Story:
1/18 Laps special drill file : A troubled water innovation field dive.
This file unveils the details about the first out of 18 laps described into the "18 Laps....." story.
Few companies organize to walk multiple paths to re-invent themselves. or set up the environment for individuals to do the same.
We interviewed a guy who experienced a counter-intuitive on the job training resembling a 18 laps race event inside the innovation pool into the same company.
Some kind of initiatic extensive workout for innovation talent development.
This story is 100% facts based.
It describes each experience as one swim stroke progression effort. Lap 1 is all about stretch goals as a lever for innovation. If this drill develops innovation, we can drill square, drilling the drill.
Only bias is a daring optimism, that is expected to contaminate peers.
Ripples effect under the surface of still water. Racing for innovation. - Credit Audrey C. Depeige 2010
Get "innovactions" and dive into funding fresh accomplishments.
Follow up :
Once the "In squared" surface ratio reality check is establish, we open new extra doors :
1.leading to related stories detailing some of the most interesting laps.
2. plus a bonus footage to a complimentary challenging hack digging in the swimming effects as a multi-dimension universe strings theory.Dimension 1 is entangled with Lap 1.
This other "18 Black Holes Hack" (18BH2) will push it beyond reality, and combine the different leaps or add a dimensions in a thought experience.
Rated PG (Polarized Goggles) 18+ laps, 18BH2 will be of interest for and only the highly motivated, to scrutinized under the surface, and through bright and blinding glare from this first level reflexion.
Only bias is a daring optimism, that is expected to contaminate peers.
Ripples effect under the surface of still water. Racing for innovation. - Credit Audrey C. Depeige 2010
Get "innovactions" and dive into funding fresh accomplishments.
Follow up :
Once the "In squared" surface ratio reality check is establish, we open new extra doors :
1.leading to related stories detailing some of the most interesting laps.
2. plus a bonus footage to a complimentary challenging hack digging in the swimming effects as a multi-dimension universe strings theory.
Dimension 1 is entangled with Lap 1.
This other "18 Black Holes Hack" (18BH2) will push it beyond reality, and combine the leaps or add dimensions.
Rated PG (Polarized Goggles) 18+ laps, 18BH2 will be of interest for and only the highly motivated, to scrutinized under the surface, and through bright and blinding glare from this first level reflexion.
We are talking a 20 years period.Laps are not chronologic.Lap 1 occured just after the millenium.
The company where the "pool" hosted this swimming-like workout has grown with fast pace from 5 to 50 thousands employees in the considered time.
From regional to global reach.
Although this organization is considered by analysts as innovative, no official program has been set up for such long distance and multi experience dive as the designated blooming path.
4 CEO's did success by pairs or trios with evolving tactics, while strategy was kept quite straight forward.
Innovation being one element among others, receiveing more media exposure in the recent years.
Story-telling in this company is used with parcimony to help bridging solid roots past and race against the clock future.
Silence too.
For young recruits joining it is a mysterious speech, where everyone is expected to be very patient to get a chance to shine, while being without notice thrown into a pool without much buoyancy.
A recurrent quote is that the core trade basics require "5 years to learn how to float and keep nose in the air".
With few written materials in a time preceeding ISO certification programs, coupled with a fast expanding company and individuals scopes, the guy interviewed rapidly understood that problems will come up quickly without much troubleshooting guide.
This was not about firefighting. No braveheart soldiers facing high heat and deadly smokes with tools, procedures and training.
Young recruit and lap 1 experience fellows were de facto feeling like scouting and crawling on a "Terra Incognita".
Draft and incomplete maps provided were not representing the territory.
Basically a major switch of information system driving a no inventory business, in 70+ different locations, with impact on 1000+ remote customers connected locations at a pre-historic age without any cloud in the sky.
Stretched goals leverage has been put to the borderline fringe, as the risk analysis was showing that minimum critical path was longer than a legal deadline. Sounding like a dead-end.
B and following back-up plans being even worth, the only option beside failure, is to unleash creativity of the teams while the race has been launched and the clock is running to find innovative alternative roads.
Three teams doing quite a similar job in different regions all aware they will not be enough to cover the entire distance.
Action taking place a couple of months after the Y2K mark, and covering a 26 weeks boot camp plus some aftermath cleaning and warm down.
As a result : a breath-taking stretched goal for lap 1.
Full apnea, big heart stroke in the sens of daring teams.
Innovation being also in the decision for a GO signal, knowing that success could not come from the best available plan A.
Many would prefer "18 holes experience green field" for a title.
And the story to lead through a nice golf course picture.
Appealing outdoor demanding exercise.
Concentration and precision skills development drive.
Diversity in the landscape. Time for mind simulation and computation.
Sorry, the journey sounds quite more repetitive, breath-taking but for no gorgeous scenery.
Against the clock.And bouncing back on a wall.
Our recruit is describing his professional experience as a swimming workout.
Here is the first out of 18 Questions & Answers giving details of the experience :
Innovating Innovation : Q1.Did your coach (es) created “stretch” goals that encourage break-out thinking?
Freestyle John Linchpin : Do you mean : sinking with a s ? In that case : Yes.Big time. And almost no break-outs.
Stretch goals is an understatement.
Lots of stretching in my very first year in the company, I tell you!
I still wonder if this was for flexibility or muscle preparation.
The stretch was driven by both mileage and the clock.
It did not stop after one year and kept going on in the other laps.
Why would you consider flexibilitty is acquired? Or sustainable in anyway. Muscle is the same.
One example of the Lap 1 routine happened in the early times of the millenium.
Consensus being within the company DNA, morale was quite high, with a very comfortable visibility within the new products pipeline. Litterally innovation queuing for the exit of the R&D labs to fit in the marketing plan.Some already tested good on European or Japanese test markets.
Adaptation was required in different department to prepare series of launches.
Information systems nerds were enjoying the same new technologies releases and excitement about the future.
Growth on the "North-American continent" was fast and furious, both organic and fueled by acquisitions (note : this was the common wording at this Y2K millenum bug time of all fears, now switched to NA "region" as a recognition of the global shrink and speed up...).
Y2K was a passed concern, after audits did call for some upgrades and fine-tuning for business continuity.
The clock was running for other deadlines.
After the Y2K mark new clouds (not yet the famous galaxy of servers and services) were forming in different part of the world.
One concerns the size of various very local supply chain data transmission pipes.
90% of the US units being quite limited although the silicon valley was re-inventing the world every day and night.
Locals instances were lagging on bandwith to the point where innovative products will not be able to be neither ordered nor manufactured.Period.
Upgrades for various different perosnalized versions of the running software suite in every locations would not be available any soon, so the only beginning of solution was to switch to a totally different system. Not a brand new one.Just a different one, with the only advantage of accepting patches.
It reminds us of the thousands of scientists and engineers hunting for the Higgs Bosons particles at the CERN around Geneva when they realized in 2001 that will need to shut down and empty entirely their 27 kilometers accelerator someday around 2010 for months before to be able to run an entirely new equipment.Only at a much smaller scale but with the same feeling.
"Failure certified plan A" was designed around 3 teams planning a 20 weeks road-show for taking care of 1 location at a time, for a complete switch on week ends. Short of almost 15 places, without any buffer.
Last but not least, over one thousand customers were running a remote piece of communication and data transfer machine linking them to one location, without remote access proven capability at that stage.
Customers would need to be operative until the saturday night and recovering transmission capability on monday morning.With physical intervention over one hour, on an average 20 different point of sales, urban and countryside spread, by a driving squad of 3 to 6 business angels technicians to support the 3 road-shows.6 max to be understood as a total, not for each team!
Ironically, the project was called "Apollo Eagle", covering also the famous motto : Failure is not an option".
Well, unfortunalty it clearly was the option during the launch brief and kick-off whistle blow.
No Hollywood suspense and time stretch for thrill and boosted emotions, innovation came out of exhcnages between the 3 teams at work while sweating on the first series of switches.Not as a silver bullet but a set of a couple of live tests : one team of 2 technicians struggling with excessive concentration of customers connected to one location, in a time with no remote control, created a way to pre-install the new way out for orders while keeping in place the former one, once a rejected option by experts.
A second team aware of this new option dared to test the acceptability for non technical saavy shop employees to switch themselves between the two ways with a on the phone step by step manual action.Kind of a old times remote maintenance.
One professional customer involved into another step of this self-upgrade, innovated on innovation.
He made a creative unexpected contribution : with a meticuleous reading of instructions to re-pack some costly precision mechanics device, giving tips about filling space in the shipping box with foam flakes acutally did it.
With genuine corn-flakes.
Business continuity was the first row benefit.
Although everything was not squeeky clean, and a couples of sales ended up in a no invoicing choice, or credits to professional customers, none of the 74 locations involved shut down outside a week end period.
Savings likely to match with a possible exposure of thousands of usd for every needed closure day.
The 26 weeks deadline expertised as short by at least 10 weeks was beaten by 2 weeks.
Mobilized resources of 3 teams plus an external back up pool at start ended up with 2 teams for the last set of 20 locations, saving in the thousands of US dollars per week.
Every entrepreneur is taking risks. Fuel for existing is to dare. Hope overates objections.
For an established company it is more usual to avoid risks. The consequence is to apply only proven solutions and best practices.Even when innovating.
Collective intelligence may be develop within a safe environment. Safety allow daring individuals and groups to dive.
Like a nice intellectual exercice.A lab trial.
Co-operative intelligence is the upper level where unsafe conditions are the incentive for seeking unheard proposals to go back quicker to the safe side.
Unsafe conditions may be replaced by stretched goals in terms of timing or resources. Speeding up may not be the smartest solution.
Changing sequences can move a bottleneck on a collective agenda as simply as in an industrial or an administrative process.
Experience the value of daring and moving the lines is a workout that can change your entire career.
Not because you will innovate for every single challenge, but because you are confident it is eventually another option.
Just beside failure....
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