A3 - Toyota’s way of solving problems and creating plans

Toyota has designed a two-page mechanism for attacking problems. In July MIT Sloan Management Review published an article about what can we learn from Toyota's A3.

• The A3’s constraints (just 2 pages) and its structure (specific categories, ordered in steps, adding up to a “story”) are the keys to the A3’s power.


• Though the A3 process can be used effectively both to solve problems and to plan initiatives, its greatest payoff may be how it fosters learning. It presents ideal opportunities for mentoring.


• It becomes a basis for collaboration.

Unlike in my presentation, a real A3 plan is formed trough a series of productive dialogue and iterations which serve on building a common understanding and agreement on the situation and planned actions. Common understanding and agreement are always great help when implementing any plan.

Creative Chaos or Productive Neatness?

Recent blog post on Bill Matthies’ Business Wisdom got me commenting on creative chaos and productive neatness. And it got me thinking of brainstorming which might look like creative chaos. But when brainstorming is mastered the creative chaos is actually guided by productive neatness.

I’m not that good at it, but here’s the best practice I learned five years ago by watching the video(s) below by Ideo. While watching the video I sketched the process on the right – the “chaos” at Ideo happens neatly within these boundaries.







See also FastCompany articles Seven Secrets to Good Brainstorming and Six Surefire Ways to Kill a Brainstorm. Or my previous post The Art Of Innovation (which is also name of the book where Ideo presents these rules and stories).

OMG! This is all 5-10 years old stuff, am I getting slow or old?

How should business leaders learn from GM's latest turning point?

In this weeks Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Newsletter several faculty members write about GM: What Went Wrong and What's Next. Nancy F. Koehn, Professor of Business Administration, highlights same fundamental leadership and management issues I have been blogging about earlier.

General Motors was formed in 1908, the same year Henry Ford brought out the first Model T. Ford Motor Company became the undisputed leader of this young market and by the early 1920s, it was producing 60 percent of all the motor vehicles manufactured in the United States and half of those made worldwide. All of these automobiles were Model Ts, offered in one color: black.

Beginning in the mid 1920s, GM staged an astounding victory against Ford Motor Company. Alfred Sloan, Pierre Du Pont, and other GM executives placed a series of important bets on what American consumers wanted (different makes, models and prices; cars that were status symbols and identity holders as well as transportation sources) and they did so with careful, consistent attention to what the competition was—and was not—doing. As company leaders rolled out this daring strategy, they also created an organizational structure and culture developed to support a multi-product, vertically integrated enterprise. By the mid 1930s, GM's market share had risen to 42 percent while Ford's had fallen to 21 percent.

In this context, it is interesting to consider the root causes of General Motor's decline, which has been under way for 30 years. Although there are many factors that contributed to the company's long, slow bleed, the three fundamental issues are management's consistent failure to do the very things that made the business so successful initially.

1. First, pay close attention to what is happening to consumers' lives in the context of the larger environment—not only their stated preferences, but their hopes, dreams, wallets, lifestyles, and values.


2. Second, keep an equally close eye on the competition. (Look close at the picture above and you will see a hybrid Prius among the pick up's and SUV's.)


3. And third, understand how a company's structure and culture relate to its strategy. Use all this understanding to place innovative bets. This is what the early leaders of GM did. And this is what several generations of executives—beginning in the 1970s with the first oil shocks and the entrance of Japanese imports—have consistently failed to do.

It has been a failure of leadership as astounding and momentous (and ironic) as the company's early achievement, Professor Koehn concludes.

In my earlier post Link Between Strategy, Culture, Change and Leadership I quoted Edgar Schein from The Corporate Culture Survival Guide:

The organization clings to whatever made it a success. The very culture that created the success makes it difficult for members of the organization to perceive changes in the environment that require new responses. Culture becomes a constraint on strategy.

This is what happened to GM. At the moment GM is changing their strategy and structure dramatically. Their survival will depend on wether they are able to change also their culture - and that requires a lot of leadership and quite some time. But there is hope – the same thing happened to Ford (in the 1920s) yet today they are the only US car manufacturer not needing government bailout.

An Example of Elegance

I just finished Matt May's new book In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing, which I had been waiting for.

Matt explores the elements of Elegance in innovations of different types - technological elegance, fast food elegance, architectural elegance, elegance in top athlete training, elegance in art, etc. This variety of fields covered makes it truly an interesting book and for a business book it talks very little about business.

He defines the key elements of Elegance being Symmetry, Seduction, Subtraction and Sustainability.

Symmetry helps us solve problems of structure, order and balance. We notice a lack of symmetry, which is why we can exploit it to our advantage. Elegant solutions can have part of the symmetry missing, and our brain fills it in to make it elegant.

Seduction captivates any attention and activates any imagination. By giving only partial information and leaving something to the imagination, open to temptation, and we are compelled to find answers.

Subtraction helps us solve the problem of economy. Doing less, working smarter. Stopping and thinking of what can be removed to solve a problem - in stead of adding more features and acting upon them.

Sustainability is about achieving and keeping the maximum effect with minimum effort. Sustainability can be achieved With just enough symmetry, seduction and subtraction. If you subtract (remove) too much, the solution will not be sustainable.

While I was finishing the book this morning I saw an ad that seduced me. It was an add by fashion house Gucci, but subtracted to contain a plain T-shirt and a canvas shopping bag. Gucci, along with other top brands, was promoting a movie by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a master of elegance in photography capturing the symmetry and sustainability of our planet.

The movie will have a unique multi-platform release on June 5th - World Environment Day - in cinemas, on TV, on DVD and on the internet in 14 different languages and in public places like the Eiffel Tower, Paris and Central Park, New York.



I have seen his pictures in two exhibitions and in his books. I bet this movie will have all the Elements of Elegance - Symmetry of landscapes, Seduction to know more about where they are and what the surroundings are like, Subtraction of anything unnecessary to the visual beauty, and Sustainability of our planet, on World Environment Day, and for the years to come.

In Pursuit of Elegance

I can't wait to get my hands on Matt May's new book In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing which will be published next week.

His recent ChangeThis manifesto provides a sneak preview of th content:



Matt's previos book The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation is one of the most referred to books in my blog. It captures what I have been doing for the past 15 years in my career - applying to knowledge work what I learned from studying industrial management, production control, quality management and organizational development.

I have referred to his book in my previous posts:

Mind of an Innovator:
Innovation, problemsolving and learning employ the same iterative process—blending supposition, logic, creativity and reflection.

Ideas Come from Everywhere
The Toyota organization implements a million ideas a year.

That’s a fact, he says. It is their greatest source of competitive advantage. It’s their engine of innovation. But more than that, Toyota has created a culture where every idea counts. It’s an environment of everyday innovation as a result of fanatical focus on getting little better, daily.

Long Term Goals
Toyota implements 1 million ideas each year. He continues, Do the math: 3000 ideas a day. That number, more than anything else, explains why Toyota appears to be in a league all their own, playing offense on a field of innovation, while their competitors remain caught in a crossfire of cost-cutting.

My Management System
an excellent book about Toyota’s innovation system which is built on learning: “Learning and innovation go hand in hand, but learning comes first.”

In Search of Simplicity
The first step is to start a war on complexity, which can be identified by inconsistency, overload, and waste – all of which unnecessarily consume the resources of time, effort, space, and money without adding value.

His ideas are universally valid and can be easily transferred to knowledge work in the office.

What's Blocking Your Ideas?

I read another interesting post by IdeaChampions. This time about enabling an nurturing innovations. They compare Innovation process to a river - If you want to create a river, you will need two things: flowing water and two river banks. If you want to create a culture of innovation, you will also need two things:

new ideas and the organizational structures to keep those ideas flowing forward.

Like in their Team Reality Check, they had an online poll about What's the Problem (with your innovation process). You can use their survey to identify the challenges, bottlenecks, and weak links of your innovation process.

On a scale of 1-5, "5" meaning "it's a BIG problem," and "1" meaning "it's not a problem at all," please rate the following statements re: your company's attempts to generate, develop, and implement new ideas (both incremental and disruptive) to grow the business.:

1. We have too many ideas.	1	2	3	4	5
2. We don’t have enough breakthrough ideas.	1	2	3	4	5
3. We’re not asking the right questions.	1	2	3	4	5
4. We tend to avoid conflict.	1	2	3	4	5
5. We’re not very good at prioritizing projects.	1	2	3	4	5
6. Follow through is not one of our strengths.	1	2	3	4	5
7. Our brainstorm sessions are poorly facilitated.	1	2	3	4	5
8. Our meetings are poorly facilitated.	1	2	3	4	5
9. We lack the tools and techniques to spark creative thinking.	1	2	3	4	5
10. We don’t have enough time to originate & develop ideas.	1	2	3	4	5
11. We lack a company-wide innovation process.	1	2	3	4	5
12. We have an innovation process, but not everyone understands how it works.	1	2	3	4	5
13. Employees are unclear about our company’s vision and strategy.	1	2	3	4	5
14. Senior leadership is not committed to innovation.	1	2	3	4	5
15. Our decision making process is unclear and takes too long.	1	2	3	4	5
16. We never seem to have enough data to make decisions.	1	2	3	4	5
17. We’re not flexible or agile enough to innovate.	1	2	3	4	5
18. Our middle managers feel burdened by new projects.	1	2	3	4	5
19. We share neither our best practices nor the learnings from our failures.	1	2	3	4	5
Other: _________________________________________________________________

This survey should help your identify the problem areas. Ideas and tools on how to solve them are elsewhere in my blog and in IdeaChampions blog.

Picture by lumaxart

Social Innovation

How will your organization find its next great idea?

Matt May invited me to test a new idea management and collaboration tool for groups - Kindling. If you want an invitation, please visit his blog, and leave a comment, Matt is inviting 100 people for 1 month trial.

I was bloging earlier about how similar tool is used by DELL to capture and rank customer requirements - to really listen to the voice of the customer.

Kindling to my understanding works similarly, and let's see what comes out of this experiment.

There's a good presentation in SlideShare about the dynamics of social suggeston box. There seems to be many of these tools available. Should you consider using one in your organization?



Photo by atomicShed

The Art of Innovation

My friend Jenni, who is in design industry, commented my previous post saying one of her favourites among the management's grand challenges was how to

Further unleash human imagination.
Much is known about what engenders human creativity. This knowledge must be better applied in the design of management systems.

I started thinking about this and realized I have come across a perfect example some seven years ago.

”IDEO Product Development is the world's most celebrated design firm. Its ultimate creation is the process of creativity itself. For founder David M. Kelley and his colleagues, work is play, brainstorming is science, and the most important rule is to break the rules... Can this formula for creativity work in other places? Some of the world's leading companies certainly think so.”

said FastCompany on the back cover of the book The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firmby Tom Kelley, General manager of IDEO and brother of the founder David.

I will let Tom Kelley speak for himself



What this all comes down to is actually not ”the design of management systems”, but the leadership and culture which support (un)management systems unleashing imagination, like at IDEO.

”IDEO's culture is 20+ years in the making. Compound that number by the hundreds of people who have contributed over the years and you get a special mix. Our values are part mad scientist (curious, experimental), bear-tamer (gutsy, agile), reiki master (hands-on, empathetic), and midnight tax accountant (optimistic, savvy). These qualities are reflected in the smallest details to the biggest endeavors, composing the medium in which great ideas are born and flourish ”

And they really are good at this. Click the screenshot below to see what they are thinking about at the moment, or check their projects and how they have been awarded.



Again, I have more ideas than I can fit on one blog post. If you got interested, I will guide you to some great videos related to the topic of creativity and innovation at TED.com and Stanford University:

Young at Heart: How to Be an Innovator for Life by Tom Kelley, who presents five core practices that enhance creativity.

Nine Lessons Learned about Creativity at Google by Marissa Meyer. I have used two of these on my earlier posts about Ideas Come from Everywhere and Right People On The Right Jobs.

Do schools kill creativity? by Sir Ken Robinson, who makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

How creativity is being strangled by the law by Larry Lessig with a vision for reconciling creative freedom with marketplace competition.


I hope these help you, like they help me, to further unleash human imagination.

Mind of an Innovator

It's been several weeks since my last post. I could say that I have been too busy lately, but actually I ran out of ideas (because of being ”too busy”). So it's time to think how

Innovation, problemsolving and learning employ the same iterative process—blending supposition, logic, creativity and reflection.

This post is based on Matthew E May's ChangeThis manifesto Mind of the Innovator: Taming the Traps of Traditional Thinking. For more ideas and examples than fit this post, please read the manifesto.

Time frames and territories always change, so the central challenge is having the proper mind-set, discipline and tools at our disposal so that we’re able to combine “blink” and “think” strategies in an effort to create something new.

May provides methods to avoid 7 deadly sins of traditional thinking and to train our brains to think differently, allowing our inner innovator to flourish. First he’ll identify them, then provide a means by which they can be neutralized…for every problem, innovation, or challenge. They can be tamed!

1: Shortcutting (leaping to solutions)
Leaping to solutions in an instinctive way or intuitive way—i.e. the “blink” method of problemsolving— almost never leads to an elegant solution to a complex problem, because deeper, hidden causes don’t get addressed. Unfortunately, our brains are trained to perform mental shortcuts.

2: Blindspots
Blindspots are the umbrella term for assumptions, biases, mind-sets and reflexive thinking. Our brains do a lot of “filling in” for us. When our brains make their patterns based on our experience, we have to really focus to consciously break the pattern and “think different.” We don’t get to deeper problem solving until we run out of filling-in actions.

3: Not Invented Here (N. I .H.)
‘Not invented here’ means that blindspots are causing tunnel vision...or a lack of perspective. We adopt this mind-set unknowingly...shutting out another person’s or group’s idea immediately and without due consideration merely because they came up with it.

4: Satisficing
Ever wonder why some solutions lack inspiration, imagination, and originality? It’s because we don’t think as deeply or as broadly as we must to solve the problem. We tell ourselves the optimal solution is a luxury. We throw some resources at the problem and move on. Or tweak a previous solution and fit it to the current situation. We favor implementation over incubation.

5: Downgrading
Downgrading is the close cousin of satisficing, with a twist: a formal revision of the goal or situation. We fall short of the optimal or ideal solution, pick one that gets us most of the way there, then sell the upside and downplay the downside. We do it all the time, because no one wants to feel like they didn’t succeed.

6: Complicating
Why do we overthink? Why do we complicate? Why do we add cost? Most interestingly, why do we ALL do it so intuitively, naturally, and (here’s the killer) consistently? Answer: we’re hardwired that way. Our brains are designed to drive hoarding, storing, accumulating, collecting-type behavior. We are by nature “do more/add on” types.

7: Stifling
We do this naturally...stifle, dismiss, and second guess the ideas of others in favor of our own. Generally speaking, whenever I conduct problem-solving workshops, groups discuss the right answer, but it doesn’t get offered up as a solution. Because members second-guess, stifle, dismiss and even distrust their own genius.

Stifling is the deadliest of the sinful seven, because it is the most destructive. Had you happened upon the right answer in your contemplation, but dismissed it?

Taming the Traps

So how do you defeat, or at least neutralize, the seven deadly sins?

IDEA Loops. IDEA is an acronym for Investigate, Design, Execute, Adjust. It’s a codification of the human learning cycle...the one that starts disappearing around age 5, once we enter the formal school system. That’s when it becomes about the right answer and not the right question.
Our most powerful learning experiences generally occur in a four-phase cycle of (1) Questioning; (2) Solving; (3) Experimenting; (4) Reflecting.

Everything starts with a question, which triggers an investigation and information-gathering effort. How can I do that better? That leads to the definition of a problem to be analyzed and solved. The search for possible answers to your question entails generating ideas, solutions and corrective measures. By experimenting with one or more of the solutions, the most appropriate and effective is discovered. You then reflect on your experiments, observing your own thinking and actions. How well did that work? This in turn stimulates further questions, commencing the learning cycle again.

The beauty of IDEA Loops is that they can apply to all situations. Investigation, Design, Execution and Adjustment are the universal common denominators to successful innovation.

To read more about IDEA loops, or the whole process with examples, please check the Manifesto or get Matthew's book The Elegant Solution

Photo by oranje88

Innovation Experience

Last week I wrote a post about Toyota being known for their innovations. Earlier I have been writing about how ideas come from everywhere, and how ideas come from customers. Now

Toyota is organizing an Innovation Experience and
calling for your ideas to make this world a better place.

"We're constantly challenging ourselves to think of breakthrough ways to make the world a little better. Now it's your turn. We've created a place where we can all join together to make a difference. Come in, explore, and submit your original ideas for others to see and share."

Can YOU make the world a better place?

The competition is open only for legal residents of the US, but the idea is free for anybody to explore.

Long Term Goals

I was walking past a small Toyota car dealer and service shop in Tokyo on Friday morning. I saw a typical Japanese morning meeting being held on the shop floor. I became wondering what might the manager be saying to his staff when

Car sales are falling, exchange rates work against Toyota, and the company expects to post an operating loss for the first time since 1938.

I became curious and checked the importance of this kind of morning meetings in Japanese Business Culture.

Many Japanese businesses start their day off with a morning meeting, where workers line up and chant the company's slogans as a way of inspiring motivation and loyalty, and as a means of keeping the company's goals fresh in their minds.

Obiously Toyota's growth goal must be changed, while staying bigger than GM is still a valid goal.

Toyota is known for their quality and innovation, and I bet that is one thing the manager is stressing his team. They have several other guiding principles that also remain valid.

Toyota's quality and innovation reminded me about an excellent book I read last year - Elegant Solutions: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation

Matthew E. May starts the book by noting that Toyota implements 1 million ideas each year. He continues, Do the math: 3000 ideas a day. That number, more than anything else, explains why Toyota appears to be in a league all their own, playing offense on a field of innovation, while their competitors remain caught in a crossfire of cost-cutting.

Here’s the thing: it’s not about the cars. It’s about ideas. And the people with those ideas. But not just any ideas. Mostly tiny ones, but effective ones nonetheless—elegant solutions to real world problems. Not grand slam homeruns, but groundball singles implemented all across the company by people that view their role not to be simply doing the work, but taking it to the next level…every day, in some little way. Good enough never is. When an entire organization thinks like that, it becomes unstoppable.

There is pleanty of material in the book for my future blog posts. But for the time being the ChangeThis Manifesto below gives you a good overview of the ideas on the book.


You can find the original ChangeThis Manifesto here.

Managers Need to Become Innovation Coaches

I read an interesting post by Mitch Ditkoff, the author of Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling (in an Uphill World).

It's all about creating a culture of innovation, and I could not agree more with what Mitch writes. Below is a slightly shortened version of his original blog post.

"Intellectual capital" is the name of the game these days -- and it is the enlightened manager's duty to learn how to play.

Only those companies will succeed whose people are empowered to think for themselves and respond creatively to the myriad of changes going on all around them.

Managers must learn how to coach their people into increasingly higher states of creative thinking and creative doing. They must realize that the root of their organization's problem is not the economy, not cycle time, not strategy or outsourcing, but their own inability to tap into the power of their workforce's innate creativity.

Everything you see around you began as an idea. The computer. The stapler. The paperclip, the microchip and the chocolate chip. All of these began as an idea within someone's fevered imagination. The originators of these ideas were on fire. Did they have to be "managed?" No way. In fact, if they had a manager, he or she would have done well to get out of the way.

If you want to empower people, honor their ideas. Give them room to challenge the status quo. Give them room to move -- and, by extension, move mountains.

The arrival of a new idea is typically accompanied by a wonderful feeling of upliftment and excitement -- even intoxication. It's inspiring to have a new idea, to intuit a new way of getting the job done. Not only does this new idea have the potential to bring value to the company, it temporarily frees the idea originator from their normal habits of thinking. A sixth sense takes over, releasing the individual from the gravity of status quo thinking.

In this mindset, the idea originator is transported to a more expansive realm of possibility. All bets are off. The sky's the limit. All assumptions are seen for what they are -- limited beliefs with a history, but no future.

If you are a manager, you want people in this state of mind. It is not a problem. It is not the shirking of responsibility. It is not a waste of time. On the contrary, it's the first indicator that you are establishing a company culture that is conducive to innovation.

You, as a manager, want to increase the number of new ideas being pitched to you. It's that simple. You want to create an environment where new ideas are popping all the time. If you do, old problems and ineffective ways of doing things will begin dissolving. This is the hallmark of an empowered organization -- a place where everyone is encouraged and empowered to think creatively. Within this kind of environment managers become coaches, not gatekeepers.

How does a manager do this?

First off, by expressing a lot of positive regard. Get interested! Pay attention! Be present to the moment! This is not so much a technique as it is a state of mind. Simply put, if your head is always filled with your own thoughts and ideas, there won't be any room left to entertain the thoughts and ideas of others. It's a law of physics. Two things cannot occupy the same place at the same time.

And whether the pitch is now or later, your response -- in the form of exploratory questions -- needs to be as genuine as possible. Consider some of the following openers:

• "That sounds interesting. Can you tell me more?"
• "What excites you the most about this idea?"
• "What is the essence of your idea - the core principle?"
• "How do you imagine your idea will benefit others?"
• "In what ways does your idea fit with our strategic vision?"
• "What information do you still need?"
• "Who are your likely collaborators?"
• "Is there anything similar to your idea on the market?
• "What support do you need from me?"
• "What is your next step?"

Basically, you want the idea originator to talk about their idea as much as possible in this moment of truth. An idea needs to first take form in order to take root, and one of the best ways of doing this is to encourage the idea originator to talk about it -- even if their idea is not yet fully developed. The telling of the idea, in fact, is not unlike someone telling you their dream. The telling helps the dreamer flesh out the details of what they imagined and the subsequent hearing of it firmly installs it in their memory -- and yours -- so the idea does not fade quite as quickly.

Most of us, however, are so wrapped up in our own ideas that we rarely take the time to listen to others. Your subordinates know this and, consequently, rarely share their ideas with you. But it doesn't have to be this way. And it won't necessarily require a lot of time on your part. Some time, yes. But not as much as you might think.

Bottom line, the time it takes you to listen to the ideas of others is not only worth it -- the success of your enterprise depends on it. Choose not to listen and you will end up frantically spending a lot more time down the road asking people for their ideas about how to save your business from imminent collapse. By that time, however, it will be too late. Your workforce will have already tuned you out.

Text above is is a slightly shortened version of Mitch Ditkoff's original blog post.

Change Resistance

Many wise people have said many wise words about change resistance. Jack Welch, in his book Winning says "What you have heard about resistance to change is true." I prefer more what Michael T. Kanazawa says in his ChangeThis manifesto People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them:

If you believe that people hate change and that it is your job to change them, they will hate it.
If you believe that people thrive on change and that your job is to unleash it, you will tap into a limitless source of ingenuity, energy and drive that will allow you to consistently take your big ideas into big results.

Kanazawa mentions Apple, Google, Nintendo, Starbucks and IBM as examples of “companies [whose employees] have thrived on change, bringing out their best talents, creativity, ingenuity and determination.” He continues “Why can’t we all work in organizations like these? We can, if we focus on the right challenges.” Check his manifesto for his view of the challenges.

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP, talks about the dynamics of fear and change – how “change has to have enough force and enough energy to overcome people's fears and to overcome the power of the status quo.”



INSEAD professors Stewart Black and Hal Gregersen believe "that an organisation changes only as fast and as far as the front-line individuals implementing that change. Therefore, they need to be considered first, in the change paradigm." You can find a 2 page introduction to their new book It Starts with One: Changing Individuals Changes Organizations, and a 25 minute video where they chat about change here.

John Spence mentions adapting to change as one of the foundations of Achieving Business Excellence. Jack Welchdoes the same by saying that "Change is absolutely critical part of business. You need to change, preferably before you have to." Apple got that right with iPod – Sony failed with Walkman... What happened to Sony? Last December Newsweek published an article about why they failed to change.

Leading change is a critical part of every leader's job. Leaders need to help everybody overcome their fears. Every successful company needs to change, and an organisation changes only as fast and as far as the front-line individuals implementing that change. At the end, it becomes a question of enough leadership to change the culture.

To the end, my favourite quote from Peter Drucker, from his article Management's New Role (HBR November 1969).

We will, therefore, increasingly have to learn to make existing organizations capable of rapid and continuing innovation.
How far we are from this is shown by the fact that management still worries about resistance to change.

Do you fear change?

Or are you driven by change?

Do you worry about change resistance?

Do you help others overcome their fear and resistance?

Is your organization capable of rapid and continuing innovation – or should you change?

Ideas Come from Everywhere

Matthew E. May begins his book The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation with a chapter telling that

The Toyota organization implements a million ideas a year.

That’s a fact, he says. It is their greatest source of competitive advantage. It’s their engine of innovation. But more than that, Toyota has created a culture where every idea counts. It’s an environment of everyday innovation as a result of fanatical focus on getting little better, daily.

Harvard Business Review recently published an article about Reverse Engineering Google’s Innovation Machine. In the article there was a short, but interesting referral to suggestion box. “Google also employs an idea management system whereby employees can e-mail ideas for new products, processes, and company improvements to a companywide suggestion box. Every employee can then comment on and rate the ideas.”

HBR did not go further on linking this to Google’s culture. I am convinced that the secret is in the culture!
Photo of Suggestion box by hashir

I googled a little bit and found an article on Business Week about Managing Google's Idea Factory. (Apparently from this book, which I have not read).

The article is about Marissa Mayer, who was Google’s twentieth employee in 1999. Now she is Google's Vice President of Search Products & User Experience with the power and influence as a champion of innovation. One of the key reasons for Google's success is a belief that good ideas can, and should, come from anywhere. An ideas mailing list is open to anyone at Google who wants to post a proposal. What Mayer does is help figure out how to make sure that good ideas bubble to the surface and get the attention they need.

Or rather, let her explain the same with her own words at Stanford University Educators Corner. The video is just 3 minutes long, and there is more material from her lecture at Stanford site.

The stories of Toyota's and Google's culture of innovation sound similar, don't they? You can gain competitive advantage with a culture that supports everyday innovation coming from anywhere. Without the culture you don't find the ideas, you can't get them in use and you will not benefit from them.


Do you have a system for collecting and using ideas?

Does your corporate culture support ideas?

Would you like to have a culture like that?

What should you do as a manager to build the culture?

If big companies like Toyota and Google can build the culture, smaller companies should be able to do the same.

Original idea

My original idea is to collect here the best practices I have collected trough the years. Currently I have them unorganized as books, book summaries, articles, PowerPoint presentations, etc.

Here are some topics that I plan to cover. At the end I will see if these are the topics or if this blog will draw some attention and I will change some of the topics.

1. Project management
2. Group work facilitation
3. Self management
4. Cultural awareness
5. Leadership
6. Mentoring
7. Creative thinking
8. Strategic thinking
9. Innovation management
10. Knowledge management
11. Change management
12. Process management
13. Portfolio management
14. Sales management
15. Key account management
16. Marketing management
17. Performance measurement

I have found these topics important in my work. I have a lot of material on them since I have been running projects on them and lecturing about them or they are simply part of my current job as a regional sales manager.

In addition to this blog, I should at the end have 5 pages of text and examples of every tool and enough material for 1-2 hours training and 2-3 hours workshop on each topic.

I will start from Project management, since the very first thing I need to do is to fill in my first tool: 1 page project plan. And then follow it. If I will draft one best practice a week, I should have them all blogged before summer of 2007. But then I only have a draft for which I ask comments from my friends and colleagues - and from anybody interested, since this is a public blog! I plan to have the whole toolbox ready by summer of 2008 with the help of your comments.

What do you think?