IMPERIA |
october-november-december 2019
17
initiatives that you, as a responsible leader,
have initiated, then you need to change the
system. Here are three key actions you should
take to become the ‘innovation champion’
of the future and the reasons why they are
massively important.
A global MIT study of more than 3,000
managers found that only 26 per cent
believed that their KPIs were aligned with their
organisation’s strategies. It is also a classic
problem that in IT’s KPIs are designed to
increase efficiency and cost savings whereas
sales’ and marketing’s KPIs are designed to
improve customisation and customer value and
thus, KPIs across divisions are misaligned. In
other words, KPIs are a mess. Therefore, you
need to analyse your organisational, divisional,
and departmental KPIs to identify a) if they
are aligned with strategy and b) if divisional
and departmental KPIs are supportive of each
other in order to c) ensure that every person in
the organisation is working towards the same
goals.
Organisational KPIs typically take the deceptive
short cut, ie, a target is defined, eg, we want
to increase sales, and the KPI is then directly
set to measure that particular target. This is,
however, not the smartest way to use KPIs for
motivation and strengthening of innovation
culture. Instead, organisational KPIs should
be designed to play the transformative long
game by defining targets that set culture,
impact mindset, and through that, create
results. This also means that KPIs should be
much more qualitative than they typically are.
Companies that have begun to understand
this are, for instance, the world’s leading water
pump manufacturer Grundfos, which sets KPIs
such as collaboration and commitment to the
project; Google, which evaluates its employees
on thought leadership; and Microsoft, which
used to have the most cutthroat numbers
culture, that has begun measuring openness
towards sharing knowledge and finding
new ways to create results. Consider which
qualitative KPIs would be motivational for
people in your organisation to collaborate and
innovate more powerfully together, and it will
increase your potential for increasing sales,
revenues, and bottom lines by strengthening
your innovation culture.
“That is a great idea, why don’t you run it
by legal?” You can almost hear how that
suggestion just took what might be a great
idea and killed it, can’t you? Maybe you should
run it by legal (and no offence to legal; they
are just doing their jobs). But maybe the idea
shouldn’t be run by legal. That depends on
the type of innovation that you are trying to
create. If you are moving beyond traditional
optimising innovations and need to challenge
existing business models, then you also
have to consider putting fewer restraints on
your innovation projects. Of course, legal
will eventually be involved, but in order to
allow people to explore their true innovation
potentials you often have to remove barriers,
such as legacy structures, processes, and tools
for as long as possible.
Yes, human resistance to change is a real thing
that can inhibit innovation. But, in reality, human
beings are remarkably adaptable to change,
if they have the right circumstances to change
under. That is why it is far more important to
understand the organisational immune system
that your people operate under than it is to
point fingers and accuse them of not wanting
change. If the incentives structures and work
processes are correctly aligned then you
remove the biggest innovation obstacles and
set your people free to become the innovation
champions of the future.
Organisational KPIs should be
designed to play the transformative
long game by defining targets that
set culture, impact mindset, and
through that, create results.
Human resistance
to change is a
real thing that can
inhibit innovation.
But, in reality,
human beings
are remarkably
adaptable to
change, if they
have the right
circumstances to
change under.
