MindShift Innovation

Making Innovation Happen – SF CIO Roundtable

John I. Todor — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:02:20 +0000

John Todor is speaking on:

Making Innovation Happen

San Francisco CIO Roundtable, October 19, 2011.

Business Acumen in Short Supply but Greater Demand

John I. Todor — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:54:04 +0000

Business acumen is keenness and quickness at understanding and dealing with business situations in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome. (Wikipedia)

There is a new elite group emerging—those who quickly grasp changing business dynamics and the potential of innovation, people who quickly use their insights to create and deliver value to customers. Their influence and careers are growing.

The situation confronting virtually all businesses is rapidly shifting business dynamics, especially the impact on what customers find meaningful and valuable. The ability to make sense out these dynamics and add value to customers is critical to sustainable profits and growth. This acumen is the new black in business acumen.

A small percentage of people of have a greater tolerance for the ambiguity brought on by change and a natural aptitude for seeing new possibilities. This puts them in demand. Although everyone has some of the required cognitive resources, for many they need to be dusted-off and revved-up. Systematic use of social software can become a prime environment for this enrichment.

It is easy to see how this business acumen is relevant to businesses involved in strategy and innovation. However, new thrusts will bear limited fruit unless there is innovation and alignment of business practices that deliver the new promise. This requires employees to display similar acumen.

Mindshifts Required

Traditionally, most companies are organized around standard operating principles and focus on executing these principles. Employees are rewarded for compliance and execution. As Robert Kegan puts it in his book, Immunity to Change, for many, being a good team player is a form of social compliance, a deep seat ethos. Now innovation and change external to companies forces them onto new playing fields with new rules where social compliance becomes a liability. In order to understand and play by these new rules, everyone needs to engage in what Kegan calls self-authoring. They have to make mindshifts, to develop a new psycho-logical framework that enables them to embrace the new dynamics. This happens within employees, not something done to employees and for it to happen they need to be engaged.

Employee Disengagement Compounds the Problem

The high and rising levels of employee disengagement add to the challenge. Disengaged employees execute tasks but take less responsibility for roles. Today’s model for success requires employees to be actively engaged in adapting to changing business conditions.

The type of engagement that remedies the situation is implicit learning. When employees are given and accept roles, external change can be seen a disruptive to execution their role is a business as usual fashion, something to content with. Or, they can seek to understand the implications of change on their ability to improve their ability to execute their role, the foundation of implicit learning.

In the best case, employees have a shared goal and interact to insure their overlapping roles are aligned. In a fast-changing business climate, this goal should be to create and deliver value to customers. But customers are also impacted by change in their milieu and this impacts what they find of value and what is relevant. Strategy or creating new possibilities to create value is essential to sustainability but so is the ability to innovate a company’s ability to deliver on the new possibilities. This requires employees with the quickness and keenness to innovate and execute in new ways – the new black in business acumen.

Interdependence is Rising, Get Good at It

This notion of employees having overlapping roles and the need to align these roles to a common purpose warrants some more discussion. Certainly this has always been a consideration but now the interdependence of employees has taken on new meaning.

“What percentage of the knowledge to do your job is in your own head?” At that time the typical answer was 75%. By 1997 it dropped to below 20%.

A study by Robert Kelley of Carnegie Mellon University illustrates why the ability to nurture and exploit networked brain trusts is so critical to business acumen. In 1987 he asked people, “What percentage of the knowledge to do your job is in your own head.” At that time the typical answer was 75%. By 1997 it dropped to below 20%. Information overload, knowledge explosion and disruptive change have all accelerated since 1997. Now, for employees to do their jobs requires highly functional connectedness. Yet, many organizations/employees approach work as sequence of tasks to be handed-off.

Networked Brain Trusts

Being connected has always been a virtue, but now there is a huge pay-off for being connected to people who know things you don’t, people who think differently and have different perspectives. Social networks or Networked Brain Trust can enhance one’s ability to learn from others. Diversity is not about the number of connections and it less about answers. It is about skillfully pulling together perspectives and insights in a way that facilitates an individual ‘s mindshift process—the mental shift that enables that individual to understand new and emerging dynamics and work with them.

An interesting thing happens in networked brain trusts—you can’t be a passive participant and expect to gain the maximum impact. First, those who do not engage in discussions are left out of the really interesting conversations. Second, the give and take incubates the desired acumen. Active participants gain a continuously growing edge.

New Date for Making Innovation Happen

John I. Todor — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:44:29 +0000

Fisher Silicon Valley CIO Roundtable – September 13, 2011

John I. Todor, Ph.D., MindShift Innovation speaking on:

Making Innovation Happen

San Jose, CA

Seizing Advantage: How Tacit Assumptions Rob Traditionalists and Innovators

John I. Todor — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:41:22 +0000

Collaboration and Social Business are powerful concept with huge potential but realizing this potential is far from business-as-usual. Both traditional business and social business evangelists must challenge their assumptions—and then doing something different.

The rise of the social web now sets the context for business, cannot be ignored. Customers rely on it to make decisions and they have expectations of the companies with which they do business. Companies of all sizes have launched initiatives with a goal to foster greater co-operation, collaboration and more meaningful relationships inside their companies and with customers.

It is safe to say that the results are mixed. We are in a transitional period, like the wash between two waves—the forces of the old and new waves are at work and impacting results.

One of the deep-seated assumptions that undermine collaboration initiatives is the belief that people are motivated to act in their self-interest, especially for material rewards. Executive who hold this belief might be able to intellectually grasp the purpose and potential of collaboration and other social-based business activities. However, very often they are unable to see how they’re leadership or the organizational practices they manage can interfere with the desired behavior. Entrenched practices can define and enforce what is acceptable behavior in employees. They can also set the tone for interactions with customers.

In contrast, advocates of social media often enthusiastically embrace the potential and operate under a tacit assumption that everyone is inherently social. Over 700 million people on Facebook is pretty convincing evidence. But a counterargument is that in most social networks a small percentage of people do most of the sharing and influencing. Similarly, adoption of social software in organizations is far from universal. This assumption also undermines the potential of collaboration.

Most traditional business executives do want the agility and engagement that collaboration promises. Social business evangelists want the full potential of social initiatives to be unleashed. Both need new operating assumptions and principles to direct their actions. But it is hard to challenge tacit assumptions, that is, unless one gains a greater understanding of the dynamics involved and uses these insights to shape action.

What framework or principles will make a difference in this situation? First, while there is growing evidence for a biological basis for collaboration and sharing, we are not equal in how readily we engage in it. Second, the prevailing conditions or circumstances can skew the propensity. Competitive environments reinforce self-interest. Deliberately cultivating (HBR) an environment of cooperation can shift even those who are predisposed towards self-interest in their behavior.

With these principles in mind, traditionalists should be better able to spot and counter-act the negative impact of internal competition on collaboration. After recognizing that openness is perceived as risky to some until demonstrated otherwise and that participation has rewards, social media evangelists should see the need to focus on broad-spectrum participation.

While overriding tacit assumptions is not easy, the change and uncertainty in the business environment makes the ability to do so a critical business acumen. For more on this topic see Mindshifts in a Nutshell and Mental Nimbleness for Executives and How to Enhance It.

Customer Experience–a Roadmap to Next Practices

John I. Todor — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:03:52 +0000

Customer experience best practices have evolved more slowly than customers have changed. Companies that want to thrive must build a roadmap for delivering customer experiences in sync with customers—experiences they find meaningful and of value.

August 17, 2011, Pleasant Hill, CA: Emperia, LLC and MindShift Innovation announce a new series of programs to help companies create roadmaps to designing and implementing Next Practices in customer experiences. Delivering compelling customer experiences leads to strategic advantage and sustainable profits and growth, but it is not a static endeavor. While best practices have evolved, customers have changed more quickly and more dramatically. These programs identify the changing customer milieu, provide an actionable framework and engage participants in creating next practices in customer experience—experiences today’s customers find compelling.

“Today’s customers differ in expectations, the challenges they face and their buying patterns and strategies, and this has changed the relationship between customers and companies” says John I. Todor, Ph.D., managing partner of MindShift Innovation. The implications, according to Todor, a psychologist and business strategist, are that companies must focus on winning mindshare of a changed and changing customers. Customer experience best practices have evolved more slowly than customers have changed. Companies that want to thrive must build a roadmap for delivering customer experiences in sync with customers—experiences they find meaningful and of value.

Research by Forrester indicates that less than one-third of customer experience initiatives reach their full potential. “One of the major reasons for this under-performance comes from a lack of a coherent and aligned customer experience strategy throughout the company,” say Del Langdon, Partner of Emperia, LLC. Langdon adds, “Our Next Practices Roadmap programs take company-wide view of the customer experience, provide an actionable framework for understanding the expectations and wants of today’s customers and, critically, include mentoring in the practicalities of getting organizations to shift to next practices”

Next Practices Roadmap programs address:

The business case for a focus on the customer experience.

A psycho-economic framework for creating and delivering compelling experiences to today’s customers.

An examination of best practices with an emphasis on making better.

Creating “Next Practices” based on new customer dynamics and emerging trends and technology.

An outside-in approach to innovating and aligning business practices across the value chain.

Social software systems and tools for staying ahead of the curve.

These programs are experiential. Todor and Langdon share their experiences and expertise and provide a comprehensive framework. Most importantly, they will engage and mentor participants in working with new ideas and collaboratively confronting real-world challenges. Participants will leave with a roadmap for seizing the benefits of customer experience next practices.

Next Practice programs are designed for business leaders from all functional units within a company. To facilitate innovation and alignment across these units, people representing as many functional units as possible are encouraged to participate. Programs are offered to cross-corporate organizations or customized for individual corporations.

For program details go to Roadmap to Next Practices, or contact either Del Langdon (del.langdon@emperiallc.com ) or John Todor (johnt@mindshifti.com )

Del Langdon is a partner of Emperia, LLC (www.emperiallc.com) with extensive experience helping F1000 companies implement strategy-driven change and achieve sustainable results. She has deep in expertise customer experience but recognized that initiatives come up short unless there is corresponding innovation and alignment in partner and employee, business practices, technology-enabled solutions, and channel interaction design. Del co-authored (with Don Tapscott) a book, “Planning for Integrated Office Systems, A Strategic Approach”. Her large-scale strategy, integrated design and transformational change programs have been featured as Harvard and Stanford Business School cases and Forrester Research Report.

John I. Todor, Ph.D. is the managing partner of MindShift Innovation (www.mindshifti.com). As a business strategist, mentor and psychologist, he constantly assess the shifting dynamics impacting what customers find meaningful and of value. MindShift Innovation programs are designed to help business leaders, employees and organizations make the mindshifts required to turn the uncertainty and complexity of change into new possibilities for creating and delivering value to customers. His book, “Addicted Customers: How to Get Them Hooked on Your Company” is the leading primer on the psychology of the customer experience. His other books are on Winning Mindshare and Social Media and Customer Relationships.

Making Innovation Happen

John I. Todor — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:15:32 +0000

Fisher Silicon Valley CIO Roundtable – October 4, 2011

John I. Todor, Ph.D., MindShift Innovation speaking on:

Making Innovation Happen

San Jose, CA

Build the Business Acumen for Change>

John I. Todor — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:10:12 +0000

Future of Talent Webinar – August 17, 2010

John I. Todor, Ph.D. of MindShift Innovation speaking on:

Build the Business Acumen for Change

http://www.brighttalk.com/channel/6385

Mindshift Innovation Methodology: A Video Overview

John I. Todor — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:48:18 +0000

Just released, a 4 minute video overview of our Mindshift Innovation methodology.

Mindshift Innovation is a new system of engaging business challenges. It is designed to help people and organizations adapt and thrive in today’s fast-paced, uncertain and increasingly complex business climate.

It is based on the Psychology of Accomodating to Change and provides practical ways for individuals to ramp-up their adaptive potential.

Mindshift Innovation in a Nutshell

Mindshift Innovation in a Nutshell

John I. Todor — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:33:43 +0000

For the past six months I pulled back from the day-to-day to work on a sticky problem – Adapting to change, especially disruptive change!

As you well know, we are all confronted with:

too much information

too many new things to figure out quickly and,

too many disruptive changes to business as usual.

Companies are being told they need to be more innovative. Yet, most companies are best suited to improving internal operational efficiency. Now the change outside companies is happening faster than change on the inside. Organizations that don’t adapt become less relevant to customers; employees who don’t adapt become part of the inertia. Let’s not forget customers, customers who don’t adapt are less able to absorb innovation and are lose future value as customers.

Sharpening the same old saw won’t cut it! Now the opportunities for sustainable profits and growth lie in the ability to see and seize new possibilities brought on by change and innovation.

How can individuals and organizations make the shift in thinking and acting? How can companies facilitate mindshifts in customers to increase their adoption of disruptive innovation?

My solution—Mindshift Innovation, a company and a methodology. This 4-minute video will give you the big picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D2HjeH0g5M

Your insights and comments are very welcome.

John I. Todor

Mental Nimbleness for Executive and How to Enhance It

John I. Todor — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:04:41 +0000

The more the business environment changes, the faster the value of what you know at any point in time diminishes. In this world, success hinges on the ability to participate in a growing array of knowledge flows in order to rapidly refresh your knowledge stocks. John Hagel, John Seely Brown, Lane Davison

While new knowledge flows are important, they are not enough! A major challenge that confronts business leaders is seeing how change and innovation, external to their own organization, can lead to new possibilities to create and deliver value to customers. This requires business leaders to enhance their adaptive potential and their ability to make mindshifts.

The illustration below is a New System of Engagement. It outlines how social software can help executives engage the rapidly changing business environment and to see and seize the potential brought on by change and innovation.

Seeing new possibilities requires a mindshift–a new way of envisioning what is relevant and meaningful to customers. Here, context is all-important. Context is the interrelated conditions or situation in which something exists; the circumstance that defines meaning and value. Clearly, the context of customers is impacted by change and innovation. So are their issues and challenges. New possibilities must not only leverage the potential of innovation, they must be meaningful to customers in their current and emerging context.

Netflix, Zappos and Groupon are three great examples of companies who exploited the potential of technology and leveraged the growing number of customers online. Netflix and Zappos provide greater convenience but much more—an enhanced and enticing selection process. In both cases, when viewed from the traditional retail experience perspective there were many reasons to believe these companies would not be successful. In fact, most established traditional competitors responded by refining the retail experience and reducing prices. Their mindset or frame-of-reference failed to grasp the powerful shift that captivated customers. Blockbusters the industry giant in DVD rentals before Netflix, is now in bankruptcy. Retail shoe stores aggressively compete with each other for much lower margins while Zappos thrives.

The mindshift that underlies companies like Netflix, Zappos and Groupon are far from second nature for most executives. In fact, by focusing on what external innovation enables and shifts in context, they buck the very thought process and focus that made many of today’s executives successful—a focus and honed expertise on internal operational efficiency. Now the question is, how do executives develop and enhance the new way of thinking? How do they lead in the face of rapidly shifting business conditions?

With the pace of change and innovation, especially disruptive innovation, executives with high adaptive potential are critical to their company’s future. Today, the ability to make sense out of change and innovation has become a critical executive and organizational capability. This is not something done once or once in a while, but something that is ongoing, deliberate and systematic. Those with low adaptive potential, no matter how successful they were in the past, risk becoming a liability.

The concept of a New System of Engagement is to put into play methods and tools to increase knowledge flows and create a mechanism to facilitate purposeful mindshifts. The purpose is to turn the challenges of changing business conditions into new possibilities to create and deliver value to customers. It has four key elements.

Turn information overload into insights: The system starts with curation tools that scan relevant information sources and assemble so an executive gains both a sense of the changing milieu and insights. The more diverse the perspectives the better. The idea is to gather insights that will see beyond traditions and lead to new ways to create value.

Manage Ideas: Unlike the mythical story of Archimedes shouting “Eureka” when he suddenly discovered the principle of buoyancy while in the bathtub, new possibilities usually require a gestation period during which unrelated ideas and dynamics must be kept alive and organized in ways that are readily accessible.

Facilitate Sense Making: Innovative ideas take shape when an individual mentally pushes disparate elements together into a unique union that makes sense. This takes mental effort and effective unconscious cognitive operators that guide the mental effort. To add to the challenge, the innovative fusion must over-ride the intrusion of over learned cognitive structures that represent the conventional view. Now, the mental process can be augmented using social computing tools.

Harness Collective Wisdom: It is a simple fact that the rate and diversity of change is too great for anyone to go-it-alone. The object of this aspect of the system of engagement is to leverage collaboration principles and a rich networked brain trust to augment an individual executive’s mindshift process.

It takes effort to put a system of engagement in place and use it–but consider the alternative. The actionable insights gained are critical to business leaders. This is not something you can buy from a consultant and expect to provide the leadership to seize the implementation. To gain the ability to fully exploit the innovation, to be able to elaborate, apply and implement, an executive must go through the mindshift. This not only true for the executives who envision the new possibilities, it is equally critical to those charged with innovating and aligning the business practices that deliver the innovation to customers.

Now for some good news–the efficacy of the mental processes that guide the use of mental effort in seeing new possibilities gets better with use. Similarly, a well-designed system of engagement gets richer and more efficient with use. So we are at a critical divide—those who choose to enhance their adaptive potential will become increasingly valuable to their organizations. Those who don’t make this choice risk the peril of seeing the world from a context that has diminishing value.

For more on MindShifts check out our video (4:18 minutes): Mindshift Innovation in a Nutshell.