorts behaviors, creating exaggerations of the potential of various initiatives. Tread carefully.

Risk and Innovation are the two sides of a coin. A risk averse organisation stays put in the comfort of the known and rarely innovates, whether it be in processes, products or service.But the risk taking cannot be at the cost of the stakeholders, it has to be a calculated risk with clear ideas of the returns and rewards - both in short and long term. The risk of failure is a necessary ingredient for innovation!!!!

Prudent move. Philosopher's teachings, highlighted the art of calculated risks. Manage them judiciously, akin to a skilled charioteer steering through challenging terrain. Set realistic expectations—like a captain guiding a ship. Balance keeps innovation afloat amidst the unpredictable sea of risks.

Bridging the gap between innovation and operations is crucial for tangible success. By involving cross-functional teams in both domains, we create a holistic approach where innovative ideas are seamlessly integrated into operational processes. This not only streamlines implementation but also ensures that innovative strategies are grounded in operational realities, enhancing overall efficiency and effectiveness. Adopting this integrated approach leads to more sustainable innovation and operational excellence.

I will challenge the proposition that innovation arises from cross-functional teams or process "experts" guiding improvement "events." In my experience, elite innovation comes from the minds of the people doing the work. They are intimately familiar with process details, invested in improving ways of working, and best positioned to spot opportunities. In the 7 years I spent as an operations leader at Amazon, the top innovative ideas I saw came from front-line employees on direct process. By creating an environment where we listened to their input and acted on their suggestions, we got more input over time and found real magic. Never once did I witness a substantial innovation coming from the separate team created to push improvement.

It is important to consider what the end customer wants. Based on this, identify the gap areas. The end customer's needs are the organisation's objectives. Once the needs are identified, have an open conversation with the operations team to understand the feasibility of the ideas. Speak to the marketing team and understand the market value if the idea comes out successfully. Motivate your current team and emphasize the importance of innovation for the company's survival. The team needs to interact with all the above stakeholders to obtain valuable inputs and end results.

In the dynamic landscape of business, where innovation is the heartbeat of progress and operational goals steer the ship, finding a harmonious balance between the two is often the key to sustainable success. One powerful framework that provides the scaffolding for achieving this delicate equilibrium is the fair process methodology. Fair process methodology, as developed and championed by institutions like INSEAD in France, is not merely a procedural approach; it's a cultural ethos that marries the spirit of innovation with the rigor of operational efficiency. It is a commitment to transparency, engagement, and inclusivity, ensuring that every stakeholder has a voice in the decision-making process.

O ponto principal é a entrega de valor Qual problema seu produto resolve e com qual valor ? Faça essa pergunta em toda a cadeia de produção ou planejamento do seu negócio e ele nunca perderá sua essência

During my time as a GM in Amazon, there was an innovation introduced to reduce labor levels in our truck yards. The benefits seemed clear in terms of efficiency and reduced risk of people operating in proximity to heavy vehicles. But this was a quantification trap, where leaders bought an idea because its benefits were easier to understand than its risks. Soon after implementation, it was clear that the manpower savings came at too high a cost in supervision, safety, and culture. Push hard to understand proposals completely, and to genuinely weigh pros and cons without falling into bias traps or logical fallacies. No innovation is truly free. So start with the healthy skepticism of "sounds great ... what are the risks and downsides?"

Establish metrics and performance indicators that align with the values and vision. Recognize and reward individuals and teams who demonstrate innovative thinking and contribute to meeting operational goals. This reinforces the desired behaviors and creates a culture of continuous improvement.

Evaluation and improvement should be a continuous process or else we will end up in the Nokia route. It is better to prepare and prevent than to repair and repent.

Innovation does not stop, one outcome usually leads to another undiscovered one. I encourage feedback throughout the life cycle of innovation and I believe that there is always scope to improve. All of us learn each day and we strive to get better each day. That's the best about being human.

O equilíbrio entre inovação e metas operacionais demanda uma avaliação constante e a busca por melhorias contínuas. Adaptar-se rapidamente às mudanças do mercado, bem como investir na capacitação e no desenvolvimento dos colaboradores, são fatores-chave que garantem não apenas o equilíbrio, mas também a evolução sustentável nesse cenário desafiador.

One thing that is critical for each of the tips set out is making TIME for it. Idea generation, risk assessment & contingency planning, collaborating, and effective communication all require time and effort. I frequently hear stories of employees who are operating in ‘reactive mode’ which inhibits innovative behaviour because they do not feel like they have time to do anything else but ‘put fires out’. Encouraging employees to carve out ‘protected time’ to stimulate proactive innovative behaviour would be a great starting point.

I agree that a vision that is truly inspiring for everyone is a good start. But I beleive that in addition to that you need a culture and formal structures that truly empower decision-taking as close to the customer/operation as possible. That innovation and new ideas are born close to the needs.

In my experience, it's crucial to encourage a culture that views failure as a learning opportunity rather than a setback. So always consider creating an environment where employees feel empowered to take risks and learn from both successes and failures.

Before we think about innovation we need to understand why we need innovation? 1) To bring efficiency 2) To achieve 99.9% quality Keep your process simple and find ways how one can simplify processes with use of automation. Create a process to identify the complicated processes then assign those processes to brain storm once these steps are in place a culture of innovation would foster.

Recognizing innovators is key. I had worked for many years before I learned that the guy who invented bar codes was a co-worker in the same facility as me. Bar codes completely transformed how we purchase all kinds of products - my definition of innovation. We should have been celebrating this accomplishment like crazy. The guy who invented CTRL-ALT-DEL also worked for my employer. That became a lifesaver for those using Windows machines. He too was not widely celebrated. Celebrate your innovators!