Management Questions

Collect and connect dots

• Is knowledge and skills building encouraged?
• Are people encouraged to explore new disciplines?
• Do individuals collect and combine ideas?
• Are individuals encouraged to look at work through various filters?
• Does the organization collect, combine, disseminate, and reward best ideas?
• Are individuals encouraged to challenge norms?
• Is a standard process used for innovation (diverge then converge)?
• Are centers of excellence used to build broad-based expertise?

Invest time and money

• Are efforts adequately funded in terms of money and resources?
• Is time allocated for innovative thinking, reflection, and planning (15% rule)?
• Does the physical environment facilitate communication and collaboration?

Networked Organization

• Is your organization an “alliance-based network of capabilities?”
• Are procedural or technical standards used only where informal coordination is ineffective?
• Is data shared across the organization?
• Are non-critical capabilities outsourced?
• Are performance objectives aligned across organizations?
• Is decision making pushed to the lowest levels of organization?

Internal Markets

• Is cross-unit cooperation encouraged through appropriate incentives?
• Is internal competition used to keep people on their toes?
• Are survival of the fittest/free market models applied throughout the organization?

Source:
24/7 Innovation Diagnostic
24/7 Innovation

95No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/30/247-innovation-diagnostic-organization/24%2F7+Innovation+Diagnostic%3A+ORGANIZATION2007-06-30+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / 24/7 Innovation Diagnostic

Assumptions

• Are underlying assumptions/rules surfaced and challenged?
• Is the organization prepared to break with tradition?
• Are the root causes of problems identified and addressed?

Filters

• Are individuals and teams encourages to apply different “filters” to the daily activities?
• Are individuals encouraged to try new things?
• Is “yes, and” used rather than “yeah, but”?
• Do you “think in opposites”?
• Do you consider “the worst ideas”?
• Do you consider “illogical combinations”?
• Do you and your team engage in competitor war games?

Simplicity

• Are simple solutions used over sophisticated ones?
• Is over-analysis avoided? Is a build it, try it, fix it approach used when appropriate?
• Are overly formulaic approaches avoided?

Roles

• Is everyone in the organization provided an appropriate challenge? Are people matched with jobs to minimize boredom or employees being overwhelmed?
• Do you only keep employees who subscribe to the values of the organization?
• Are jobs, roles, or tasks rotated to keep people challenged and growing?

Source:
24/7 Innovation Diagnostic
24/7 Innovation

94No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/29/247-innovation-diagnostic-competency-the-inner-innovator/24%2F7+Innovation+Diagnostic%3A+COMPETENCY+%28The+Inner+Innovator%292007-06-29+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / 24/7 Innovation Diagnostic

Goal-orientation 

• Are clear goals and outcomes provided to avoid ambiguity?
• Are detailed procedures avoided when delegating work?
• Is there a clear structure for managing commitments?

Advocates and Owners

• Are managers/process owners advocates for innovative thinking throughout the organization?
• Are managers/process owners empowered to work across relevant functions?
• Are the managers/process owners chosen for their communication/management skills rather than their technical skills?
• Do managers/process owners facilitate rather than dictate?

Consistency and Trust

• Does management demonstrate the organization’s commitment to the success of initiatives and individuals?
• Does management follow through on ideas generated by employees?
• Does management avoid the frequent changing of goals?

Strong Leadership

• Do leaders demonstrate their commitment to innovation?
• Do leaders make tough, unpopular decisions (intestinal fortitude)?
• Are the leaders inspirational?
• Do the leaders serve as a role model for the rest of the organization?

Source:
24/7 Innovation Diagnostic
24/7 Innovation

93No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/28/247-innovation-diagnostic-leadership/24%2F7+Innovation+Diagnostic%3A+LEADERSHIP2007-06-28+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / 24/7 Innovation Diagnostic

Context 

• Is an exciting context created for employees?
• Are people made aware of the big picture?
• When selling new ideas internally, is “why” addressed before “what” and “how?”
• Is a powerful “burning platform” created to stimulate interest?
• Do people understand how their work fits in with the overall effort?
• Are personal passions aligned with organizational objectives?

Diversity

• Does the organization develop teams with diverse skills and analytical styles?
• Does the organization value contention, debate, and tension?
• Do managers acknowledge, but avoid punishing, failure?
• Are conversations structured to accommodate different analytical styles?
• Does the organization avoid the lowest common denominator, analysis paralysis, and “right of infinite appeal?”
• Are new organizations created when a new culture/skill-set is needed?

Language and Behaviors

• Are employees encouraged to stay open to new possibilities?
• Is “inclusive” language used?
• Are employees encouraged to contribute ideas?
• Are employees encourages to take risks?
• Is gossiping and politicking discouraged?
• Is negative, pessimistic language discouraged?

Encouragement

• Are efforts of individuals and teams privately acknowledged?
• Are efforts of individuals and teams publicly acknowledged?
• Are people shown the result of their efforts?

Source:
24/7 Innovation Diagnostic
24/7 Innovation

92No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/27/247-innovation-diagnostic-culture/24%2F7+Innovation+Diagnostic%3A+CULTURE2007-06-27+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / 24/7 Innovation Diagnostic

Welcome to the “good enough” economy, where the likelihood that a technological innovation will be taken up depends on how well it answers six critical questions.

1. How much better is this technology in terms of cost, functionality, “image” and other factors?*
2. How compatible is the innovation with existing skills, values and work practices?
3. How hard is your innovation to understand and use?
4. Can you easily and affordably try out the innovation, or must you commit to a major investment?
5. Can your innovation’s benefits be easily observed and communicated?
6. Does the incumbent technology exhibit network effects, and does it have a large and mature installed base?

Source:
Innovation and the Economics of Good Enough
by Glover T. Ferguson
Outlook Journal, January 2003

91No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/26/the-good-enough-economy/The+%22Good+Enough%22+Economy2007-06-26+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Innovation Questions

• Does the technology offer significant new ways of doing business?
• Does the technology build on existing infrastructure to capture substantial new value?
• Does the technology create a new technology platform that enables future applications?
• Is the technology within reach for the company–stretching the organization’s capabilities but not forcing it outside of its envelope of possibility?
• Can the company develop and implement the technology alone, or will it need partners?
• How fast will the opportunity develop?
• Are there ways to open the door to acceptance, such as through try-before-you-commit programs or other incentives?

Source:
Innovation: Bold New World
by Glover T. Ferguson
Outlook Journal, Special Edition, May 2004

90No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/24/innovative-technology-questions/Innovative+Technology+Questions2007-06-24+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Innovation Questions

One barometer for how innovative is your organization can be determined by answering the following questions with a yes or no.

1. Has one person been chartered with the overall responsibility to manage the corporate-wide innovation process?
2. Are there performance measures – both tangible and intangible – to assess the quality of your innovation practices?
3. Do your training/educational programs have provisions to incubate and spin-out new products and businesses?
4. Does your local, regional or international presence operate as a distributed network of expertise which learns from as well as distributes to customers?
5. Is there a formal intelligence gathering strategy to monitor the positioning of both current and potential competitors?
6. Does the rate of production of new products and service exceed the norms of your industry and create new markets in which you can excel?
7. Has a strategic alliance manager been designated to create and manage the network of partnerships and joint ventures to leverage your firm?
8. Does your marketing image portray an organization with the capacity to create and move ideas into the marketplace to make your customers successful?
9. Have resources been allocated to articulate a compelling vision internally and share company expertise externally through publications and participation in major forums?
10. Is your computer/communications capability treated as a learning tool for internal conferencing and external business leverage on the World Wide Web?

Your Innovation Score
If you answered 7 out of the 10 questions in the affirmative, the chances are that you have a good handle on the innovation process of your enterprise and know how to enable an environment for the optimal flow of ideas contributing to the vitality of the company. However, if you found yourself responding negatively to these basic innovation questions, you might want to take a look at your own processes for taking ideas to market and leveraging your intellectual capability into the future. Even if you scored high, the questions can frame an innovation dialogue.

Source:
Gauging the Organization
ENTOVATION® International

89No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/23/innovation-barometer-questions/Innovation+Barometer+Questions2007-06-23+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Innovation Questions

Metrics can be designed to measure performance in each of the model’s four interdependent elements:

• Stakeholder Strategies. How well are we achieving the strategies designed to address the needs of each group of stakeholders? Are we doing the right things?
• Process. How good are our critical innovation processes? Are we doing things right?
• Resources. How appropriate are our internal resources and how effectively have we tapped external resources? Do we have access to the right resources?
• Organization and Culture. Do we have the appropriate organizational structures, culture, and reward systems to drive innovation? Are we getting the best from our resources?

Answering these four questions at any given moment will provide a comprehensive snapshot of innovation, but it won’t provide any early warning of emerging problems within the innovation system. To get a complete picture, you need to understand the innovation trajectory, or rate, by adding a time dimension within a continuum represented by four phases:

• Lagging indicators provide information on past performance, answering the question, “HOW well did we do yesterday”
• Real-time indicators provide information on current performance, answering the question, “How well are we doing today?”
• Leading indicators provide information on likely future performance, answering the question, “How well are we likely to do tomorrow?”
• Learning indicators provide information on the rate at which the organization is improving its performance, answering the question, “How well will we do in the longer term?”

Source:
Innovation Metrics: A Framework to Accelerate Growth
by John Collins
Prism, 2/1999

88No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/22/arthur-d-little-innovation-metrics-framework-questions/Arthur+D.+Little+Innovation+Metrics+Framework+Questions2007-06-22+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Innovation Questions

• Who is responsible for systematically collecting information on the external business environment?
• How is it then distributed to those managers who can use it effectively in their work (and modify their current assumptions)?
• How many departments besides R&D are judged on their ability to introduce innovations in their policies and procedures?
• Does the organization provide training programs in both organizational leadership and creativity?

Source:
Innovation in all things! Developing creativity in the workplace
by Dave Sharman
ManagementFirst.com

87No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/21/developing-creativity-in-the-workplace/Developing+creativity+in+the+workplace2007-06-21+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Innovation Questions

There are different levels of questions, based on Kirkpatrick levels and clearly in increasing importance, that must be asked:

• Did they (trainees) like it?
• Did they learn?
• Did they use it?
• Did it impact the bottom line?
• What is the Return on Investment (ROI)?

Source:
Training: Rounding up the Usual Suspects
by Abhay Padgaonkar
The CEO Refresher, February 2007

86No Comments »http://www.mgmtquestions.com/2007/06/19/training-questions/Training+Questions2007-06-19+18%3A15%3A00Administrator Posted by Administrator / Human Resources Questions