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PMP-Leadership

Impacting Innovation

Successful innovation requires keeping pace with industry changes and the eve- changing demands of a fractured customer base.  Companies that repetitively create, design, and develop profitable new products understand consumer behaviors and enable scientific advances.  These firms capitalize on both internal and external systems to generate success in the marketplace. 

Three factors impact innovation and can determine repeatable market successes.  These are organization, technology, and culture.  Let’s take a look at each element in turn. 

Organization

At the highest level, an organization’s strategy drives innovation.  A firm’s strategy reflects its mission (what is the purpose of the business), its vision (what will the future look like), and its values (what traits make us unique to accomplish our mission).  An innovation strategy also informs internal and external customers of senior management’s risk tolerance.  An aggressive innovation program indicates higher risk tolerance than an R&D portfolio fixed on incremental improvements and sustaining innovations. 

Further, an organization’s strategy will determine systems and structures necessary for a corporation to conduct R&D.  Traditionally, firms have followed a Stage-Gate™ approach to new product development (NPD) which allows larger risk (and larger investment) after smaller experimental phases are proven in the product design process.  This is a balanced risk approach if the staged and gated system is implemented with cross-functional NPD teams. 

Today, many firms are embracing Agile methodologies in which the focus is directed toward people ‑ customers and innovation teams ‑ over products and features.  Time-to-market is faster and end-users test prototypes early in the developmental process to reduce waste.  Planning documentation and contract negotiations are minimized, while customer interactions are optimized. 

Technology

Almost all products today include a technical interface, whether it is a website or a smartphone app.  Technology also plays a role in the development process itself.  Most firms use some software tools to manage new product portfolios and/or the individual NPD projects.  In addition, software tools and apps enhance communication for dispersed teams. 

For example, product portfolio management (PPM) is a broad view of all new product development projects, including those being actively worked and those in the pipeline.  There are literally dozens of PPM software packages available for organizations to utilize in aiding their decision-making.  PPM tools collate individual project data to help senior managers view information and to make strategic innovation decisions.  Most PPM tools translate gobs of data into simple charts, displaying value added project information in an easy-to-consume manner. 

Culture

Culture is always the most difficult element to describe, and to change, to drive successful innovation.  Many senior managers will point to organizational systems and structures or to technology when NPD metrics are not at the expected level.  However, it is rare that only a technical or business solution alone can solve an ailing innovation program. 

Culture sits at the heart of how things get done in an organization.  Regardless of how aggressively an innovation statement is worded, if senior management acts risk-averse, R&D will be limited to incremental improvements and simple feature additions.  Culture permeates team behaviors and individual work styles. 

Agile work environments stress people interactions over documentation.  Talking to customers is valued over contract negotiations with suppliers.  Failures are viewed as a learning rather than punishment for falling short of a goal.  Innovation teams are trusted to test prototypes with customers and to take responsibility for the whole product development. 

Impacting Innovation

Three elements impact innovation more than materials, engineering, or industry.  These are the organization, technology, and culture.  Factors like systems, structures, and strategies directly influence how innovation teams work internally and externally.  Selected decision-making tools can aid or abet speed of innovation by increasing data and information flow or by creating roadblocks between senior management and team members. 

Organizations should start with an examination of their overall strategy when seeking to enhance innovation.  Strategies reflect the degree to which the firm accepts risks in NPD.  PPM tools (technology) will translate individual project data so decision makers can actively assess innovation highest value innovation projects to pursue.  Strategies and technologies are often a mirror to the organization’s culture.  Culture is unspoken but determines how work gets done, rewards learning, and supports successful integration of NPD in an organization. 

Learn More

If your organization is struggling with innovation, especially in these challenging times, please contact me for a complimentary 30-minute innovation coaching session.  With over 20 years of experience and innovation clients across all industry groups, I can help you get innovation on track for success!  Contact me at area code 281, phone 787-3979 or email to info@Simple-PDH.com.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.  It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.   Learn.   Earn.   Simple.

Working in Virtual Teams

I had originally written this blog some time ago; however, as many people around the globe are being forced to work from home, I believe this post might be more relevant than ever.  Please note my personal best wishes for the wellbeing of you and your family until the craziness subsides.

Working in Virtual Teams

While much research has been published on why virtual teams fail, fewer publications have demonstrated what works.  We present a five-phase model that balances individual contributors, leadership skills, and necessary functional enablers.

What is a Virtual Team?

Virtual teams share three characteristics.  First, they are tasked with completing a common objective, meaning that there is a business need for the team to be assembled.  Second, team members are dispersed in different geographical locations or working from home.

Normally, we only think about dispersed team members located in different cities or in different time zones around the world.  In recent days, we also accept that panic and fear force dispersion for workers.  Any barrier to face-to-face communication results in a dispersed team.  For instance, team members located on different floors of the same building face barriers in face-to-face communication.  They must take an elevator or climb a flight of stairs to meet.  A chance interaction at the coffee pot or water cooler (do we still have these privileges?) is greatly reduced, even though these team members are theoretically “co-located”. 

Barriers to face-to-face communication reduce opportunistic social interactions, and decrease chances of random idea exchange and collaboration that lead to enhanced creative problem-solving. 

Finally, virtual teams conduct most of their communication by electronic technology.  Of course, many people today (especially millennials) choose to communicate through technology – texting instead of talking.  But in the case of a virtual team, electronic communication is the primary means of communication due to separation, distance, and time differences.

Improving Virtual Team Performance

The five-phase model to improve virtual team behaviors and to lead to enhanced performance includes:

  • Initiation and structure,
  • Methods of communication,
  • Meetings and protocols,
  • Knowledge management, and
  • Leadership.

Each foundational building block includes two or three specific tools, actions, or checklists that support the effectiveness of a virtual team.  For example, communication includes a recommended tool, a common practice, and a leadership action to get real results in virtual team performance.

Why Do We Need a Model for Virtual Teams?

Models help to frame the context and solution to problems.  Moreover, training participants in a given model establishes a common framework and provides clear expectations for team behaviors and performance.

We recommend training virtual teams on the five-stage model at the earliest group meetings.  One of the recommendations for a virtual project than is to hold a face-to-face meeting to ensure a common understanding.  The face-to-face kick-off meeting is also a time to develop special technical skills and team behaviors.  Technical training may include project management skills, software applications, and new product development processes.  Team training should include communication, leadership, and knowledge management.

Performance Measures

Projects are measured by their critical success factors determined during project initiation.  Likewise, virtual teams should be measured by team behaviors and metrics that are established for success of the team’s activities.  Virtual teams must have team metrics in order to support teamwork.

Many companies speak about teamwork but will evaluate employees on individual performance metrics.  The only way to enforce team behaviors is to include team measures in employee evaluations.  This is especially important for virtual teams in which a large amount of work is conducted independently and in isolation from others.  Such performance measure are a part of the Meetings and Protocols arena of the five-phase virtual team model (VTM). 

Identifying Virtual Team Members

Selecting team members to serve on a virtual team will be addressed in greater detail in a future post.  For now, however, be aware that virtual team members must have a different set of characteristics than those working in traditional, co-located teams.

First, virtual team members must demonstrate technical expertise.  One of the benefits of a virtual team is an ability to access technical experts regardless of their location.  Unique cultural, professional, and personal experiences yield a variety of perspectives that are advantageous to selecting technical expert talent on a virtual team.

Next, virtual team members require a higher degree of self-sufficiency, self-motivation, and emotional intelligence than traditional team members.  Team members may work in isolation without day-to-day routines or schedules.  Self-directed leadership is required for successful task completion.

Finally, dispersed team members should be skilled at operating within a virtual environment.  While they may not be computer wizards themselves, virtual team members must be tech-savvy in order to best utilize communication tools and shared knowledge to accomplish project work.

Learn How to Improve Virtual Team Performance

You can improve the performance of a virtual team by using the five-phase Virtual Team Model:  initiation and structure, communication, meetings and protocols, knowledge management, and leadership.  Learn how to improve your team’s performance in our online Virtual Team course.  Find out more here and register here.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com for questions/comments.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

Success for Innovation Leaders

One of the things I most love about Design Thinking is the opportunity to hear stories.  Everyone has a story to share; some are more far-fetched than others, but we all have a story to tell.  We laugh and we cry.  And, for those of us working in innovation and leadership, we learn. 

When we share our stories of our careers in innovation, we learn that no two people have followed the same path to success.  Many us have common themes in our career journeys but there is really no single way to achieve a position of success. 

What is Success in Innovation?

Of course, each of us has our own definition of success coupled with our own set of skills and accomplishments.  This is why each pathway to innovation leadership is so different.  Like many other New Product Development Professionals (NPDP), my background is technical.  As a Chemical Engineer fresh out of grad school, my first job was in research.  My supervisor honed and refined my leadership skills with training and job opportunities.  Over the years, I have tended toward areas of innovation that involve helping people learn and apply tools to improve their own systems and processes. 

Another person, who is also successful in innovation, started out as a retail sales clerk, and worked his way up in the sales division of his company.  He changed jobs a lot, going among firms closely related within one industry.  One day, he was tapped to lead a new marketing and innovation division; the organization recognized his quiet leadership skills and ability to connect with customers. 

The definition of success in innovation is never linked to just a title.  Being the CIO (Chief Innovation Officer) of an organization is a great position to hold, but only if you respect the role and responsibilities.  Success as an innovation leader means providing excellent service and skills to a market to improve the lives of others.  Seeking a title or position conflates our value as innovation professionals and might mistake monetary rewards over those that come from a job well done. 

How to Gain Innovation Success?

Demonstrating success as an innovation leader is intricately tied to success of our customers and clients.  Successful innovations benefit end-users by giving them basic necessities, convenience, or luxury.  (Watch for a future blog post on these different levels of innovation.)  While a new product offers optimal technologies for a consumer, providing a memorable experience leads to long-term innovation success. 

Let me share a story.  Having moved less than 10 miles within a local region, my husband and I ended up with two safety deposit boxes at two different branches of the same bank.  We needed to access the safety deposit boxes to get the title to the car to trade it in on a new one.  However, we didn’t know anymore which box held the title. 

At the branch closest to our house, the teller was friendly and immediately took us to the box.  She asked if we wanted a cup of coffee and chatted about the weather.  In contrast, at the other bank branch, we waited ten minutes in a queue.  Upon finally getting to the teller, she asked if we could wait for someone else to assist us.  Finally, after accessing the safety deposit box (and the car title – yay!), we had to wait another ten minutes for the teller to lock the box and let us leave the vault.  Though the teller did smile, she never offered common courtesies or apologies for the long wait.  Our experience at the two branches was like day and night.

Providing an excellent experience for your customer is as important as – and perhaps more so – than the technology foundation of your innovation. 

What is Your Innovation Leadership Career Path?

So how do you pursue a career for success as an innovation leader?  First, remember that success is defined only by you – using your strongest skills to help improve the lives of others.  Next, understand that “success” is not the same as a title or position.  Successful innovation leaders create outstanding experiences for customers, building on products, technologies, and markets.  Finally, sharing stories with customers and other innovation leaders guides your path and your career journey.    

Join me on Thursday, 5 March 2020 at the AIChE STS dinner meeting to learn Three Tips to Advance Your Career Effortlessly.  If you’re not in Houston or you are unable to attend the STS AIChE meeting, please join me for a recap of the three tips on Monday, 23 March 2020 at noon CDT (1 pm EDT, 10 am PDT).  Each webinar attendee receives a complimentary workstyle assessment to help you build innovation leadership (limited to one per company via the authorized partner network with Jill Hickman Companies).  Contact me at info@globalnpsolutions.com for more information on becoming a successful innovation leader! 

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.  It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.            Learn.            Earn.            Simple.

Leaping Innovations

This year we are lucky to have a leap day – February 29.  Since paper calendars and solar calendars don’t quite align, every four years we get an extra day.  Since February is a short month, clever people have added that extra day as February 29. 

I think matters get confused a bit more because the following week (in the US) we “spring forward” one hour for Daylight Savings Time.  We will recover that hour in the autumn when we “fall back” to Standard Time.  I have permanently lost one hour during a business trip to Belgium and The Netherlands when the US on Daylight Savings Time and Europe was not.  But that’s another story… 

What is Leaping Innovation?

Basically, leap year gives us a chance to recover the time we lost in the previous three years and to set our calendars right with the sun and moon.  Leap year is a misnomer since we are slowing down by adding a day and we were actually “leaping” past the fractional days in the intervening years. 

A “leaping innovation,” on the other hand, is usually defined as one that advances the technology by a very large step.  A lot of innovations are more incremental in nature – adding a small tweak to an existing feature or increasing the options available for an existing product. 

For example, adding a calorie counter to a pedometer was an incremental innovation.  The device already tracked a person’s number of steps, so adding a small calculation to convert steps to energy burned was a small task.  Incremental innovations are important to product development and maintaining market interest.

In contrast, a personal fitness device that also gives notifications for incoming phone calls and tracks your running route with a GPS is a great leap forward from a basic pedometer.  The technology for this innovation was both sophisticated and risky to develop.  Moreover, new and existing customers required a degree of education to use the new product.  Accompanying sales and marketing strategies were more elaborate than in the case of an added feature. 

The late Clayton Christiansen taught us that sustaining innovations could be either incremental or a great leap forward.  What differentiates a sustaining innovation from a disruptive innovation is how vastly a market is changed because of the innovation.  Digital photography has transformed traditional image capture and supported the social media revolution.

Teams for Radical Innovation

Your team structure for designing and developing an incremental vs. radical or disruptive innovation is different.  Project teams made of liaisons and subject matter experts can serve an incremental innovation while.  In this case, depth of knowledge is more important than the breadth of knowledge.  In the field of new product development (NPD), we call this a lightweight team. 

When an innovation project requires significant technology and market development, and the resulting product is new-to-the-world or new-to-the-company,  we use an autonomous team.  Sometimes this is called a “venture team” to better describe the scope of work.  A primary driver for the autonomous team is the project mission, and team members serve with both depth and breadth of knowledge.  Customer orientation is another key aspect for a successful project team designing and developing radical innovations. 

Build Your Teams

Great innovation teams don’t just magically happen once every four years like the 29th of February.  Instead, successful NPD teams require nurturing and growth.  Team leaders assign team members based on skill, purpose, and desire for customer satisfaction.  Focusing on the needs of the project (e.g. depth and breadth of knowledge) helps to determine the right people at the right time to successfully innovate. 

One mistake I have observed by many companies in new product project management is to over-allocate resources.  One of the practices of successful innovators is to instead assign the most appropriate resources to an 80% level.  This allows time for hiccups in the product development schedule as well as time for team members to really absorb and apply learnings in a strategic way. 

Do You Want to Leap Forward?

If you want to leap forward in your innovation program, join me tomorrow for a free webinar.  We will discuss 20 Tips of Innovation and team-building practices for success with incremental or disruptive innovations.  Register here. 

Extra bonus: All attendees receive a copy of the 20 Tips of Innovation ebook and a complimentary work style assessment.  See you on Friday, 28 February at noon CST. 

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.    I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.    It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.    I am an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.    My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.    Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.            Learn.            Earn.            Simple.

Growing in Innovation

Nature is fascinating.  A tiny seed is placed into the ground.  It is fertilized and watered, sprouting into a fledgling plant.  If the soil conditions are just right and the tiny plant receives sunlight, more water, and additional nutrients, it grows into a tree.  A tree yields fruit that, in turn, produces more seeds.  We harvest the bounty and prune the tree to encourage further growth.

Successful innovation follows the same path as nature.  Ideas and organizations are seeded, nurtured, grown and harvested, and pruned for continuous improvement.  In the Flagship Innovation Leader program, we call these development stages Learning, Adopting, Transforming, and Sustaining. 

Learning

A seed has to take root in order to start any growth stage.  I have a loquat tree in my backyard.  Most years, the number of fruits it produces is manageable but last year, the branches bent over with a bumper crop of fruit.  Most of the fruit fell to the ground and consumed by the neighborhood squirrels.  Every square inch of my entire backyard was covered in loquat seed remnants. 

Yet, not every seed takes root.  Many do, but most do not.  Learning to be a strong and successful innovation leader is similar.  We can provide the necessary elements for innovation success, but most individuals and companies will pass on the difficult challenge to learn skills, to have the desire to take root in learning best practices.  Learning requires the proper conditions, including a fertile and open mind; Acceptance of new ideas, theories, or concepts; and support, encouragement, and time to let learning take root. 

Adopting

A fledgling seed sprouts a tiny green shaft above the soil.  It grows only if proper nutrients are supplied on an ongoing basis.  But as it grow , the small plant will grow stronger and stronger. 

Innovation leaders also grow stronger as they adopt new skills and spread best practices within their organizations.  Adopting new practices is a little scary and requires strength, just as the seedling needs strength to penetrate through the soil.  As you adopt innovation best practices, team-building skills, and new product development (NPD) tools, innovation will grow.  I recommend Innovation Best Practices training leading to New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification as way to learn and adopt industry best practices for innovation.  Situational Leadership is core curricula for teams seeking successful adoption of best practices and management of innovation projects.  Contact me at info@globalnpsolutions.com for more information on implementing this brilliant program to enhance team collaboration efforts.

Transforming

One little seedling requires long periods of sunshine, nutrients, fertilizer, and water to grow into a tree.  Likewise, innovation leaders need to learn additional skills, including time management and communication, to transform an organization into a productive, new NPD factory.  Implementing Product Portfolio Management in 100 Days, for example, transforms an organization from one that uses NPD processes into an organization that truly creates value for customers and shareholders.  Continued investment and nurturing are keys to transforming a fledgling innovation culture into a thriving innovation culture. 

Sustaining

Trees provide fruit but also must be pruned to remove the dead wood.  Innovation leaders build networks through Master Mind groups and coaching to sustain the pace and liveliness of their innovation programs.  We sometimes need to prune bad habits and bureaucratic processes to sustain growth in new product development.  Neglecting this step in developing innovation leaders will weaken the system, just as leaving dead wood on a tree eventually weakens its roots. 

Flagship Innovation Leader

Do you want to grow in innovation?  Just as nature provides a pathway for seeds to be fertilized and watered for growth, successful innovation leaders need to learn the basics of product development, adopt innovation best practices, transform their organizations for productive innovation, and sustain repeatable processes for long-term success.  Click here for more information. 

Take the Innovation Health Assessment now to benchmark your innovation maturity.

Learn More

To jumpstart your innovation journey, don’t miss our next webinar.  Register here.  I’ll cover the summary of our 20 Days of Innovation in 2020.  Everyone who attends will receive a copy of the associated eBook.  You’ll also want to watch the recording of a recent Q&A webinar on innovation leadership (click here).  Of course, your best reference for all things innovation is The Innovation ANSWER Book available at Amazon.  

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.    I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.    It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.    I am an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.    My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.    Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.            Learn.            Earn.            Simple.

Leadership is a Verb

Dictionary.com defines leadership as “the ability to lead” and “an act… of… guidance.”  The formal definitions of leadership are nouns-meaning it is something that acts or is acted upon. 

Overtime, I have begun to think of leadership as a verb.  Instead of being acted upon, leadership is acting and performing a service for others.  Of course, I went to college to study engineering, so grammar is not necessarily my strong suit! 

Acting for Others

Regardless of grammar and proper English from high school, leadership requires acting on behalf of the best interest of others.  Leaders in organizations are there to lead others.  Leadership is a skill that demonstrates expected behaviors and rallies the team around a common purpose.  Leaders support the goals of the team and the project objectives. 

What’s important to observe about successful innovation leaders is that in acting for others they suppress their own egos and agendas.  I remember working with a team leader who spent hours gathering the data and consensus of the team.  Assigned to a “war room” to solve a complex problem, the team discussed and debated the scientific theories to address the issue.  Yet after these lengthy meetings, our manager would next present a deliverable that we had never discussed.  He was not acting for us; instead, it felt like he was acting against us. 

Performing Service

Another reason I view leadership as a verb is that leaders are servants to their teams and other stakeholders.  By performing service for the team, a leader demonstrates his or her strengths and confidence.  None of us is too elite or has too grand of a title to lend a hand to those working for them.  As we lift up the entire team, we lift ourselves and the organization. 

Performing service does not mean going whole hog to build an entire housing community for the homeless all by yourself.  Service as a leader means considering the needs of your team and your customers and then addressing those needs to the best of your ability. 

For example, I fondly recall my first boss out of college.  I had been tasked to run equations and an analysis of large amounts data from a pilot plant to correlate with ongoing operations.  To understand the data and to convert it to useful information blog I was plotting dozens of graphs charts, and tables daily.  (Read this blog on the difference between data and knowledge.)

Our group had only a shared printer per company guidelines.  As a leader, my boss observed me walking down three hallways and around the corner several times per day just to collect my printed documents.  He acted as a servant leader and presented me with my own printer!  His service was not just a nice thing to do, it saved the company money to recover my wasted time walking back and forth to the shared printer.  It also allowed other group members more access to the printer since my graphs and charts took a long time to produce. 

Innovation Leaders

Beyond acting for others and performing service, innovation leaders are responsible for strategic decisions and delivering results.  Innovation leaders both drive and support strategy through market interactions.  Working to design and develop new products, innovation leaders gain customer insights and translate this information into target product attributes for the design team. 

A key skill of successful innovation leaders is the ability to examine themselves and to model behaviors that are expected for creative technology organizations.  The fancy word for this trait is self-awareness.  Self-awareness allows us to identify and capitalize on our strengths, and also helps us as leaders to identify and grow the strengths of our teammates. 

Learn More

Watch the recording of a recent Q&A webinar on innovation leadership.  (Click here or type https://www.anymeeting.com/806-095-661/E959D78286463D into your browser.)  Grow your innovation skills through a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) and Innovation Best Practices course (available online or self-study).  Contact me for innovation coaching or to join a mastermind group of leaders who are passionate about innovation.  A great reference for all things innovation is The Innovation ANSWER Book available at Amazon.  

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.    I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.    It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.    I am an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.    My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.    Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.            Learn.            Earn.            Simple.

Entrepreneurial Leaders

Today, many companies seek out the skills of entrepreneurs.  Leadership candidates are encouraged to demonstrate entrepreneurial experiences to get hired or promoted.  And while entrepreneurial characteristics are important for an innovation leader, traditional supervisors are better suited with conventional management skills.  Let’s look at three areas of differentiating leadership for innovation success.

Watch the 20-second summary and then read on!

Complete Ownership of a Problem

Entrepreneurial leaders are motivated by the finished product.  They are visionary and adaptable.  In order to achieve their goals, they are willing to take acceptable risks and are comfortable with uncertainty.  Because they are intensely vested in the final product, an entrepreneurial leader exerts power and control as a way to completely own the problem. 

On the other hand, traditional managers in operations, finance, or logistics might be ill-served by a total ownership perspective.  Functional managers need to work across organizational boundaries and with both internal and external stakeholders.  Predictability and meeting expectations enhance the cost-effectiveness and quality of operations.  Collaboration and cooperation are appropriate skills for accomplishing day-to-day work.

Motivated by Uncertainty

Entrepreneurial leaders are not necessarily more risk-seeking than traditional managers.  But, they are more comfortable with uncertainty, knowing that the path to the final product might not be straight or narrow.  Exploring different alternatives and accepting failure for its learning value characterize an entrepreneurial leader’s approach to uncertainty.

In contrast, functional managers have stringent performance objectives and rely on predictable, trouble-free operations to meet commitments.  While these leaders also appreciate learning, it is used to streamline and improve systems.  Learning is experiential and based on data analysis.  Planning and delivering on the plan are the metrics of success for conventional management tasks.

Persuasion

All of us can benefit from mastering skills of persuasion and negotiation.  But entrepreneurial leaders excel at selling their ideas to both their team members and sponsors.  They have an uncanny ability to demonstrate and convince others of the value in their concepts, obtaining funding to pursue these goals.  Entrepreneurial leaders are not hard-nosed salespeople, but use their passion, motivation, and charisma to convince others that their path of action is the right one.

Traditional managers in operations also need to use persuasion and negotiation skills, especially in budget battles.  However, their approach tends more to details.  Technical leaders, especially, find such negotiations painful and they are not optimistic in getting what they want.  Functional managers may convert the lack of a maintenance budget yet are not using their positive power or expert power to weave a compelling story.

Entrepreneurial Leaders Skills

Not every job needs to be staffed by an entrepreneurial leader.  Manufacturing, marketing, and accounting need conventional managers to lead these functions with a focus on operational excellence.  Quality, predictability, and cost-effectiveness are the focus.

Innovation programs do need entrepreneurial leaders.  New product development (NPD) projects are uncertain and involve inherent risks.  Entrepreneurial leaders are motivated to own the whole problem in order to generate a new solution.  Entrepreneurial leaders are adaptable and have a willingness to accept uncertainty, especially as a learning activity.  Finally, entrepreneurial leaders use persuasion to convince others that their ideas are valuable and beneficial.

How Do You Become an Entrepreneurial Leader?

Register now for a complimentary webinar on Innovation Leadership.  This interactive session is held Monday, 27 January 2020 at noon CST (1 pm EST, 10 am PST). 

You can also learn more about teams and leadership for innovation in our Innovation Best Practices and NPDP prep courses.  Check out the 1Q2020 schedule here.  You can also read more about innovation leadership and team development in Chapter 4 of  The Innovation ANSWER Book, available from Amazon here.  

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

Innovation Leaders are NOT Teachers

I’m a disaster in the kitchen.  Beyond microwave popcorn, you are probably taking serious risks to eat something I have cooked.  Curiously, my mother was considered a good cook, so I don’t think there is a gene or DNA sequence that I missed to make me a terrible cook.  Instead, I blame my mother’s leadership style in the kitchen.  Leaders are not teachers. 

Every night, one of my chores was to set the table for dinner.  As my mother prepared dinner, she would tell me to watch her cook and she often told me to read the recipe.  Occasionally, she would have me help to gather ingredients and hand them to her.  “When you are older,” she would say, “then you can try cooking.” 

Leaders Mentor, Not Teach

Good leaders are mentors.  This means that after a short period of observation (and learning the safety rules), a leader lets the team member try out the tasks.  Starting small to minimize risk, leaders switch from doing and explaining (teaching) to watching and counseling.  A good mentor allows people to make a few mistakes so they can learn because tactile learning (learning by doing) is the most valuable lesson. 

Leaders as mentors can offer advice and share their own stories as learning tools.  Yet lecturing and teaching often falls short.  Innovation leaders, in particular, need to set boundaries for the team but then let creativity flow.  Flexibility is a hallmark of a strong leader. 

Too Much Coaching Fails Leadership

Today’s workers are lucky that coaching is a standard practice in most organizations.  Many leaders have been trained in the basics of coaching.  Unfortunately, many managers tend to overdo it.  Constant coaching is more like micromanaging and also hurts the innovation process. 

In certain situations, managers have learned that coaching is important but have not necessarily been given the right tools.  While coaching involves asking “why” a new product development (NPD) team made certain decisions or “what” the design pathway is, a constant barrage of questions destroys trust and autonomy.  Successful innovation leaders understand that a few well-placed why, what , and how questions can better guide and direct the team, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. 

Innovation Leaders Acknowledge Failure

Failure is a part of learning.  Teaching – by itself – does not allow someone to learn failure.  Watching my mother cook and add a pinch of salt or test baked goods with a toothpick only allowed me to observe her skills.  Without adding too much or too little salt to a stew and not finding out for myself what a “clean” toothpick means for bread, I never failed. 

Successful innovation leaders tolerate failure as an element of the learning process.  Of course, boundaries and constraints must limit the risk and cost of failure, yet mistakes and errors provide hands-on learning that is invaluable for a team.  Innovation should be expected to leave a trail of lessons learned to build the inevitable successes. 

Innovation Teachers

While I’m still not a good cook by any stretch of the imagination, I cautiously and continually try recipes and new tools to improve my cooking skills.  I understand the cost of failing in the kitchen is learning – and pizza delivery for dinner.  Without trying my own hand at adding spices to a soup or baking a birthday cake, I could never improve and learn new skills.

Likewise, great innovation leaders go beyond teaching and learning.  Being a mentor to serve as a guide and to govern the NPD process makes innovation leaders approachable and builds team skills internally.  Coaching your team includes a few well-intentioned “what” and “why” questions, but not peppering them with advice (pun intended).

Build Your Innovation Leadership Skills

To be a successful innovation leader, you must allow your team members to learn by doing and accept failure.  Join me for 20 Days of Innovation in 2020 to grow and develop as an innovation leader.  Starting on 6 January 2020, you will receive a short daily email tip, tool, or technique for 20 days.  You’ll learn about applying strategy for more success with time-to-market and how to improve your NPD processes.  It’s free!  Register here for 20 Days of Innovation in 2020. 

About Me

I am passionate about innovation and inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me great joy to help you build innovation leadership.  I am an experienced innovation professional with a thirst for lifelong learning.  My degrees are in Chemical Engineering (BS and PhD) and in Computer and Information Decision Making (MBA).  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact Teresa Jurgens-Kowal at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Changing Innovation Performance

Innovation has a dark side.  While everyone wants to be “more innovative”, new products fail at alarming rates.  When your business is to create new ideas, new technologies, and new markets, failing more than half the time is troubling indeed. 

On the bright side, however, innovation is more accessible today than ever.  Industries share their product development processes openly and companies partner with suppliers, distributors, and even competitors.  We have learned to integrate customers into the development cycle with open innovation and Design Thinking.  How do organizations continue to move forward, making progress with speed-to-market and changing internal performance?

The Purpose for Change

Read on or watch the 20-second summary to learn how you can change your innovation performance.

As senior managers present an argument to increase innovation performance, we have to explain the need for change.  Many people in the organization see only a narrow slice of the business.  R&D professionals, for instance, view their daily work and can see frequent, small gains in knowledge.  Marketers identify new insights from customer focus groups when they are held.  Project management professionals view small successes in meeting deadlines and milestones.  From each individual or functional perspective, things appear okay. 

Leaders inspire innovation and significant performance improvements must first demonstrate that a change is needed.  Teams build cohesion around a common purpose in the threat of competition.  New product development (NPD) teams can accelerate performance in time-to-market by uniting behind a common goal with a tight deadline.  This is especially important for virtual teams. 

Simplify Work Processes

A friend was recently telling me a story of bureaucracy.  She didn’t call it bureaucracy, but her frustration was obvious.  To implement a change that sped up the process and was a change that operations desired, she had to obtain approvals from her boss’ boss, the operator’s boss, and a person in the IT department.  To submit the change order, she needed to get access to an antiquated computer system for which the organization had no internal training. 

If you want to improve innovation performance, you need to simplify your processes and procedures.  Agile processes, like Scrum, offer the advantage of focused teamwork and quick feedback from customers.  The Agile Manifesto, commands us to emphasize people and interactions over paperwork and bureaucracy.  Let your NPD teams work on what they do best – designing and developing new features and technologies. 

Measure What Matters

Human beings are programmed to perform our best against the metrics by which our behavior is measured.  If your dad gave you a dollar for every hour you were quiet on a road trip, you could manage to be silent for hours on end.  If your boss measures efficiency to award your bonus, you will strive to eliminate waste. 

Innovations take time to pay off.  Short-term metrics drive short-term performance resulting in mundane, incremental products.  Developing new technologies and new markets are long-term investments and innovation rewards must recognize learning and growth as a purpose of new product development research, as well as product profitability.  Building effective, cross-functional teams is a stepping stone in the journey of improving innovation performance. 

Improving Innovation Performance

Innovation is important in every organization.  They say if businesses don’t innovate, they die.  Customers demand new and better products and services, and companies no longer have the advantage of geographical or technological monopolies.  To improve innovation performance, we must share the driving purpose and strategy.  Innovation requires change and as flagship innovation leaders, we must communicate the need for change. 

Next, innovation succeeds when creativity is unhindered.  Simplify your processes and procedures and let the NPD teams be free to do their work without complicated bureaucracy or reporting authority.  Finally, measure what matters.  Innovation is a long-term adventure where learning is paramount.  Experimentation often results in short-term failure yet innovation leaders value knowledge above short-term stock prices. 

Do You Want to Improve Your Innovation Performance?

If so, what are you waiting for?  Check out our 20 Days of Innovation in 2020 to receive a fresh innovation tip in your inbox daily during the month of January.  It’s not spammy and it’s free – sign up here.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.    I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.    It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.    I am an experienced professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.    My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.    Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

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A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.            Learn.            Earn.            Simple.

Innovation Leaders Build Team Diversity

We are all taught that innovation and creativity increase when there is diversity in team membership.  We are told that teams with representatives from different groups and that interchange members frequently will outperform teams that have long-standing members.  Yet, leaders intuitively know that familiar teams are more productive and efficient than groups with more fluid memberships.

Watch the 20-second summary and then Read On!

What is an Innovation Team?

Innovation teams are groups of individuals seeking a common goal to create a new “something” that brings value to both users and producers.  Typically, innovation teams generate new, improved, or enhanced products and services within known markets.  Often, new product development (NPD) involves new technologies or new applications; occasionally, NPD means business development to create a new market.

NPD and innovation teams are usually small with membership of six to ten people of various skills.  The best NPD teams are cross-functional and involve all the necessary disciplines to transform an idea into a commercial product.  Ultimately, success of new products is defined by revenue and sales volume.

Team Diversity

Innovation teams do need diversity to be successful, but many companies misinterpret what “team diversity” means.  It is not uncommon for uninformed managers to define diversity purely along lines of gender and ethnicity.  Team diversity for innovation means creating a team with a wide range of technical experiences, educational backgrounds, and industrial exposure.  Again, each function necessary to transform the idea into a realistic product or service must be represented on the team.

Team diversity also means that members have different styles of thinking and working.  If everyone on the team – regardless of function – bases decisions on detailed statistical analysis, the emotional needs of customers are neglected.  Conversely, if every team member is people-oriented and sympathetic to independent consumer needs, a single product can never be designed for profitability or ease-of-use.  This type of diversity goes well beyond skin color or gender identification.

Familiar Teams vs. Changing Members

Robert Huckman and Bradley Staats argue that familiar and intact teams offer advantages to project outcomes in the areas of quality and efficiency (Harvard Business Review, 2013).  Familiar teams can predict actions and needs within their membership, and therefore, can outperform teams with frequent changes in membership.  

The standard argument against keeping innovation teams intact for lengthy periods is that they would become stale and isolated.  Such teams are assumed to have built-in biases and assumptions that prevent them from recognizing new opportunities and from being creative.  Instead, familiar teams are better able to identify knowledge gaps and can be more flexible when unexpected project changes emerge.

Your Role as an Innovation Leader

Innovation leaders wear many hats.  One is to compose and manage the innovation team.  Successful innovation comes from being able to transform ideas into commercial products and services.  Profitability derives from getting to market first (or fast) and maintaining market share.  Customer satisfaction is built on quality of products and services and customer loyalty is generated when firms release new products that meet their needs.

Designing an NPD team focused on a common purpose (such as commercial success, profitability, and customer satisfaction) requires a leader who can manage diverse team members over the long run.  Team member diversity means more about functional experiences and identifying with the customer than race and gender.  Successful innovation leaders value cross-functional and multi-disciplinary teams that know one another well enough to adapt to change.  A continuous focus on the team’s common goals is the most important message a leader sends.

Your Next Steps

Learn more about teams and leadership for innovation in our Innovation Best Practices and NPDP prep courses.  Check out the 1Q2020 schedule here.  You can also read more about innovation leadership and team development in Chapter 4 of  The Innovation ANSWER Book, available from Amazon here.  Also, be sure to check out our complimentary webinar on Transitioning from a Technical Role to Management on Friday, 13 December 2019 at noon CST (1 pm EST, 10 am PST).  Register here.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 280-8717 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.