Tag: innovation

🤾‍♀️4 Ways to Kickstart Innovation

On By Cathy NoiceIn Cathy NoiceLeave a comment

I was fortunate to attend the bi-annual International Coaching Foundation’s Converge Conference in August and see the keynote, Diana Kander.  She brought up some innovative ways to change up problem solving for individuals, teams and organizations.  Kander is a petite woman yet she owns the stage with thought provoking concepts and humor.  She was a refugee from Ukraine at the age of 8; and is an author, entrepreneur and a fireball of determination. 

Here are her 4 ways to kickstart innovation:

Is this the right problem? Think about your current offerings; are they solving the right problem or are they focused on “Is this the right solution?” I think of a tortilla manufacturing company who decided to retrofit the manufacturing plant to make tiny fried tostada shells.  They focused on the solution of increasing sales by adding another item on the grocery shelf but the real problem was producing enough regular tortillas to meet demand.  I remember looking for a box of Ritz crackers few years back and all I wanted was a “regular” box of crackers and there were upwards of 15 different types on the shelf. Some were even football shaped and/or low sodium.  What problem were they trying to solve? I think of managers who look to tighten deadlines to get more productivity as a solution when the problem is really the process in which items are handed off within the team or that someone needs more training on the team.  If someone needs more training, a tighter deadline is not the right solution if the problem is productivity.  Be sure to focus on the right problem.

Who else can we ask? It’s important to be focused using the right resource instead of on what else we can try. Kander brings up an issue at a children’s hospital in Great Britain that had a high mortality and complication rate after children were transferred after surgery.  They were able to reframe the problem and ask folks from a Ferrari race car team to come in and look at the time and communication it took to transfer the patient after surgery.  The Ferrari pit crew was able to reduce the time and mishaps significantly by focusing on communication problems and breakdowns during handoffs. When I coach people and I ask, “Is there another resource you could talk to about this that you haven’t thought of before?” It’s amazing to see the light bulbs go off.  Sometimes you realize that you have a cousin who’s really good at time management or have an old friend that is great at finding a deal.  Figure out who else you can ask. 

Is it a 1-10? How does the solution rank on a scale of 1 to 10 instead of “Is it a yes or no?”  I can think of a product an old employer added several years ago and I remember the discussion the leadership team had about adding the product.  I can tell you that if we had asked everyone in the room how they felt about this new product on a scale of 1 to 10, we would not have spent the next five years trying figure out how to add the product into into all of our systems and processes. Focusing on the binary view of yes or no is so limiting and it’s not an expression of confidence in the product or service.  So, if you ask your partner if they want to go to Aruba or Switzerland, ask them how they feel about it on a scale of 1 to 10. As a coach, I ask clients how confident they are in completing whatever task they committed to on a scale of 1 to 10.  If they are a 7, I ask what would it take for them to get to a 9.  To say you are going to do something is not the same as measuring your motivation on a scale of 1 to 10.  Focus your efforts on the 8, 9 and 10’s. 

What should we stop?  This was a big learning for me.  Kander mentioned something called the additive bias.  This is where we are constantly adding to do more instead of less.  My clients (and I!) fall into this bias all the time.  The way to better time management is through using a new app or getting up earlier or being more efficient with email.  We add more things to the list instead of subtracting.  It’s quite easy to buy stuff at the store but it’s an entirely different thing to get rid of stuff I don’t need or use any more.  Managers will feel like they have to attend every meeting instead of delegating one or two meetings to someone who could grow from it or to ask a peer to give them the notes.  We attend the meeting and then “multi task” doing email or slacking and aren’t really present for the meeting.  To multitask during a meeting is one of the most exhausting things to do because we are skimming everything…the emails, the slack messages AND the meeting.  We aren’t present for any of it. Think about what you can subtract. 

One last thing to point out is that you should innovate but you have to be able to cut your losses.  Kander calls these Zombies.  Things that are more effort than the value they add.  She showed over 15 products that Amazon had added and then torpedoed in the last ten years because they were more effort than the value they added.  What zombies are in your life?  

Learning from Regret

On By Cathy NoiceIn Cathy Noice, Workplace NavigatorLeave a comment

My personal list of regrets seems endless. I regret not eating an apple, instead of three (or maybe it was six) Oreos yesterday. I regret not walking the extra mile I intended to walk. I regret not writing a blog post yesterday, instead of trying to fit it in today. Then there are the big regrets. The years of being overweight, numbing out with alcohol and the two marriages and subsequent divorces. It is so easy to wallow in regret. Whether it be the humdrum, everyday food selections, or the life-altering regret of not backpacking Europe right after graduation. I bet you and I could each write a thousand regrets over a cup of coffee.

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Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Wasn’t it obvious the Eagles would win the Super Bowl? Of course, your restaurant would fail after just 8 short months – don’t most of them? Wait until the car, jeans or coffee maker go on sale before you buy it, and then, they go out of stock forever. Duh. There is always clarity in looking back. You know you should have bought Apple or IBM or Google stock way back when it was cheap, so I could be sitting pretty for retirement. Regrets actually have lessons for us beside rumination and beating ourselves up.

Here are the learnings from regret:

Regret means that you took risks.

As Maura Hughes wrote for Elite Daily, “If you are confident in every decision you make, are you really living? Life is about pushing boundaries and trying new things, and in order to do that, you must take risks.” I think about my ill-fated restaurant ‘Coyotes’ some 20 years ago. It was an experience in being an entrepreneur and living out a lifelong dream. I took an enormous risk. It failed. But it means that I have shown up and rolled the dice. I will never own another restaurant. Ever. Don’t bother even asking. I have an everlasting appreciation for all those who have succeeded in the restaurant business. I still have a shirt with my logo on it. I have taken risks that have paid off as well like moving back to the East Coast and going for my Master’s degree after my restaurant failed. You win some and lose some, but you have to show up and engage in the game.

Regret means that you made a choice.

As Dr. Susan Perry wrote for Psychology Today, “Life demands that we put our stake in the ground, make our choice, and do our best to meet whatever actually happens. Of course, we would like a particular outcome, but we don’t need to chastise ourselves when things don’t go our way.” I have vacillated on a million choices in my life. Indecision is frustrating and makes you less decisive. For good or bad, make the decision. The choice. Often, waiting for more data is just putting off the inevitable. There is regret, regardless of the choice. Put a stake in the ground.

Regret ignites innovation.

Regrets help you think outside your comfort zone. I can remember when I closed my restaurant. I knew I had to figure out how to hold onto my house, mostly for my children; but also for the investment. Everyone told me to sell the house and get out from under it. The more folks advised me, the more I wanted to hold on. I rented out rooms. I cut my expenses. I took a second job. It ended up paying off in the long run when I sold the house to move to the East Coast. Necessity IS the mother of invention.

Regrets are the best teachers.

As Hughes writes, “When you’re challenged, feel like you failed and regret the choices you made, you are forced to return to the drawing board and figure out what went wrong. You are forced to work harder than you want and ultimately, the success is that much sweeter.” I reflect on surviving the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, I can see the lesson in rebuilding and fixing my house. I have a new appreciation of those who have suffered a loss whether it is from fire or flood or financial ruin. I also look out the window with renewed appreciation for the view outside my house. It’s taught me to take stock in what I have and to savor the moment. You never know how long you will have it.

Regrets point you in the right direction.

As Hughes writes, “If we were 100 percent sure of everything we wanted out of life, it would be much easier to live. But, it would not be nearly as much fun. Part of growing up means realizing what you want, whom you want and how you want to get things done. There are no set guidelines, so you must figure it out as you go. Every now and then, you might think you want something only to find out that you were wrong.” I have had countless regrets over consuming alcohol, whether it was saying something I regretted, spending way too much money on it, or feeling hungover. Realizing that I wanted a new direction has been priceless. I couldn’t have gotten here unless I had regrets. Regrets inform you. But it’s imperative to listen.

I think there is strength in knowing that we all have regrets. It’s a human experience that moves us forward, so long as we don’t get caught up in mulling over it. What is a regret that you have learned from?