the
innovative LEDGER
An e-Newsletter from The Innovative Edge™ Inc.
Vol.
6, No. 6 - June 2006
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A
Matter of Convenience
By Jeff Govendo
Last
month I took a call from an executive from a large, multi-national
oil company. He had done an Internet search and, having come upon
The Innovative Edge website, wanted to discuss facilitator training
for their retail convenience store business. Seems that despite the
handsome profits they – like all the big oil companies –
are reaping during this latest surge in gasoline prices, their convenience
stores aren’t doing nearly so well. In fact, the business is
losing money.
"We’ve
decided to embark on a major innovation initiative," he said,
"to get more ideas from those in the trenches: our employees
who are dealing with the customer every day."
Four
company executives, including himself, had been selected to travel
to sites all around the world (they operate on six continents), leading
brainstorming sessions to get ideas on how the stores might surprise
and delight their customers; to truly differentiate themselves.
"We
want to change the culture of this company," he said. "What
would be involved in teaching our team to lead these sessions?"
A
modest assignment perhaps, but I love teaching people to facilitate
for innovation! Briefly, I explained a 3-stage approach I’ve
used quite effectively in preparing people for this:
1.
Include the four as participants in a group creativity and teamwork
program.
2. Intensive classroom instruction and coaching on facilitation skills
and process training.
3. On-site observation and immediate feedback for each facilitator
as they lead their initial sessions in the field.
Total
time commitment for each person: about four days over a 4-6 week period.
Though
the caller remained attentive through my explanation, I could nonetheless
sense his impatience. Then he said it: "I was hoping there was
something a little quicker. We really don’t have the time for
all that. Is there anything you could do in, say, a day or less?"
Ah…
the toolkit! The bag of tricks. The "10 foolproof ways to get
ordinary people to come up with extraordinary ideas." How long
could it take to teach those?
Unfortunately,
facilitating for innovation is less about applying "special techniques"
than about fostering an environment in which people feel both excited
and safe enough (yes, safe – there is risk involved in proposing
ideas that may sound impractical, even silly) to tap into their own
innate creativity, and to build upon that of others. This is especially
true if the larger goal is to promote a more innovative culture throughout
the organization, so that ideas can come out even when people
are not involved in a formal brainstorming session.
Yes,
there are special techniques you can apply in an idea generation session.
They are energizing and fun, and often do lead to fresh and interesting
concepts. I use them all the time. But the real skill in this kind
of facilitation – the art of it, if you will – is in guiding
a group of thinkers through a process in which every idea put forth
is assumed to have value, either on its own or for its potential to
spark ideas in others. Learning to facilitate this effectively
requires skill-building, coaching, observation with feedback and (sorry!)…
a bit of time.
My
prospect and I politely signed off. I felt satisfied I hadn’t
tried to condense a natural progression of learning activities into
the “microwave on HIGH for 90 sec.” version of it. He, no
doubt, proceeded in his search for someone who could do just that
for his retail business.
After
all, why do you think they’re called convenience stores?
