Moonshots
Summary
How a team of innovation rookies stretched their imagination and found an unexpected solution from an unexpected partner.
Context
In April 2013, Agencias Marítimas Agental LTDA, a +200-employees-Chilean-port agency, began its very first collaborative innovation project in its more than 50 years of history.
This initiative was funded partly by CORFO (a public-sector organization that promotes innovation) and was supported by Aukan (an innovation consulting firm). It consisted mainly in a seven-months period of intervention, where a geographically dispersed group of 30 employees were split into eight teams. Those teams worked alongside the company's top management in order to formulate, develop, and launch a series of innovation projects focused on eight big challenges (brainstormed and defined in great part with the help of Agental's board of directors).
This story is based on one of these challenges and how a small and diverse team of "pre-schoolers" in innovation (no previous training in innovation) solved the puzzle. As a result, they came up with the fastest innovation within the entire project, an innovation, which is now being implemented.
Triggers
How might we create strong and fruitful synergies for the years to come? That was the essence of the challenge that one of teams were entrusted to unravel.
Of course, to come up with a powerful and fruitful synergy is not the kind of riddle that you may solve in a snap (otherwise, it would not be a challenge after all). That is why this team of intra-entrepreneurs (as well as the remaining teams) were provided with a closely guidance provided by the innovation manager of Agental and a team of consultants from Aukan. It was this confluence of people that originated both the process and the tool described below.
Key Innovations & Timeline
The key innovation was a simple yet comprehensive process of divergence accompanied with a game-like tool called Synergy Generator (you can download and try it for yourself here). This was the one-two combo the team required to unleash their imaginative potential and produce multiple business scenarios with unthinkable and/or overlooked partners. Ultimately, one of those scenarios proved to be worth pursuing because of its practical value. It's currently being implemented.
Here's a description of how this process worked. Hopefully, it may ignite powerful synergies in your company as well.
I. Divergence Phase
This was all about expanding the mind. The team was invited to create a series of mental maps regarding 5 key stakeholders of Agental: related companies, customers, suppliers, competitors, and other relevant stakeholders. To ensure the maximum power of the exercise, each of the team members produced every map on their own. Then, they shared their findings and built a common, vast, and robust map for each stakeholder segment.
This process took about two months to be completed. It could have certainly been done faster by a full time dedicated team... However, as you may suspect, the project was designed to provide the participants the space to innovate as well as the time to fulfill their regular and demanding roles within the organization.
Despite the length, this phase was perceived as entertaining and allowed the team to discover interesting pieces of information. It was common to hear things like: "Wow, who ever thought this company was indeed part of our holding?".
Here's an example of one of the maps created by the team:
Note: some of the mental maps were produced manually (with pencils, markers, etc.) and others with a free tool called MindMapple (as with the map showed above). You can also may give it a try in Mural.ly
II. Convergence Phase
At this stage, the team of curious innovators developed a broad vision of the company and its relationship with its stakeholders. Now, the problem was how to filter that intricate web of connections and come up with some interesting synergies. At this moment, the challenge of the Synergy Generator entered the scene.
This phase took a week or so to be completed. As with the previous phase, every team member completed the exercise individually and then discussed their findings in group. This let them prioritize and decide democratically which potential synergy to explore next.
III. Let's be Friends & Implement/Iterate Phase
With a potential synergy to explore, the team of intra-entrepreneurs got in touch with the stakeholder. He resulted to be a supplier, who even offered Agental an unconventional solution that was overlooked few months earlier. Currently, that unnoticed opportunity is being incorporated into some of Agental's core processes.
Here's a timeline that recap the process:
Challenges & Solutions
Challenge: Time & Day-to-Day Activities
Those were the big barriers to overcome. Agental is a very light and horizontal organization with an unparalleled commitment to their customers. That is why every time an unexpected event occurred (something that is quite common in their maritime related industry), they never hesitated and attended the emergency at the expense of some other equally important, but not urgent activities such as... aha, innovation.
Solution #1: a Dose of Intrinsic Motivation
Despite their tight schedules and multiple responsibilities, the team of innovators managed to got together and work on the project at least once a week during lunch time (not because they were compelled, but because they wanted to). As they commented more than once, those gatherings allowed them to cut the routine, have fun, and think about new horizons.
Solution #2: a Coaching Session Every 15 Days
Those sessions disciplined their efforts and gave continuity to the projects. In other words, it allowed them to make time and give time to innovation.
Solution #3: Keep It Simple
Building their projects based on simple tools, such as the mind maps and the synergy generator challenge, they had manageable tasks to fulfill in short periods of time.
Benefits & Metrics
A Faster Process
In less than 3 months, the team had already an innovation project, which is now being implemented. They were supposed to pitch the idea (to the innovation committee) months later. However, as they got it so fast, they decided to implement it and play again the synergy generator game to come up with a new project.
An Entertaining and Structured Approach
The title says all. The synergy generator game is at one hand, a game. As such, it provides an fun experience to its user. On the other hand, it goes far beyond being a game. It is a tool for real innovation.
A Cheap & Effective Process
Innovation may be seen as something far to reach. However, through this story, it can be said that innovation can happen everywhere and anytime. You don't need expensive platforms or developers, and so on. You can just turn around and discover that your daily tools can help you innovate by giving them a different approach. Nothing else has to be said as MS Excel was the star that allow this project to shine (apart from its users, of course).
Lessons
- Start with what you have.
- Start small.
- As it happened in this story, sometimes it is not about creating new things, but seeing things with new eyes. Let's remember that, as it was previously explained, the implemented synergy, discovered with the innovation exercise (synergy generator game), allowed the participants to actually believe on that synergy, synergy that was previously rejected when proposed by their supplier.
- Everything is a remix (or a synergy)
- These process and tool, apart from being useful to established organizations, can also be valuable for early-stage startups, who are struggling to find their customers segments or even pivoting them. They could even identify key allies.
Credits
A very special recognition to Francisca Acosta, José Tomás Urmeneta, Teddy Tardone, Víctor Oelckers, and Cristóbal Hildebrandt for allowing us to share their story.
This story entry has also been possible thanks to Verena Müller, Diana Felibert, and Alberto Blanco.
Documents
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April 7, 2014 at 8:43am
Update #1
Please note that even though the synergy generator tool is described in some parts of the story as a game, it is not a game per se. It certainly has some game elements that make it entertaining. However, it lacks some other elements such as opponents. In this sense and according to Chris Crawford’s definition of a game, it may be more appropriate to refer to the synergy generator tool as a challenge (a plaything with a clearly defined goal) or even as a puzzle (a challenge “with no purposeful opponents”).
A full fletched game, as per Crawford’s line of thought, is a conflict (a challenge with purposeful opponents) “in which the players directly interact in such a way as to foil each other’s goals”.
For more information, you can check Chris Crawford’s webpage: http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/the-journal-of-computer/jcgd-volume-4/...
Thanks to Cristóbal Hildebrandt for pointing out this distinction and to strengthen the story.
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