Coaching for Innovation: Tools and Techniques for Encouraging New Ideas in the Workplace

By Cristina Bianchi and Maureen Steele

Making innovation in the workplace highly accessible, Coaching for Innovation presents a step-by-step guide which is full of practical tips, models, exercises and interviews with HR and business professionals. It demonstrates the integral role that coaching plays in idea generation and the innovation process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Release date: May 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781137353269

Book preview

Introduction

Why Coaching for Innovation

The role of coaching in innovation is largely unexplored. With this book, we make new connections between coaching and the innovation process as we believe that coaching does indeed have a fundamental role to play in driving innovation. Coaching opens the door to creativity, fosters great work and leads to the kind of bigger thinking that is essential for innovation. You do not need to be either a born innovator or a professional coach to use coaching to drive innovation. You do need the right attitude, behaviours, skill set and a ready supply of tested and practical coaching models. Provided that you are prepared to invest in yourself and develop the coaching skills and abilities you need, we are convinced that everyone can be innovative and use coaching skills effectively for this purpose. Our aim is to equip you with the essential coaching skills you need to drive innovation.

Whether you are a manager, a team leader or a team member, and no matter what your area of expertise or professional discipline, this book is for you when you want to acquire an effective approach to driving innovation. No matter what your professional capacity is, you can benefit from incorporating coaching skills into your way of doing things and thus play your part in the innovation process. When you adopt coaching as your preferred approach, you make it your mission to explore all possible alternatives and encourage idea generation in yourself and others. Coaching helps you to come up with unique and innovative solutions that go beyond the obvious and achieve more.

Throughout this book, there are words, concepts and themes that reoccur frequently. The introduction is a good place for us to share with you our understanding of what they are and what binds them together.

  What is coaching? Coaching is a professional discipline that offers methodologies and approaches for personal and professional growth and provides tools and techniques to facilitate change and to improve performance. We define coaching as the process of accompanying an individual in the search for answers around an issue or a goal using questions and challenging assumptions. The philosophy of pure coaching is to follow the agenda set by the client. The intent and purpose of the coach is to accompany the person being coached and support them in identifying their own goals and finding their own solutions.

  What is coaching for innovation? It is important to make a distinction between delivering coaching as a professional coach and using coaching skills and practices every day when you step into a coaching role with innovation in mind. The journey we want to take you on will enable you to benefit from the rich possibilities that derive from using coaching skills, tools and techniques in your everyday interactions. Specifically, we want you to profit from applying coaching to drive innovation. Our intent and purpose is not to provide you with everything you need to become a professional coach. This would be a very different journey.

  What is innovation? As defined in Managing Creativity and Innovation (Harvard Business Essentials, HBR Press, 2003, p. 2), ‘Innovation is the embodiment, combination, or synthesis of knowledge in original, relevant, valued new products, processes, or services.’ More simply said, it is about things that are new and useful and which add value. For us, being innovative in a way that adds value for the customer in anything that you do or how you do it IS already innovation. The customer can be either internal or external – or even yourself!

  What is creativity? According to Leonard and Swap, writing in When Sparks Fly, ‘Creativity is a process of developing and expressing novel ideas that are likely to be useful.’ (Leonard et al., 2005, p. 6). Creativity is one of the cornerstones of innovation and is necessary for a good supply of ideas. Without ideas, innovation has nothing upon which it can feed and draw. Good ideas can come from anywhere, at any time, from anyone – and the creative potential in each of us can be fostered and strengthened.

  What is bigger thinking? Bigger thinking comes out of pushing the envelope. It involves exploring all possible alternatives and coming up with new and innovative ideas that contain within them solutions to everyday problems and challenges, no matter how small or major they may be. Bigger thinking means that you go beyond the obvious in the way in which you approach things, aiming to achieve more. At its best, bigger thinking and the ideas it generates leads to all kinds of possible innovations – a new process, a new service or a new product.

  How do questions stimulate bigger thinking? Questions are an essential tool to stimulate bigger thinking and are an integral part of coaching. When you step into a coaching role to drive innovation, questions will be one of your most fundamental tools. The right question, asked at the right time in the right way with the right intent is a powerful means to examine and explore issues, challenges and opportunities from all possible angles. Questions elicit information, clarify understanding and generate solutions. They challenge and provoke reactions, get behind the surface of things and uncover reasons and motivation. They make you think and they make you dream. This is what gets you to bigger thinking.

What You Will Find in this Book

In Coaching for Innovation you will find a whole range of coaching skills, tools and techniques that you can use in the workplace to generate the kind of bigger thinking that creates the fertile ground for innovation. We encourage you to read through the book from start to finish in sequential order as the content is presented, to enable you to benefit from incremental learning as your journey progresses. You can of course also decide to focus on a specific chapter according to your needs and preferences. When you choose to work in this way, you can refer to the visual guide to the content we have provided in the form of a mind map. This will make it easier for you to find your way around.

In Part I, we start by making innovation more accessible (Chapter 1). Thereafter, the remaining chapters provide you with practical coaching tools for innovation that support you in developing your skills and abilities to work with individuals. You will grow confidently and gradually into the coaching role as we explore with you:

  Questions for coaching conversations around innovation (Chapter 1).

  The coaching mindset (Chapter 2).

  Questioning skills (Chapter 4).

  Mindful listening (Chapter 5).

  How to spark the relationship level (Chapter 6).

We provide you with the following models for working with individuals:

  The 6-Step Model for Coaching during Feedback (Chapter 3).

  The CMO Model – Step 1 (Chapter 3) and Step 2 (Chapter 4) for coaching for multiple options.

  The Sun Model (Chapter 6) for building rapport.

  The S:I:F:T Model (Chapter 7) to accompany the investigation of ideas and options.

Part I concludes with some thoughts on how to make the practical coaching tools for innovation really work for you, with tips on how to keep track of ideas and how to navigate the transition to using coaching as your preferred style.

In Part II, the focus is on bigger thinking for teams. Here you will find models and techniques to unlock the team’s creative potential and lead people to fresh ideas. We explore with you:

  How to create a culture where 1+1=3 and the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

  Building Blocks (exercises and activities) to prepare the ground for your creative team session.

We provide you with the following models for working with teams:

  The CMO Model adapted for dealing with conflict in teams.

  The Crea8.s Model to generate ideas during a creative team session in Quick Fix Mode and Aspiration Mode.

Tips to Make the Most of this Book

Coaching for Innovation is conceived as a practical guide and self-study programme. In Part I, each chapter concludes with practical exercises and reflections. Chapter 5 contains the 7-Day Programme for Mindful Listening, and is an extended chapter that is almost wholly devoted to practical exercises and reflections. We really encourage you to practise and to do the exercises, as this will reinforce and support your learning. Write things down. You will definitely find it useful to have a separate notebook or journal to make notes as you carry out the exercises, to record your reflections and to track your learning progress. We refer to this in the book as your Learning Log.

The models provided have been tried out by a number of willing Test Pilots in a variety of professional contexts. We include tips from them wherever possible (Tips from our Test Pilots) to help you with the practical application of the models. As with all things new and different, using the models becomes easier with practice. Stay positive and be persistent. The same can be said of any new behaviour you need to introduce in order to step more effectively into a coaching role with innovation in mind. It will help if you have a degree of flexibility in your approach and adapt the tools and techniques to fit with your own context and circumstances.

Please visit our website coachingforinnovation.com where you can access and download templates of our models and find helpful additional material. You can also contact us via the website if you have questions or feel you would like additional support from us in using any of the tools and techniques we have developed. We would love to hear from you.

When you want to be more innovative and become a catalyst for idea generation, there is no better way to do this than to step into a coaching role and use coaching to drive innovation. We hope you enjoy the journey.

Part I

Practical Coaching Tools for Innovation

chapter 1

Making Innovation More Accessible

Chapter Highlights

This chapter is about making innovation more accessible, demystifying some of the myths about innovation and highlighting some of the essentials you need to begin driving innovation. You will discover that:

  There are some commonly held assumptions about innovation that make it seem inaccessible and something that sits apart from what most of us do every day.

  Adopting the right attitude and behaviours, and developing certain skills that are conducive to being innovative, will support you in your mission to drive innovation.

  Coaching has a fundamental role to play in having the kind of conversations that need to take place at every step along the way of the innovation process.

The Innovation Myths

Based on what our clients tell us, on what we observe when we work with them and on what we read, innovation is definitely a big topic for business today and is likely to remain so in the future. The message coming across is very clear; without innovation there is only stagnation. Innovation is definitely not a topic to be taken lightly and it certainly requires time, energy, commitment and even a healthy dose of passion to make it happen. Innovation is also the subject of much research and a great deal has already been said and written about it. There is little doubt in our minds that when you are involved with innovation in any way at all then you would do well to read up on the whole topic and take advantage of the existing knowledge. Becoming more informed about innovation and how it works will certainly prepare you to embrace it more effectively.

Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years

In 2009, NBR, the Nightly Business Report (the Emmy Award-winning PBS business programme), and Knowledge@Wharton (the online business journal of the Wharton School), asked viewers and readers in more than 250 markets to suggest innovations they think have shaped the world in the last three decades. They arrived at a list of the Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years. The top ten were: Internet, broadband, www (browser and html), PC / laptop computers, mobile phones, email, DNA testing and sequencing / human genome mapping, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), microprocessors, fibre optics, office software (spreadsheets, word processors), non-invasive laser / robotic surgery (laparoscopy). The panel of judges defined innovation as something new that creates new opportunities for growth and development (Forbes, 2009). They did not limit themselves to product design but also used criteria such as problem-solving value – innovations that solved existing challenges. They did not think of innovations purely as ‘inventions’ that then needed to search for a user, application or market. One of the judges, Karl Ulrich, Chair, Operations and Information Management department at Wharton, cited the anti-retroviral treatments for HIV (number 30 on the list) as one such example saying, We don’t think of that as a product design but we would think of it as an innovation. (Forbes, 2009).

Be prepared though; while the current literature on innovation is extremely valuable and comprehensive, there is also a risk that it could make innovation appear more challenging and complex than it needs to be. Our own research has led us to believe that there are several assumptions about innovation that make it seem inaccessible and something that sits apart from what most of us do in our everyday lives. Far too many people perceive far too many barriers to being innovative, based on what we have identified as sometimes contradictory myths.

Therefore we would like to tackle some of the myths about innovation that, in our view, make the very concept of innovation daunting to most people.

  Myth: Innovation only happens as the result of the work of a lone genius

When asked about innovation, many people imagine a laboratory, or a makeshift workshop where a single, dedicated inventor is inspired to work tirelessly in isolation for years to achieve a breakthrough. Genius of course has had a role to play in many of the major innovations of the past and no doubt it will always play some sort of role. Interestingly though, the evidence now suggests that this sort of innovation scenario is far less common than you think. Increasingly, innovation happens as the result of teamwork. In his book Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson comes to the conclusion that from the beginning of the nineteenth century there has been a significant shift from individual breakthroughs to innovation emerging in collaborative environments where people come together and join forces, expertise and knowledge, and exchange views of the world to create something new (Johnson, 2010, p. 228). According to Jim McNerney, CEO at Boeing, ‘Innovation is a team sport, not a solo sport...It takes people working together across different groups, disciplines, and organizational lines to make it happen’ (McNerney, 2007, p. 9). In fact, by coming together and joining forces, the creative potential of each individual is amplified because the whole equals more than the sum of the parts.

What this implies is that you do not need to work alone, nor do you necessarily need to be a genius to come up with something innovative.

  Myth: Innovation is only about major discoveries and big breakthroughs

Most people think that innovation has to be radical but in fact innovation can also be incremental. Radical innovation makes news because it is about major discoveries, breakthroughs and inventions that bring about something totally new and is considered a leap forward from what has gone before. Experts talk about this as discontinuous and even disruptive innovation (Christensen, 1997). Incremental innovation on the other hand is about taking what is already there and improving it or making things different in smaller steps. It can happen around products, processes, business models and services to improve customer experience. Economists Ralf Meisenzahl and Joel Mokyr call this tweaking – refining and perfecting things that already exist or have been developed by others (Meisenzahl et al., 2011). The fact that you are adapting or improving does not make incremental innovation any less significant or any less innovative when the result is still something new and useful.

What this implies is that innovation is not necessarily the same as the invention of something totally new or different. Innovation can be incremental, happen in smaller steps and can be based on what already exists.

Inventors: Innovators or Tweakers?

Ask people to come up with a list of the great inventors of all time and the names will be familiar. From the past it is likely that you would see Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Louis Pasteur, the Wright brothers... From more present times, names such as Steve Jobs, Tim Berners Lee and Mark Zuckerberg would probably feature heavily. A closer examination of many names on the list would demonstrate that whilst many were indeed original thinkers often those we acknowledge as ‘inventors’ actually borrowed heavily from what went before, synthesising earlier inventions en route to being recognised as game changers. Nonetheless they possessed determination and vision and were successful as innovators, so this by no means diminishes the respect we have for them, their output and their aspirations. Whether you are inventing, innovating or ruthlessly tweaking, without aspirations and big thinking then you are unlikely to get far. As Karen Blumenthal says in her biography of Steve Jobs, who tweaked as well as coming up with totally new approaches, He wasn’t the creator of the personal computer, but he was the voice and the face of the revolution. (Blumenthal, 2012, p. 265).

  Myth: Innovation only happens by chance and if you are lucky

There is no doubt that serendipity, or in other words a happy set of circumstances coming together as if by accident, has played a role in many major breakthroughs. Serendipity alone though is not enough to guarantee that innovation will actually happen. If this were the only way in which the good ideas that lead to innovation come about, the process would be left totally up to chance and would be unmanageable. As long ago as 1985, Peter Drucker considered that most innovative ideas happen as a result of a conscious and purposeful search for opportunities to solve problems or please customers (Drucker, 1985). Organisations that want to innovate have realised that they have to encourage people to come together with a common purpose and follow a disciplined process aimed at generating ideas, alternative ways of doing things and putting these ideas and alternatives into practice. At the same time, organisations have also recognised the need to establish the right environment, one that breeds creativity and innovation. Managers have a big part to play in achieving all of this, as does every single individual within an organisation. You cannot just sit back and wait for inspiration; you have to work at it.

What this implies is that you have to take responsibility for having innovation as a specific purpose, with defined objectives and a dedicated process. To make innovation happen, you have to be fully engaged, proactive and make it your mission.

  Myth: Innovation only happens as a result of a totally free-flowing and unrestricted process

Evidence shows that whilst creativity frequently benefits from freedom and space to thrive, it can also be well served by boundaries. Restricted resources and limitations often spur inventive thinking and push the envelope with the specific objective of doing more with less. Boundaries can also be applied as a deliberate and intentional part of stimulating the thinking process and not just be in place out of necessity. Working within clearly defined parameters with a very specific goal in mind gives clarity of purpose. Imposing hypothetical limitations (that is, what would we do if we did not have / could not do…) stretches thinking and inventiveness. Brent Rosso, an organisational psychology professor at Montana State University, who studies the balance between freedom and constraint in the product development process, is quoted as saying, Paradoxically, creativity thrives on the tension between freedom and constraint. They’re the yin and yang of creativity. (Goodman, 2013). When it comes to being innovative, it is important to know at which points in the process to let the imagination run free and when to impose some boundaries.

What this implies is that working within well-defined limits can be as productive for creativity and innovation as a free-flowing process.

  Myth: Innovation only happens in dedicated research centres, think tanks or innovation cells

Many people labour under the misconception that innovative thinking can only happen in R&D, separate and dedicated research centres or innovation cells that sit apart from the rest of the company. In these innovation hothouses everyone devotes their time and energy to looking for the next best thing to launch onto the market. On the one hand, this approach to innovating does have an invaluable role to play. On the other hand, there is also a great deal to be said for integrating the search for innovative ideas into the daily business routine of everyone in the organisation, no matter which department or function they work in. One corporate innovative thinker who is often cited as having revitalised the way in which daily business is carried out is Proctor and Gamble’s A. G. Lafley. In an article co-written with Ram Charan (co-author with Lafley of The Game Changer), the authors make this point: We see innovation as a social process. To succeed, leaders need to see innovation not as something special that only special people do, but as something that can become routine and methodical, taking advantage of the capabilities of ordinary people… (Charan et al., 2008, p. 5).

What this implies is that no matter what level of the organisation you are operating in, your function or your area of expertise, you have a part to play in innovation. In fact, innovation is for everyone.

  Myth: Innovation costs too much money

Naturally, some innovation requires substantial capital investment to see the light of day and reach the market. Considerable financial resources are needed in many businesses to develop new technology, production processes and prototypes. This does not always have to be the case though and innovation is not always driven by expensive technology. As we have seen above, innovation is not only about major product discoveries and big breakthroughs. It can also be about smaller, more incremental changes and be related to services and processes. There also seems to be no guarantee that high spending in R&D will automatically result in innovation that brings better financial performance. Research shows that in 2012 the top ten R&D spenders underperformed compared to their competitors who spent less (Bluestein, 2013). Additionally a number of emerging trends are combining to drive down the overall cost and investment associated with some types of innovation. For example, many businesses are now focussing on the concept of bringing products to the market quickly and cheaply, letting the end user test them and giving feedback to allow for adaptation. Silicon Valley’s Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, calls this the ‘minimally viable product’ (Ries, 2011).

What this implies is that you can and should look at innovation differently and work out how it can be adapted to make it leaner, faster and cheaper.

  Myth: Innovation is not sustainable – the world has enough new products

Contrary to what you might think, sustainability is increasingly seen as a strong driver of innovation. Being seen to be sustainable is a key market and shareholder expectation that initially leads many companies to invest more in their corporate social responsibilities and to jump on board the drive for more environmentally friendly ways of operating. Having started to do things differently, many organisations then realise that being more sustainable is also good for business and the bottom line. Smart companies are recognising that being innovative AND environmentally friendly can go hand in hand. The initial aim is usually to create a better image but most corporations end up reducing costs or creating new businesses as well. (Nidumolu et al., 2009, p. 59).

What this implies is that innovation driven by sustainability can be