Driving Eureka!. Doug Hall
new economy. We explain how it will help them: 1) get a job, 2) get promoted, and/or 3) turn their ideas into reality faster and with less risk.
The Innovation Engineering courses enable the personal passion of students. A student graduating with a degree in history or English or business, with a minor in Innovation Engineering, or the graduate certificate, has the skills and confidence to apply, activate, and make a meaningful difference leveraging what they learned in their major field of study.
Studying Innovation Engineering on or off campus does not make you an “engineer,” as that is a title reserved for those who have passed the requirements set up by engineering trade associations for certification as a professional engineer. However, it does teach key elements of the engineering mindset: curiosity, discipline, experimentation, problem solving, and how to use writing and math to think deeper about challenges you face.
Systems That ENABLE instead of Control
The word system, especially in connection with innovation, creates a vision of being controlled, constrained, and restricted. That is NOT the purpose of Innovation Engineering systems. We design and develop systems that ENABLE innovation by everyone.
The difference between systems that “enable” versus “control” is one of intent. In both cases the goal is the same—reliable delivery of desired results. As Graeme Crombie, an Innovation Engineering Black Belt (the highest Innovation Engineering certification) and an early supporter in Scotland, says:
When the system is designed to Enable then it allows employees to take ownership for desired results, thereby delivering a higher degree of certainty that desired results will be delivered. The old form of Control requires that leaders and managers use micromanagement, direct supervision, and overexerted influence on events that really they should be leaving to the worker.
Empowerment gives people authority to change. However, this will have no impact if people don’t know where to innovate, why to innovate, or how to innovate. Enabling is about providing the training, tools, and leadership coaching to make innovation practical, possible, and easy.
Dr. Deming famously declared, “I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special causes (responsibility of employees).”
Common Cause Error = Systemic errors of the system
• 94% of problems
• Management is responsible for making the improvement of the system a priority.
Special Cause = Random or fleeting events
• 6% of problems
• These are primarily the responsibility of employees.
• Note: Employees are also responsible for helping management improve the system.
The simple way to state the Deming quote is the way my dad always said it to me: “94% of problems are caused by the system—6% by the workers.” Throughout this book, this is the version of the quote that we will use, as it is more directly relevant when applying system thinking to innovation.
Dr. Deming was a tireless advocate for enabling workers to have pride in their work. As he wrote:
A bad system will beat a good person every time. . . . A basic principle presumed here is that no one should be blamed or penalized for performance that he cannot govern. Violation of this principle can only lead to frustration and dissatisfaction with the job, and lower production.
—Dr. W. Edwards Deming
Improvement of a system involves reducing common cause variation. However, you can’t improve a system that doesn’t exist. And frankly, more than 99% of companies have no system for innovation. Now if you reject the idea that you don’t have a system for innovation, you are in good company. Every week, when business leaders tell me they already have a system for innovation, I ask to see it. A moment of confusion then occurs. I follow up by asking to see the operations manual for it, the training program curriculum for teaching new employees and new managers. Confusion is now replaced with bewilderment. I then explain that if you can’t write it down, you don’t have a system. This also means that you can’t blame employees for not following the company system for thinking smarter and more creatively when you don’t have a system.
Why Should You Care?
Innovation Engineering will help you increase innovation speed and decrease risk. However, that’s NOT the most important benefit of Innovation Engineering. According to Sheldon Scott, CEO of the Whitney Blake Company, the most important benefit is to “Make Work Fun Again!”—a close variation to Dr. Deming’s promise at the start of seminars, stated earlier: “Why are we here? We are here to come alive, to have fun, to have joy in work.”
By “fun” we don’t mean frivolous play. We’re talking about the joy that comes from doing something that makes a difference in the world. Said another way: In the irreverent manner of members of the Innovation Engineering movement on and off campus . . .
The fundamental aim of Innovation Engineering is to enable people to do COOL SH*T THAT MATTERS.
The simple fact is—when you spend your time and energy on projects, products, or services that matter to YOU, your ORGANIZATION, and to CUSTOMERS, then you experience a chain reaction of Pride of Work, increased sales, and profitability.
Pride of Work was a very important concept for Dr. Deming. He was once asked how he would summarize his overall message in a few words.
I’m not sure, but it would have something to do with variation. Later he added, I said earlier that my message had to do with variation. I’ve given it some more thought, and I would say it has to do with Pride of Work.
—Dr. W. Edwards Deming
Whatever Happened to Pride of Work?
In my opinion, one of the greatest benefits of the internet is that it has enabled the “craft” movement, from distilleries to breweries to farm-to-table restaurants to Meaningfully Unique tools and toys. When you visit a new city, it’s commonplace to search for real craft experiences.
What separates craft companies from mass-market companies is Pride of Work. Leading a team of young people, crafting Innovation Engineering courses and tools, and starting our Brain Brew craft distillery has provided me with a first-person understanding of the new way of business. At its core, it’s about doing meaningful work. We aren’t just doing our job. We are creating whiskey, classes, and internet tools that we are deeply proud of. We sweat details that our competitors ignore.
Steve Jobs’ success with Apple and Pixar was due in large part to his commitment to maintaining a craft mindset despite being one of the largest companies in the world. His biographer, Walter Isaacson, told CBS News that Jobs learned this from his adoptive father, Paul Jobs: “Once they were building a fence. And he said, ‘You got to make the back of the fence that nobody will see just as good-looking as the front of the fence. Even though nobody will see it, you will know, and that will show that you’re dedicated to making something perfect.’ ”
I believe that the source of the wide range of positive and negative feelings toward Steve Jobs is this craftsmanship mindset. To those who get craftsmanship, fanatical passion is part of the process. To those who are practical and prudent, it’s craziness.
Pride of Work is enabled when you are working on Cool Sh*t That Matters!
Some folks talk about innovation being constrained by the worker’s fear of failure, laziness, or short-term targets driven by greed. The cause for this runs deeper. We have lost the joy of work for work’s sake. It takes very little additional effort to do something