During the 2013 PTC Live Global event in Anaheim, CA, I was able to make it to a morning keynote by Curtis Strong, the Director of New Product Development at Britax. His presentation discussed the fundamental differences between process & innovation, known results & experiments, recipe & discovery. He talked about how true innovation doesn’t come from following a process. It’s unpredictable, which can be frustrating, but with good systems in place and adherence to timeless principles a company can successfully tackle and profit from real innovation.
At the beginning of his presentation, Strong compared innovation to a chocolate chip cookie. Each year people come up with “new and improved” chocolate chip cookies. Are those cookies innovative? Strong’s argument was “No.” They’re tweaking a recipe. It’s easier to build off previous innovation than it is to be truly creative. The real innovator was Ruth Graves, the person that made the first chocolate chip cookie.
Ruth Graves didn’t have a known result. I can imagine there were a lot of failures, flops, and a very messy kitchen. With each failure something is learned. After gaining, capturing, and applying knowledge you eventually get the winning result; a proven recipe.
True innovation is more achievable when the right systems and principles are in place. Product development methods like Lean product development and technologies like Windchill PLM and PDM provide an environment where innovation can flourish.
Have you or your company ever been the innovators and the first into a market that didn’t exist? Let me know in the comments.
BONUS: Here’s an adorable Britax commercial that Curtis showed during his presentation. It doesn’t have anything to do with innovation, but I figured it’d be a nice distraction on a Friday afternoon. You’re welcome 🙂
I truly believe it’s the little things that set one organization apart from another. I was recently traveling on business and after a long day, decided to stop by the hotel bar for a glass of wine. Several minutes later I was handed the house red in an incredibly filthy glass. After the server literally disappeared, I surmised that I would be waiting quite a long time for a replacement and decided to drink it anyway.
The next evening, while avoiding the hotel bar, I ended up at a restaurant down the street. True to form, I ordered a glass of house red. Although the barkeep was extremely busy — with patrons at every seat around the bar — he took an extra 30 seconds to carefully spot my glass with a napkin. Seconds later a beautifully poured glass of red appeared in front of me.
I am often amazed by how many people choose to do the minimum required to fulfill the duty at hand. It is especially shocking when you realize that just a tiny bit of extra effort can have remarkable rewards. The price and the time I spent waiting for a glass of wine was similar at both locations, but how I felt in the two scenarios could not have been more different. It was that 30 seconds the barkeep took to make my experience exponentially better. I’d say that’s a pretty profound reward.
It appears to me that this behavior is contagious. The actions of an individual are often a good indication of the organization as a whole. Companies that pride themselves on doing the right thing and exceeding expectations share those values among individuals. This culture thrives as the heartbeat of the organization, radiating out to the customers who encounter it. The reward for elevating a customer’s experience can be a tip, more business from that customer, or the ultimate reward — a referral.
At EAC, this behavior is absolutely contagious. Doing it right and exceeding expectations are core to personal values and corporate culture. I am honored to work with individuals who are always willing to spot the glass.
So, do you serve your glass straight out of the dishwasher, or do you take an extra 30 seconds to make it spotless?
There are two forms of expectations – what we expect from ourselves, and how our expectations can influence others. How we manage those expectations is critical to how we view ourselves, our relationships, our experiences and pursue our goals. As parents, employees, even pet owners, we need to recognize how much control we actually do have.
As the son of a high school football coach, setting expectations (goals) was core to our household. My dad was always pressing his team for more… casting a vision of future success. He sold his players, their parents, his assistant coaches on the idea that future success was possible. Naturally, the same discipline applied to my siblings and I. We knew what our parents expected of us, and they managed those expectations as we grew into adulthood. I’ve heard the old adage “your kids will turn out just as you expect them to”. This could be restated as “your kids will turn out to what is acceptable to you”. If it’s acceptable for your kids to achieve C’s and D’s, skip class, hang around with “the wrong crowd” and not put forth any effort to do better, then that’s exactly what they will achieve. If I expect my kids to do their best, go to class, be involved in positive extracurricular activities, that’s exactly what will happen. This can also be extended to other parts of our lives, your pets, employees, employer, business, and interactions with others. You decide what is acceptable for you, but it is your responsibility to see your commitments through to the end. Notice that you are the common factor.
On the other hand, setting low expectations can be a two way street. It’s great that you accomplish everything you set out to do (not much) however, you haven’t had to commit, you haven’t had to sacrifice, you don’t accomplish anything or pursue a true goal. Personal confidence isn’t gained because very little is actually accomplished.
In business, setting higher expectations will provide a goal for us to work toward. Setting that goal too high can become discouraging because it’s truly unreachable. In stretching toward a goal, we need to be flexible in the recognition of the higher achievements, even though our results may not be 102% of the stated goal. 98% is still much more than we’ve ever accomplished and it still deserves to be recognized and celebrated. This allows the children/group/team/company to see the benefits of their work and feel the satisfaction for going above what they ever thought was possible. Confidence in themselves and their team follows, and that’s never a bad outcome.
Think about how you can reset expectations for your current situations. The opportunities to pursue success are all around us, in every aspect of our lives. Start small with goals you can directly control. Once you have met your own expectations, move on to other goals that you feel need to be elevated. Soon, you’ll feel like a coach on the way to winning the championship.
Go Team.
I have been involved in many projects for many different topics. I have worked on everything from global new product development to ERP or PLM implementations to detailed global change process implementations.
There is a lot to the makeup of a successful project. However, for this blog, I am going to focus on the personality of the overall project team members.
What I have found interesting is that I can pretty much tell how well the project will go within the first 30 minutes of the first meeting. It has nothing to do with the abilities of the group, but more about the psychological makeup of the project team.
Many times the team is forced together from a corporate directive. Maybe one or two people are truly behind the project, but the rest are there because they have to be. The team selection is not thought out. The people selected are the ones with spare time or more commonly are the expert of the area being affected. When this happens I can almost guarantee the project will take longer than planned and be difficult to execute.
Here are the typical people I see in almost every project:
Old school is better: These are people who feel that there is no need for change. The way they do it now is fine and, in fact, better than the new way. The main reason these people are usually on a project team is because they tend to know the most about the current way things are done. They have detailed knowledge of the old process so management tends to feel they must be involved in the new project. I question that decision. You don’t always need the resident expert directly involved in a project. In fact often they are too close to the current process to see past it. Even if their attitude is good, the “expert” is not always best to have on the project team. They should be a key resource, but not necessarily on the core project team.
The know it all: This person can also bring a project down fast. They tend to dismiss or belittle other team member’s opinions. They will often quickly cause team friction. Once your team stops being understanding and open to one another’s opinions, you might as well scrap the project. Having team members that are willing to consider everyone’s comments is a good trait to have on a project team.
Leader: This is not always, and does not have to be, a manager. Many times it’s not even the project manager, but it is ideal when it is. This person drives the project. They take control and in some cases push the project along when it starts to stall from team inactiveness. They tend to be very hands on. This person is great to have on the team and helps to have a successful project.
True team player: They just get it. These are the people I love to see on the team. They truly understand what is trying to be accomplished in the project. They are forward thinking and understand that the reality of any new project is never cut and dry. These people can come from any discipline, but their good attitude and willingness to work through issues help to make the project successful.
There are other roles I see, but the above are the most common. Plus, I did not want to make this blog so long no one reads it.
Many times in smaller companies you don’t have a choice of who is on a project team. There are limited resources to pull from. You have to use who you have. However, no matter the size of the company, I would highly recommend considering the personality of each of your team members prior to establishing your project team. The people on a project team do not always need to be the expert of each department affected. They do need to have good knowledge of their department, but not necessarily be the expert. They will need access to the local expert, but a good understanding of how a successful project functions is more important than topic expertise in many cases.
Once you have a good project team established, a good realistic scope and milestones of the project needs to be defined. Too many times I see a scope of a project being set that is too aggressive and unrealistic. This is all relative of course, but keeping the project scope and milestones achievable is important. You can’t expect a complete 360 of an existing complex process in 30 days. Realistic (yet aggressive) achievable goals will help keep the project team optimistic, upbeat and energized to follow through with the entire project.
I don’t claim to know what makes up the perfect project team. You will always have some element of each role personality on a team. As long as they are not too extreme it can still be a manageable team and a successful project. I should know…I have had many successful projects with a team I had no say in selecting. The projects still succeed; but it can be a much more difficult than necessary with the wrong team psyche.
What personalities have you seen hurt or help a project? I would love to see some good stories on overall project team personalities posted here (no names please).
“I’m just too busy.” I hear this phrase every single week from my customers and prospects. That followed by, “There’s no time for another meeting, we’re up to our neck in new design projects, it’s our busy season so we can’t even think about implementing another system, and we’re way too busy for training.”
For so long, I’ve equated success with being busy until I read this quote by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, “A man who is very busy seldom changes his opinions.” I’d like to think there is a parallel between being busy and product development. Professionals in Product Development are paid to change things, to push the envelope, and to challenge the cadence of our weekly schedules.
EAC offers LEAN Product Development seminars in different cities throughout the year. These seminars are packed with executives eager to learn the latest and greatest in LEAN theory. The executives in the room listen attentively as they begin to imagine how their organization can operate as a learning organization.
I often wonder what would happen if our keynote speaker (our fearless LEAN evangelist) stood up in the front of the room and told the audience to focus on learning for the remainder of the week. He would order VPs, Directors, and CEO’s to take their teams offsite while putting their backlog of projects, design review meetings, and production schedules on hold. Of course, that’s neither reasonable nor realistic. But what if?
According to Michael Kennedy, “the greatest waste in the enterprise is the absence of sustained, real-time organizational learning, and very little effort is being applied for resolution.” Why aren’t we all working towards becoming a learning organization? By definition, a learning organization is one that has a heightened capability to learn, adapt, and change. Isn’t that what product development should embody?
I see mission statements that claim a commitment to continuous improvement yet haven’t invested in a class in years. We find the money for new tools, but we can’t take time to learn how to use them. We invest in new product development, yet we don’t educate our people on the fundamental process behind it. Most importantly, we don’t take time to learn from our own mistakes. Why? I think the answer is our own perceived success, our busyness!
As we begin the lazy days of summer, I encourage you to start small and embrace each day. Focus on one area of your work or personal life and take some time to learn how to improve. Invest in yourself, because you are your own most powerful tool. As Dr. Seuss taught us so well, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places
you’ll go.”
As summer finally inches closer, I can’t help but daydream about the rolling greens on a sunny golf course. I typically see golf as a chance to take a break from everyday thinking and recharge my batteries. However, on my last trip to the sand trap I realized that the process of golf is really quite complex.
Consider the process of a golf swing. First, you look at where the ball lies and Look where it needs to go. Then you Ask yourself what club might be best for the shot. Since most people don’t golf alone, you often discuss challenging parts of the course with other players or ask for tips for the best swing. After you determine your club, you will then visualize or Model what type of swing to use. Then, you Discuss (internally or with others) what you’ve learned and take a few practice swings. Finally you take Action and swing.
Although this process is usually subconscious and happens in just moments, it still is quite complicated. And guess what folks? This is problem solving at its greatest. This is LAMDA.
L: Look
A: Ask
M: Model
D: Discuss
A: Act
Although I use golf as a way to stop thinking about process, it turns out that it is truly inherent in nearly every part of my life. With the exception an occasional water hazard on the 9th hole, I consider myself a decent player and the LAMDA process promotes my continuous improvement. I’ll bet that you can also identify with this process. So, other than golf, what are processes in your life that model the LAMDA problem solving process?
